"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN! WELCOME TO THIS EXCITING PERFORMANCE." The ring leader announced. "AS YOU MAY ALL BE WAITING FOR I BRING YOU CIRCUE DU LUNNETE!"
The crowd cheered loudly for the performers. One by one a woman walked to the stage
"May I present to you the Mermaid sisters."
However Shizuo couldn't tell you much about it. The performance was indeed entertaining with acrobatics, fire breathing, and knife tricks, but they didn't interest him.
"And now may I present to you our main attraction the one and only… LITTLE MERMAID!"
The crowd's cheering grew louder for the last performer.
The dolphins blew water up from their blow holes as the young mermaid broke the surface of the water peeking up revealing strange irises. However half of her face was covered by a mask so only her eyes and mouth were visible to the crowd.
She smiled brightly waving to the audience and then she raised her arms as mist came from nowhere showering the audience with a white cloud.
Then as the mist faded she sat on the stage splashing the front row with water.
It just so happened that Shizuo and Tom were sitting in that particular row resulting in the pair getting drenched in water. She giggled silently and blew the water out of her hands.
Interesting enough the water didn't fall back into the tank. Instead it expanded like a balloon and that was when Shizuo realized she was blowing large bubbles. The large bubbles were so big a person could probably fit in there.
The dolphins made more clicking noises excitedly that one of them jumped out of the water landing into the bubble.
THe bubbles were filled with water allowing the dolphin to swim freely.
"WOOOOOOO" The crowd cheered.
Then like a conductor the red haired mermaid raised her hands guiding the various bubbles to different parts of the audience so some of the audience members could pet the dolphins when they poked their heads out of the water.
It continued on as the dolphins jumped from one bubble to another bubble of water playfully wowing the audience.
And she even combined some of the water bubble to make it bigger.
For her big finale she combined all the water bubbles with all the dolphins swimming in one giant bubble.
The red haired mermaid seemed to be enjoying herself laughing to herself and then she clapped her hands once causing the bubble to explode as just a cool mist.
It took a few seconds for the mist to clear, but the whole audience was greeted by a huge rainbow arching across the whole stadium.
It amazed even Shizuo. It was the first time he'd seen such a show. It was almost as if she could control water to her will.
The crowd applauded at her performance throwing roses into the water. The mermaid turned her head in Shizuo's direction and she nodded in greeting.
She took a bow before she dived back into the water hiding from view of the audience.
Shizuo was all ready to leave but Tom motioned for him to stay seated.
"The show isn't over yet, Shizuo. We'll collect the money afterwards."
In response, Shizuo lifted an eyebrow for a further explanation.
Then, Shizuo finally noticed the strange happenings that were happening.
The audience had quickly left the theatre, but there were strange humming sounds coming from the water as if there was something hungry lurking in the waters.
Shizuo was getting a bad feeling from this occurrence. Something strange was about to happen.
"You must be Tom Tanaka." A new voice introduced "I am Naoki, the ring master." The top hat was taken off his head revealing longish dark blue hair and a young face of someone who looked to be Shizuo's and Tom's age.
He had the face of a host with double eye lids and a flirty smile. He seemed the type to keep a smiling poker face no matter the situation.
"We're here to collect your debt of five million yen."
Naoki kept a tight lipped smile as if he found it amusing. "Ah yes that debt. Would you mind waiting one more day?"
Tom didn't like the sound of that. The only reason people asked for an extension was when they were planning on escaping. "No can do. I'm not in the mood to chase after a whole circus."
"Oh is that so…" Naoki mused with a shadow of a smirk. "Then shall I give you collateral for now until the deadline? I have the perfect person for the job."
Tom lifted an eyebrow wary of this exchange.
The man named Naoki smiled slyly. "Will my daughter suffice for you?"
"You're giving your daughter as collateral?
"Isn't that just a little irresponsible?"
The man shrugged. "It's nothing new. Besides she needs to know the real struggles of living just like her mother did."
Shizuo was no longer listening to the conversation. He had already grabbed the closest object which happened to be a crate ready to destroy this poor definition of a man. "You son of a- AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A FATHER!?"
Naoki smirked "Then why don't you show her then. What it means to be human. Not even you could win against my daughters."
Shizuo was already pissed and that just added to the fire. "What did you just say?"
Naoki snapped his fingers."My daughters show our guest what I mean."
"""""""Hai, otou-san"""""""
They said in unison.
Six girls were in the water swimming like glistening jewels with metallic scales and glass hair ornaments that made them look otherworldly except there was one girl Shizuo didn't see.
Each of these so called mermaids had different hair colours brown, black, blond, platinum, silver, ginger but there was no girl with ruby red hair. Where could she have gone in an enclosed tank?
He was getting a strange vibe from these so called mermaids. They looked hungry almost starved with their lips pulling back into toothy smiles.
One of them gestured for Shizuo lend them an ear and come closer. Stupidly enough he did.
Before Shizuo could react he felt two pairs of hands wrap around his legs tipping him off balance. He fell on his back with a loud THUD and that wasn't the end of it. As fast as light he was being dragged into the water with the last thing he saw being one of those "mermaid's" faces grinning as if they had just found their meal ticket.
As he hit the cold salt water he noticed the platinum haired mermaid going for his leg.
As if he'd let that happen. Even if they were still technically women, he would never go easy in a fight.
With all his strength he punched one in the stomach causing her to go flying backwards but that was all it did. He struggled and punched and kicked for as long as possible.
But sometimes he forgot-
that he was only human.
He could only last so long underwater.
These mermaids were dragging him underwater until he could no longer fight back. His vision starting fading until he heard the sound of a tinkling bell coming from somewhere around him. The arms that pinned him down were strong maybe even stronger than he was, not to mention cold and scaly just like a fish.
There was the sound of something cracking as the water got colder and colder under his fingertips.
He didn't expect to be easily defeated by the six of these frauds for mermaids. They were definitely not what he was expecting.
The bell sound was getting closer the more he lost conscious. But all of a sudden there was a swift change in water current that caused the other mermaids to back off letting go of his arms and legs. They shrieked and cursed in a language he didn't understand.
Their laughter became shrieks of terror as the water became colder almost as if the water was freezing itself.
They clutched their own throats as if the water was choking them.
Shizuo couldn't move even if he wanted to. Was he going to die like this? Like hell he'd be satisfied with that.
He clenched his fist mustering all his strength to swim to the surface.
That was when he felt a cold arms wrap around him dragging him away upwards to the surface. He opened his eyes long enough to notice the scarlet hair that swirled around the young woman seemed even redder in the water. Her pale skin and blue eyes seem to illuminate in the waters.
She was strong and swimming quite quickly even though she was dragging a seventy kilogram man up to the surface.
When his face emerged from the waters he gasped for air coughing up the seawater that he had almost swallowed.
"SHIZUO! Are you alright?" Tom asked reaching a hand to help the man out of the water.
"Uugh" Shizuo groan "Yeah I'm fine."
Shizuo was lifted out of the tank all drenched and freezing from the waters. His vision was obscured by his drenched blond bangs pasted to his forehead however.
Shizuo took a glance behind him to get a better look at the redhead, but she had already swam back into the water swimming away from the edge of the pool. The mask she had adorned during her performance was still visible on her face obscuring her eyes from his view.
But he was almost definitely sure, that her eyes were an ocean blue rimmed in gold.
There was no way to tell what she was thinking while she was watching him, Tom and her father conversing like this.
But there was something off about her. Unlike her sisters she was swimming alone. The other 'mermaids' were huddled together away from the redhead. She looked lonely on her own just like the fairytale. Her sisters looked more like predators rather than entertainers.
Because she was different from them.
She managed a small smile and a wave in his direction before turning her eyes away. She focused on the dolphins instead choosing to keep them company underwater.
"It's rare of her to save a human." Naoki murmured in interest. "She's a little shy towards strangers."
Shizuo grunted not really sure what to think. "She's more human than her sisters."
He was soaking wet and freezing disliking the condition he was in. He felt bad for ruining another suit his younger brother had given him.
Naoki smiled. "Really? I beg to differ. Although I must say she has an unnatural interest in human culture for a mermaid."
"I don't care. I'm getting out of here." Shizuo growled not liking the father's attitude.
Naoki smiled knowingly. "Well as long as we're here, please take care of my daughter during our stay. She's what you call a fish out of water?"
Shizuo didn't know what to make of that sentence. "Sure." He uttered before heading out of the makeshift theatre. It was only a one day thing. It wasn't like he would ever meet her again.
Boy was he wrong about that statement.
"I see you've taken an interest in him." Her father noted while in her dressing room afterwards.
The red haired mermaid blinked and shrugged unsure herself. She had somehow managed to get out of the pool and make it to her room to get changed.
"You didn't let your sisters eat him." Father commented.
She paused staring at him straight with an unwavering gaze in the mirror.
"Can't." She murmured quietly.
Naoki blinked surprised. "Can't? What do you mean?"
But she didn't elaborate. She merely dried her hair with the towel in her dressing room. She unclipped the tail attached to her legs slipping out of it gracefully revealing two slim pale scaleless legs. Instead she pulled on a baby blue summer dress adorned with small metallic scale patterns on the edges of the dress.
She wasn't much of a talker especially with what happened when she spoke to human males. She had to be careful with how much she spoke. Speaking was a skill she didn't like to use in fear she'd let something slip.
Never would she make that mistake and fall for a human man just like her own parents. Look how it ended up for them.
She merely shook her head.
Pulling the mask from her eyes, it revealed a soft young face of a girl who looked to be in her late teens. Her blue-green eyes lit up in gentle naivety.
"Are you going out?"
She nodded pulling the hood over her head to cover her face and hair.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
She tilted her head confused. What did he mean by that?
"You have another job. Your sisters are hungry." Naoki commented. "They want fresh meat and you must provide for them."
She shook her head.
"That wasn't a request my dear. That was an order."
Her body shivered in fear. There was something definitely wrong with her father.
He pulled out a knife from his pocket pointing it at her with no mercy what so ever. And that's when she saw it.
That flash of red in his eyes.
Instinctively she backed away from him blindly feeling for the knob of the door.
She'd only heard stories of this ghost.
The Song of Sin, Saika.
Said to love all humanity with one touch of a blade. She opened the door and she gasped covering her mouth at the sight before her.
More red eyes began to appear in the form of the crew members, even her own father was under its spell. She inched towards the water as they attempted to corner her. Their senile grins disturbed her to no end somehow each of them held a knife in their hand.
"Impure. Must purge the impure."
"You must love all of humanity, just like us."
"Just like us."
"Just like us."
JUST like us."
"JUST LIKE US"
They kept on chanting the same phrase over and over and she realized why Shiki had brought that box to her.
Someone knew this would happen.
But who? She didn't have a clue.
However, she almost failed to realize there was one gaze in the darkness that glowed red, but not in the same way as the others. His eyes were perfectly sane almost as if he was enjoying the show. She could almost hear the man's cynical laugh in the shadows.
All she knew that she needed to get out of here and fast.
There was no way she could out run thirty men in their twenties on foot. She may have looked human, but she was still a creature of the sea.
She crouched down to the ground and murmured words that were inaudible to the human ear.
Saika wasn't sure what the red haired woman was doing, but she didn't like it. It was inhuman. It was abnormal. It was disgusting.
She was an innocent person who didn't know the dangers of the world.
In a flash of white smoke, a mist began clouding the whole stage diminishing her attackers' vision.
Where is she?
Where did she go?
They all cried in empty voices.
While they were still distracted, she grabbed her cloak and bag and she ran. Even though she was rusty on her feet-
She ran into the jungle of Ikebukuro.
Through twists and turns, she tried her hardest to escape her pursuers, but it was 2 AM in the morning so there weren't many people around. Her feet didn't know where she wast taking her, but they were tiring very easily with how many times she kept on falling.
It had been two hundred years since the last time she took one foot on land.
She wasn't used to the feel of glass and rocks in between her toes and she wasn't liking it.
"You can't hide from us forever." They all said.
She gasped as her body gasped in the unfamiliar taste of air. It was strange and scary the longer she tried to gasp for oxygen the more tired she felt.
Somehow she could hear them chanting.
"Join us."
"Love all humanity."
"Must love all humans."
"Join us."
"Love all humanity."
"Must love all humans."
"Join us."
"Love all humanity."
"Must love all humans."
They kept repeating the same thing over and over again in unison. She was scared out of her wits. She always knew the outside world was scary but this was beyond her. The world was dark and yet full of light. It was scary and she knew. Before she realized it, she realized this had all been a set up.
"Do you wish to be human?"
Her head whipped back to pinpoint the source of the new voice. She unfurled her fan aiming at her pursuer's neck. On the outside it looked like a fan, but the edges were sharpened just like a blade.
The mystery person pulled out his own knife aiming at her neck.
It was… a human man. Taller than her, but there wasn't anything terrifying that really alerted her. However, he was unstable in terms of sanity. He was dressed in a way she didn't recognize. A brown fur trimmed jacket that made him look more like an Eskimo more than anything. But who was she to judge? She barely understood how humans could even stand wearing pants.
"My my no need to get so defensive. I'm only here to help you."
Liar. Liar. Liar.
Her head kept repeating in her head. He definitely had ulterior motives coming to her like this with thirty men under the influence of a lonely sword. THey had somehow cornered her in a park where she had no clue where she was at the moment.
She looked helplessly at him asking without words. What do you want from me?
The man smiled devilishly tilting her head to him with a crook of his finger.
"I'm here to make a deal with you."
His ominous words echoed loudly in her at her pursuers red cold eyes behind the man she knew. She knew this was all his doing. Having that sword cut the all the crew members, even her own father having her surrounded where she couldn't refuse. She didn't know how he did it, but she knew one thing,
She was trapped.
Trapped in the very heart of Ikebukuro.
Disclaimer: Don't own Durarara. Only own my OCs.
Review and comment on what you think.
And thanks for reading:)