Izaya groaned as he opened his eyes. He stared up at a ceiling. A residential ceiling. Not the ceiling of a warehouse.

He was also aware that he was on a soft bed rather than the hard floor. The pillow under his head had more padding and his back was cushioned without any firmness against his body. A blanket lied over him. It wasn't the same one that had been lying over him previously. This one was thicker and silkier than the one he had over him earlier.

Izaya was even more so aware that someone was sitting on the edge of his bed. He looked over.

Shinra was hanging up an IV-Drip on a rack. Izaya saw the drip was connected to his arm, along with another needle connected to a smaller bag that was already hanging.

"Why'd you move me from the warehouse?"

Shinra looked over his shoulder at him. "Oh, you're awake."

"Are we at your place?"

"Yeah. I gave you some antivenin, but you need to be monitored for the next five days. You're under house arrest until I know you're in the safe zone."

"House are—eh, wait?" Izaya sat up. "You expect me to stay here for five days?"

"Yup. Less you die on me—unless you'd rather I take you to the hospital."

Izaya groaned. "No, I'd rather you not."

"Then you're going to have to stay here."

Izaya grumbled as he lied back down. He took note that he was in a pair of black pajamas—most-likely Shinra's, which made him glower at the wall in irritancy.

"By the way, I'm not sure what your friend is suffering from but I'd suggest getting a consult with an ichthyologist."

Izaya eyes widened. He sat upright.

"Oi, don't move around too much." Shinra commanded. "The less you move, the better."

"You saw him?"

"Who? The mermaid?"

Izaya glowered. "He said he'd wake me so you wouldn't see him."

"Well, it was a good thing he didn't. I'd have a lot of questions how a shark bite poisoned you with coral reef snake venom."

"What'd you do with him?"

"I didn't do anything." Shinra glowered at him. "I'm valuing our friendship like you asked!"

"Hah?"

"The mermaid. It told me that if I tried to experiment on it, you'd renounce our friendship. And Celty would be upset if I lost a friend because I was selfish. Although, since it's you, I doubt she would mind, honestly. It's no secret that Celty doesn't like you so if I stop being your friend, I'm sure Celty will actually love me more!"

"I see what you meant by him being annoying." Another voice said. "He's been asking me questions non-fucking-stop. I didn't think a doctor would be able to multitask to the level he has."

Izaya looked over to see his creature. It was sitting in a large plastic tub usually used for storage purposes. It had its arms resting on the edge, no different than one would in a bath, with its tail hooking over the plastic rim. Izaya knew the creature had a very long tail and it showed here. Most of its tail was out of the tub, to the point where its eroding fin was fully resting against the hardwood floor.

"You didn't tell me you knew a Dullahan." The mermaid said, "Although I could have guessed since you kept saying 'monsters', as in plural."

"Where did you even find someone like him, Izaya?!" Shinra asked. "He's absolutely amazing! He doesn't need only salt water, even though he's a creature of the ocean. He said any type of water is fine! I want to know how his body is able to use any form of water as sustenance when no fish in the world can do that! And what he used to poison you with! I'm assuming he bit you but when I look at him, he only has normal human teeth. None of them are puncturing fangs—"

"Shinra, I just woke up." Izaya interrupted. "Your voice is too loud, it's giving me a headache."

"But this is new discovery! There's so much I want to know! How did you even find him?!"

"He was a gift from a customer."

"Where'd he get him from?"

Izaya lied back down. "A fisherman in Puerto Rico."

"Where'd he get him from?"

"I don't know. Probably the ocean." Izaya rolled over so his back was to Shinra. "If you don't mind going away so I can sleep?"

"But—"

"Let him rest, glasses." The mermaid said. "You and I can talk later, kay?"

Shinra pouted and he made an audible noise so Izaya would know to.

"Is Black Bike-san here?" Izaya asked.

"No, she was called for a job. She'll be back in an hour. You know, Celty didn't want to leave us alone with the mermaid. She told me that your friend will most-likely eat us."

"I don't eat junk food, is what I told her." The mermaid said. "That seemed to be enough to convince her."

"No, no, she was called by Shiki-no-dono."

"Ah, she best not keep him waiting, then." Izaya mused.

Shinra chuckled and stood. "I'm going to come check on you in an hour. I kinda hope he'll start eating you so I can see how fast he can do it."

"Yes, yes." Izaya waved Shinra good-bye.

The underground doctor left the room.

"He's got to be the most annoying person I've ever met." The mermaid said.

"His father's worse."

"Ugh."

Izaya propped himself up on his arm. "He didn't do anything, did he?"

"He wanted to take a blood sample, at least. Said it was for medical because I looked unhealthy. Told him to fuck off."

"You should have let him if it was for medical. I was planning to get your diagnosis anyway."

"I don't like needles."

"You don't have much of a choice in—"

"I ain't your fucking pet. If you try to treat me as such I'll fucking eat you."

"That is the last thing I would like to do." Izaya sat up. "However, I am going to spend a small fortune on you. I'd like to make sure you don't die before it's all done."

"What are you going to do?" The creature cocked a brow.

Izaya chuckled. "Why do you think I took you to a warehouse? You seem to know quite a lot about human society so I'm sure you can figure buying a warehouse isn't cheap. Or the 500 pounds of salt water?"

"Well, it's definitely not cheap, I know that."

"And I'm only going to spend more. There's a lot of open space downstairs. Can you imagine the size of the fish tank that would be?"

The creatures' eyes widened. "You serious? That's fucking—"

"It's why I'd like to make sure you don't die beforehand. So, first step is to get you to a medical professional so that I can fix you. I've never had fish before so I don't know the first thing about how to heal you up."

The creature glowered. But Izaya could see a slight blush on his cheeks as he sunk lower into the tub. Izaya found that response interesting.

'Heh, so he can be bashful. That's a very human response to go from an abusive relationship to one where you're spoiled.'

"So, before we leave here, I'm going to have Shinra look you over and do some blood tests."

"No." the creature said.

Izaya cocked a brow. "Hachimenroppi-san, it's no secret that you are ill. You're extremely thin— borderline anorexic—your fins are splitting, and I am more than certain you have internal problems. Your tank water was dirty before you vomited in it. I may not know much about fish but I know enough that dirty water causes internal problems."

"…You're not wrong. But I don't want to."

"Hachi—"

"Give me seven days. I'm not so weak that I'll die anytime soon."

"Why seven days?"

"None of your business."

Izaya's eyes narrowed.

"Leap of faith with me, Izaya."

The raven's eyes widened. "You know my name?"

"Orihara Izaya. Nanasaki called you Orihara-san and that doctor called you Izaya so I can only assume that's your name."

Izaya didn't respond. 'He's more observant than I thought he was. I don't like that.'

"By the way, you haven't eaten yesterday, due to our little mishap. You should ask that friend to make you something."

"I'll be fine. I've got an IV-drip."

The creature didn't respond.

"Are you hungry, Hachimenroppi-san?"

"Just call me Roppi. I know my name's a mouthful."

"Eh? Why not Hachi-san? I would assume Hachimen is your family name."

"It's not. Hachimenroppi is one word."

"Oh?"

"I don't like being called Hachi. That's a dog's name. And Hachimen just sounds weird. Sounds like 'eight men' and I'd rather not have people make bukkake jokes at me."

"Eh, do you know English, Hachi-san?"

The mermaid glowered then rolled his eyes. He lowered himself so he was under the water.

"Are you sulking, Hachi-san?"

There was no response.

"Eh, Hachi-san, don't ignore me. That's very rude."

"What's rude is calling me by a name I deliberately told you I didn't like. So, fuck off."

A small splash sounded, letting Izaya know he resubmerged.

"So, even under the water you can hear me? Can you hear the vibrations and are just converging them or can you actually hear me?"

No response.

"You're a very stubborn person, aren't you, Roppi-san?"

"Extremely. But that's not why I wasn't talking to you."

"Was it because I was being rude?"

"You were being disrespectful. Rude is something I'm willing to deal with. I'm an asshole and I know it so rude is deserving of rude. But I'm not going to be a cunt, unlike you."

Izaya's brow twitched. "There's only about a few centimeter's difference between the two."

Roppi was silent for a moment then Izaya heard him hold back a laugh. "Touché. Iza-chan."

Izaya's eyes narrowed. He chuckled. "Well, Roppi-chan, would you like something to eat?"

"Depends, Iza-chan, what do you have?"

"I can order some ootoro? Or would you like something other than fish?"

"What's cheaper?"

"Don't worry about the price. Order what you want."

"…Fish is fine. Eating something off a plate is a hassle in this form."

Izaya sat up. "I doubt Nanasaki has fed you anything other than fish so are you for certain you want fish?"

The mermaid was silent. He grumbled for a moment. "Honestly, I'm sick of raw fish."

"Then what would you like?"

"I like pasta's."

"Really? Nanasaki gave you pasta?"

"No, I've had pasta before I met that fuck."

"Oh? How did you come across that? Did a shipment of pasta get dropped in the ocean?"

"No, smartass. I was in Oregon and went to a restaurant."

"Oregon?"

"Yeah. I convinced an old lady to give my some of her hydrocodone. I ended up living with her for about four years before she died of cancer. Her son wasn't a bad man but the grief over his mother made him less than desirable. He started drinking heavily, ended up getting a divorce, and lost his house. His mother left everything to him so the house I was caretaking for her went to him. He let me stay for a while but he didn't like me bringing up his problems. I have little patience for self-destructive people so eventually, I apologized to the old lady's grave and left."

"Why apologize?"

"I promised I'd help her son stay together. Keep him on his feet and make sure her death didn't destroy him. I really did try, even offered to take him with me because he couldn't get to alcohol if he lived with me. But he basically told me to fuck off. So, I left."

"She gave everything to the son even though you were the one who looked after her?"

"Well, it's not like her worldly possessions meant much to something live me. Money has little value once it's wet. She…did give me one thing, though."

"What was it?"

"A necklace. It was made of bronze so it wouldn't corrode in saltwater. It was apparently something that was passed down from daughter to daughter in her family. She had a daughter who she had given it to but she died in a car crash before the old lady met me so she took the necklace back. I was the closest thing to a daughter she was going to get so she gave it to me."

"'Closest thing to a daughter'. Does that mean when you take on a human form, you have the lower half of a woman?"

"You already know the answer to that. Nanasaki told you as much."

Izaya took pause. "Did Nanasaki take that necklace from you?"

"No. The fisherman did. He did a couple of other things but that was the worse."

"Is that why you ate his mother and eldest son?"

"…Again, it was a few different things that built up."

"Like what?"

"I don't think you want to know."

"If I didn't want to know, I wouldn't ask."

The mermaid didn't answer.

"If you don't want to speak, that's fine." Izaya mused. "We haven't built enough trust for us to get personal. It's not like if you do tell me about your life story, I'm going to tell you anything about myself."

"What, no equivalent exchange?" Roppi chuckled.

"Nope."

Roppi chuckled again. "Well, at least you're honest." He then let out a sigh. "It's not that special, honestly."

Izaya just quietly waited.

"He caught me in one of his fishing nets, embarrassing as it is to say. He was trapping sharks, cuz shark meat is apparently worth a lot to some buyers. I got caught in one of his traps and he pulled me in. Kept me to make money, which he did for a while. I was a tourist attraction for a bit but he didn't get many since he had a little rink-a-dink home. Rich people would come and keep their hands in their pockets so they wouldn't touch anything. They wouldn't even shake his hand cuz he didn't introduce himself in a suit. He didn't have much business intelligence. It was kind of funny to see him fail.

"Eventually," the mermaid continued, "he stopped being a comp-out. It wasn't doing much for him, anyway. So, I just became a personal pet. He kept me drugged and chained in his chicken coop, in a tub kind of like this," he tapped the side of his plastic container. "He wasted a lot of money in order to keep me sedated. He wouldn't be able to keep me captive otherwise. So, all the money he got for his expulsion of me usually went towards my medication. Shit started going downhill for him then.

"I hated everything that was happening so far. Who wouldn't I? So, I was being spiteful. I ate all his chickens as revenge for the shitty lifestyle. I had enough energy to slowly start picking them off. He separated us with some wooden palette but in between my doses, I'd have just enough energy to drag myself over and kill and devour a few of them before he came to sedate me again. He noticed, but he just assumed they had gotten out and went looking for them. He started with fourteen and he finally started thinking things were off when he only had eight left. He moved his chickens across the yard. That only lasted for about a week. He went from eight to five, then five to two. Then two to zero.

"His wife got on his case about it. She made valid points too. Saying that 'if it could escape the and drag itself across the yard before you even notice, what's stopping it from getting into our beds while we sleep'. His arguments were pretty invalid but he was being stubborn. I was a rarity and we mermaids emit special pheromones. Humans say that they keep us to themselves because they didn't want PETA or scientists breathing down their necks and yada yada. But it's actually our pheromones effecting their brain. They don't want to give us up. They're compelled to keep us. Once upon a dream, humans described it as a 'sirens song' because prolonged exposure can make someone completely obedient to the mermaid and it only effects testosterone, not estrogen. Higher testosterone gives different responses. Nanasaki had very low testosterone so the 'sirens song' wasn't very effective towards him. To the point where he was able to toss me aside as payment is proof of that. The fisherman had high testosterone so him being around me made him a bit loopy. And most sailors back when in ancient times had very high levels of testosterone so they were more than willing to jump off their boats for a quick bang."

Izaya pulled his drip stand to the foot of the bed. The raven then positioned himself so he was sitting at the end of the bed, listening intently.

"Anyway," Hachimenroppi went on, "so his wife was on the fisherman's ass day after day after day to either kill me or get rid of me. At one point, she came at me with a knife. She was going to 'remove this devil from this world once and for all'. But the fisherman stopped her. They got into a big fight and she basically left him. Said 'It's either me or that thing!' and he chose 'that thing'. Without his wife, he was…well, there's no point to sugarcoat it. He raped me. I was heavily sedated so I barely remember it but I know it happened, multiple times. That went on for a few months. Eventually, his mother came to check on him and see how he's doing. Apparently, he started falling off the grid in favor of being with me.

"It was around that time I found out he had knocked me up. Mermaids and man can breed, as annoying as it is to say. If you get any ideas, I'll fucking end you, by the way. But anyway, he knocked me up and I realized that after his mother showed up. About a week later, his eldest son showed up as well. He was getting married and asked his dad to help pay for the wedding. The fisherman then decided that bronze necklace of mine could be worth a lot. So, he took it from me and sold it off. I was emotionally, hormonally imbalanced and rightfully pissed off because of everything that's happened over the last four months. So, when he came to me for one of his nightly visits, I suggested sedating me less. It'd be more fun for him. He was so high off of my song he agreed that'd be a good idea. So, he gave me half a dose.

"Halfway through that night, I came down from my high. I snuck into his house and while his mother slept…took care of. Her. I went for the mother because I wanted him to suffer for making me a mother. I killed her without a sound. She didn't even wake up as I snapped her neck. I ate her quickly. Took me about an hour to finish her off. Some mermaids have different evolutionary bodies. Some have two stomachs like a starfish and some can turn their stomachs inside out to puke up their last meal like a shark can—"

"Sharks can do that?"

"Yeah. It looks like they puke up this nasty sack—which is their stomach—and they puke up their last meal. Then they pull their stomachs back in without a problem."

"That's—no way~!"

"Google it if you don't believe me."

"No, no, I'll take your word for it. That would make me lose my appetite."

Roppi chuckled.

"Anyway, continue."

"Yeah, so that's what happened there. Some mermaids have two stomachs, some can puke up their stomachs, some don't have stomachs, some have normal human stomachs, and some have two and can puke up their stomachs. It depends on the area you're born at. I was born off the coast of Troy so I've got starfish and sharks. So, I have two stomachs and when both stomachs are full, I can puke up my top-most stomach. And so, eating a full human in the span of an hour is very possible for me. Eating two humans in one night is very possible.

"I ate his mother. Ended up puking once. Then I went off to eat his son. The one who took my necklace from me. His death wasn't as quiet. He woke up when I was sitting over him and he put up a fight. I killed him, regardless. The struggle woke his dad up, who came in to see me disemboweling his son. He was outraged, but I pinned him down, and—dripping in his sons and mothers blood—told him he brought this on himself. And I wasn't going to kill him because he had to suffer the consequences he created. I went back to my tub in the chicken coop because I was a good few miles from the water so I wouldn't make it in that night. I would have to wait till the next night to make my way to the ocean, less I get picked up by someone else.

"I should have left that night. Even if I didn't make it, I could have at least hid out and waited. But I wasn't thinking straight. The fisherman came the next day. He put my chains back on and started talking to my stomach. I realize now I must have broken his mind. He started talking to my stomach, saying he was sorry. And at first, I thought he was talking to the baby. But I realize now he must have been talking to his dead family in my stomach. He sat there apologizing for a while then said that he still wasn't going to let me go. I was his curse now and he wasn't going to let me plague another man's life.

"I don't know what Nanasaki said to convince him to sell me off, but he did. About two months after the apology fit, Nanasaki showed up as a tourist. He saw me, tried to talk to me—in which I was still high so I ignored him—and him and the fisherman went inside. They talked for a while—don't know how long—and he came back out. By evening a truck came by. He put me in a tank that was in a crate, gave me a few dead fish that had sedatives in them, closed me up, and shipped me off. I slept for the entire trip and ended up in Japan. Next twelve years, I live with that fucker and that's where this story ends."

"Wait, what happened to the baby?"

"Story time is over."

"But—"

"Over."

Izaya pouted.

'Nanasaki has no children. Roppi was the only mermaid he had…as far as I know. Did he have the children in a separate tank from him…her?'

"Do you like being referred to as he or she? Since your hermaphroditic."

"I've got a cock and no tits. Two-out-of-three-way guy so…"

"Are all mermaids hermaphroditic?"

"Not all. It's a regional evolutionary development, just like the stomachs. In the tropical areas, all the mermaids are strictly females and they breed with human females."

"How do they do that?"

"No clue. I think it's something about magic. Like they invade the mind through a dream and lay with them that way. Or something. I don't really know, nor do I have the opportunity to know. Those women are fucking savages, they don't even talk—just hiss and growl. It's like entering a school of piranha's. It's fucking terrifying."

"Well, then I'm glad the mermaid I came across wasn't a tropical one."

"Yes, be very happy."

Izaya chuckled and lied down. He put his pillow at the foot of the bed and got under the blankets.

"You going to rest?"

"For a bit. What kind of pasta do you want?"

"Eh?"

"I remembered what you said. You wanted pasta."

"I said I liked pasta. I didn't say I wanted any."

"So, you don't want any?"

"I! Never said that…either."

Izaya chuckled. "So, what would you like?"

The mermaid didn't answer at first. He shrunk lower into the water for a moment.

Izaya waited.

"…Spaghetti and meatballs."

Izaya chuckled. "Okay."

The raven sat up. His coat was gone but his phone, wallet and small collection of flick blades were sitting on a table by the bed. He grabbed his phone and opened it. Shinra was kind enough to charge it for him so it was at 100%.

"Why do you have so many flick blades, by the way?" Roppi asked.

"Because there's one more monster that's around. He and I don't get along very well."

"What kind of monster?"

Izaya put a finger to his lips as he put the phone to his ear. Roppi glowered but said nothing as Izaya placed an order for food.