Author's Notes: The main reason it took me years to start writing this was because the Sea Witch from the original story cut out the little mermaid's tongue and gave her a draught that made every step feel like she was walking on knives, while Ursula used magic to extract Ariel's voice and turn her human for only three days. Since Zorin has both a scythe and tattoo magic, I couldn't decide which method to choose. Then the answer came quite suddenly. I hope you like the outcome.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hans Christian Andersen's or Disney's "The Little Mermaid," nor Kohta Hirano's Hellsing. Borrowing heavily from the original text though.
As the eels led her out of the little grotto, Seras took one last look at the Sea Palace. The royal ball was now underway, with the many shells shining their many colored light and the many-colored fish filling the glass halls. Across the floor of the hall ran a wide stream of water, in which the mermaids and mermen danced to their own entrancing songs. Such beautiful voices could never be heard among the people on land. The youngest princess sang more sweetly than anyone else, and everyone applauded her.
For a moment her heart was light as a bubble, for she knew Harkonnen created the most beautiful music in all the sea, and would feel quite proud of it. But her thoughts soon strayed to her little grotto and she felt deep sorrow. Dark waters filled with shattered possessions… was that to be the only kind of life she would ever lead down here? Seras looked at the bright lights and the dancing, smiling, singing merfolk, filled with friends she loved but would never be allowed to see again. Such happiness would be forever denied as long as she stayed below the sea, and she had a new joy to pursue in the world above… come what may.
The little mermaid set out from the royal gardens toward the whirlpools that raged in front of the witch's dwelling. She had never gone that way before. No flowers grew there, nor any seaweed. Bare and gray, the sands extended to the whirlpools, where like roaring mill wheels the waters whirled and snatched everything within their reach down to the bottom of the sea. Between these tumultuous whirlpools the eels threaded their way to reach the witch's waters. Seras followed hesitantly behind, and it was all she could do to keep up as then for a long stretch the only trail laid through hot seething mire, which the eels called the witch's peat marsh.
Beyond it the Sea Witch's hut lay in the middle of a wretched forest, where all the trees and shrubs were polyps, half animal and half plant. They looked like hundred-headed snakes growing out of the soil. All their branches were long, slimy arms, with fingers like wriggling worms. They squirmed, joint by joint, from their roots to their outermost tentacles, and whatever they could lay hold of they twined around and never let go.
The little mermaid was terrified, and halted at the edge of the forest. Her heart pounded with fear and she nearly turned back.
"This way," the eels hissed.
Seras gulped and summoned her courage. She bound her long locks around her neck so the polyps could not catch hold of them, folded her arms across her large breasts, and darted through the water like a fish. The eels slid easily among the slimy polyps that stretched their writhing fingers to seize them. Seras moved much more slowly, and soon her eyes widened with horror at what she saw. Every one of the polyps held something it had caught with its hundreds of little tentacles, and to which they clung like starfish to hapless mussels. The white bones of men that had perished at sea and sunk to these dark depths were now snared in the polyps' arms. Ships' rudders, seamen's chests, and the skeletons of sea animals had also fallen into their clutches, but the most ghastly sight of all was a little mermaid they had caught and strangled.
In her fear, Seras did not notice her hair come loose until one of the polyps latched onto it. Seras gasped, but then another polyp latched onto another handful. Seras screamed and twisted, but no matter how much she wriggled or writhed, the polyps would not let go.
Just when she felt sure she would join the little mermaid they had killed, a sharp blade cut off her hair. Seras curled into a protective ball, and then looked up to see a scythe spinning through the water like a boomerang. It arched through the water and came back for her. Seras ducked, and then felt it cut off the last of her hair as it spun back into the witch's lair. The polyps then wrapped their tentacles around her golden locks, and then retracted so they could devour their prize. Seras ran her hands hurriedly over her head, feeling her hair as short as it was before she started growing it, and free of grabbing fingers.
When she was sure she was free of the polyps, Seras sighed with relief.
"Come in," a deep, grating, gravelly voice called from inside. "Come in, my child."
Seras reached a large muddy clearing in the forest, where big fat water snakes slithered about, showing their foul yellowish teeth. In the middle of this clearing stood a house built of the bones of shipwrecked men, and there sat the sea witch, letting the eels eat out of her hands just as we might feed birds.
"We mustn't lurk in doorways," she continued with a sneer. "It's r-r-r-r-rude."
The sea witch then reached out a large hand and easily caught the spinning scythe. "One might question your upbringing."
The Sea Witch then placed her scythe by her door of human skeleton hands. She truly was a fearsome sight to behold. She was a very tall, muscular, and masculine woman with grey leathery skin and short, spiky orange hair. One could mistake her for a male from behind. She had narrow green eyes, but one was a lazy eye that drooped slightly. Perhaps her most remarkable features were the tattoos that covered the entire right side of her body, from her face to her fingers, with a pentagram on her forehead, a purple spiral on her right shoulder, and innumerable letters and symbols all over the right side of her face, neck, and arm. She was not one of the merfolk though, but a cecaeli; a creature with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of an octopus. Her ink-black octopus skin began under her arms instead of her waist though, so she was a tall, imposing monster with a grey woman's upper body, black, squishy octopus' skin covering her breasts and torso like an evening dress, with eight long, black tentacles that fanned out like instead of a fish's tail.
She called the ugly water snakes her little chickabiddies, and let them crawl and sprawl about on her bulky, conical bosom.
When she noticed Seras gaping, she chuckled.
"Staring is rude too," she cackled.
The little mermaid gasped and averted her eyes.
"What? No apology? One would never guess you were raised in the Sea King's Palace, by the way you behave." At this, the witch gave such a loud cackling laugh that the toad and the snakes were shaken to the ground, where they lay writhing.
"Now," the sea which said, and slung her scythe back over her shoulder, "I understand you are here because you wish to escape the Sea King's palace and rise above to the surface so you can live in the castle of some... human lord." She shifted the scythe to her other shoulder. "Of course, the only way to get what you want ist to become a human yourself."
Seras gasped. "Can you do that?"
Zorin Blitz smirked maliciously.
"My dear, sweet child," she said in a voice as thick and sugary sweet as syrup, "That's what I do. It's what I live for: to help unfortunate merfolk like yourself." She trailed a tentacle across Seras' face, who flinched away, "Poor souls with no one else to turn to..."
Her thick, syrupy voice was dripping with sarcasm that even the little mermaid could catch.
"I admit that in the past I've been a nasty," she continued conversationally, letting her eels swim around her arms. "They weren't kidding when they called me... well, a witch." She smirked wickedly, and the eels chuckled. "But you'll find that nowadays, I've mended all my ways. Repented, seen the light, and made a switch…
"True? Yes!" she sneered right in Seras' face.
Seras winced and ducked her head back.
"Und I fortunately know a little magic," she said as she swam toward her giant cauldron. "It's a talent that I always haf possessed. Und, dear young lady, please don't laugh. I use it on behalf of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed!"
To the eels, she sneered, "Pathetic!"
They chuckled wickedly.
"Poor unfortunate souls! In pain, in need!" Zorin continued sarcastically. With a wave of her hand, she summoned two misty images of merfolk: a droopy looking male and an overweight female. "This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl, und do I help them?" She snapped her fingers, and they instantly became slim and attractive. "Yes, indeed. Those poor unfortunate souls! So sad, so true. They come flocking to my cauldron, crying, 'Spells, Zorin, please!' Und do I help them?! Yes I do. Now it's happened once or twice, someone couldn't pay the price, und I'm afraid I had to rake 'em 'cross the gills."
So saying, she took her mighty scythe and slashed the misty little merpeople, and when the mist settled they became little polyps like the ones outside her door, but before they had grown into hundred-headed trees with hundreds of writhing tentacles.
"Yes, I've had the odd complaint, but on the whole I've been a saint... to those poor unfortunate souls!" she bellowed, shimmying toward the polyp garden. They all trembled and shrank back from her shadow.
Seras stared back in horror. The creatures that had tried to kill her, were they simply crying for help?
"Now, I know exactly what you want," Zorin murmured huskily in Seras' ear, while at the same time draping a tentacle around her shoulder. Seras flinched and squirmed within her grasp, appropriately like a fish caught in an octopus's tentacle, but Zorin ignored her and kept talking. "You want to escape the Sea King's rule und rise up out of the water so that you may live with your… your count fellow. In order to do that, you must get rid of your fish's tail und haf two props instead, so you can walk the land as a human creature, und that count may fall in love with you."
At this, Zorin gave such a sadistic chuckle that it made Seras' skin crawl.
"It ist very foolish of you," Zorin sneered, "but just the same you shall haf your way, for it will bring you to grief, which will bring me great pleasure."
Seras opened her mouth in protest.
"Now, here's the deal," Zorin interrupted, "I shall concoct a potion that will cause your tail to divide und shrink until it becomes what humans call a 'pair of shapely legs.' But it will hurt; it will feel as if thousands of sharp little blades slashed through you."
Seras' eyes widened, and then they spied the scythe on Zorin's shoulder.
"Should you overcome the pain, everyone who sees you will say that you are the most graceful human being they have ever laid eyes on, for you will keep your gliding fishy movements that no dancer will be able to match. But every step you take will feel like treading upon blades so sharp that blood will flow. Are you willing to suffer all this?"
"W-what?" Seras asked in a trembling voice.
"Oh, und I forgot to mention that if you do not win the love of the count so completely that for your sake he forgets everything, cleaves to you with his every thought and his whole heart, und lets the priest join your hands in marriage, then you will win no happy end. If he marries another, the tiny little knives that you feel when you drink the potion und when you walk the land shall travel to your heart the very next morning, und you will die at sunrise! That's right, you will become foam! Foam on the waves!"
The Sea Witch then gave such a bellowing laugh that the very polyp forest shrank from her.
"Shall you take that risk?" Zorin asked.
"Y-you can't be serious!" Seras cried, as she turned pale as death.
"Of course, all of this comes with a price," said the Sea Witch, "and it is no trifling price that I ask. You have the sweetest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea—don't be modest; we both know it to be true. Und while I don't doubt that you would like to captivate the count with it—especially now that your lovely, flowing locks are gone…" The Sea Witch paused to cackle sadistically. Seras ran her hand over her short hair, and felt a deep melancholy. "Nein, you must give this voice to me. I will take the very best thing that you haf, in return for my sovereign draught. I must pour my own blood in it to make the drink as sharp as a two-edged scythe."
"B-but why does it need to be sharp?!" Seras cried, and she felt herself shake with dread.
"Well, have you lost your courage? Stick out your little tongue und I shall cut it off," Zorin leered, her scythe poised at the ready, and her face so covered with shadows that only her toothy leer and her glowing lazy eye could be seen. "I shall haf my price, und you shall haf the potent draught."
Seras gasped and shrank from the scythe.
"Y-you can't be serious!" Seras cried, and flung her hands over her mouth.
"Well, excuse me, little princess!" Zorin sneered, "I thought you wanted the count."
"I-I do!" Seras croaked.
"Well then," the Sea Witch said indifferently, "I guess you don't want him that much." She shrugged as though it were a trifling matter, barely worth her time, and moved on.
"N-no! I do! Please! Let me think!"
"Thinking is for the indecisive," Zorin frowned, "If you truly wanted the Count more than anything, you would not even need to think of what you must do before you go to do it. You would dive into the leviathan's jaws without even giving it a second thought. I guess if you value your tongue and health over him, he does not mean that much to you."
"P-please!" Seras cried, "I… I also want to live on the surface! And… and I can't do that if every step feels like I'm being ripped into by sharks!"
"Well, that ist quite the vivid description," Zorin sneered. "I should use that in the future. But that ist still not your choice to make. 'Beggars can't be choosers,' und you must be the most pathetic little beggar I ever did see. Unless you truly want the Count, you waste your time und mine."
"Please!" Seras cried, "There must be another way!"
"Not for you, there isn't," Zorin sneered, and she disappeared inside her hut.
Seras was left floating there. She was numb with shock and denial. The Sea Witch said no. Her last chance for happiness and the Sea Witch said no. Seras slowly sank to the muddy barren ground, and felt another bout of sobbing come up. Would anything ever go right for her?
"Now, what are you crying about?"
Seras gasped and looked up. "Schrödinger?!"
"The one und only," he grinned, his hands tucked behind his head. "Now, what ist bothering you?"
She wrapped her arms around Schrödinger without even thinking. "She said no! I came all this way to see Zorin Blitz, and she turned me away!"
"And you're just going to take no for an answer?"
"What…? B… but what else can I do?"
"Look, if you want to sit here und cry, you may. But the little mermaid I know does not give up so easily."
Seras gasped and widened her eyes.
Schrödinger smirked insolently. "Why do you think I follow you around everywhere?"
Seras again widened her eyes in surprise, then they melted into a pleased smile.
"Go on! Ask her!" he said.
Seras took a deep breath, and approached the Sea Witch's hut.
"Why are you still here? I thought I told you to scram!" Zorin called from her window.
"Please, there must be another way!"
"There isn't!" Zorin called, but her voice lacked the sharp edge it had before.
Seras must have noticed it too, for she continued just as passionately, "Please, I watched my parents get eaten alive by creatures of the deep! My mum, she… One reason I want to go to the surface is to escape the darkness of the deep that reminds me of their deaths every day, and… and I can't do that if every step feels like I'm being eaten alive by the very monsters that devoured them! Please! I want to live on the surface, happy and free! As much as I want to live with the Count. There must be some other way that doesn't involve being cut open with sharp teeth!"
Zorin smirked in amusement. "Well, if you are truly desperate, there ist one other way..."
"Name it!" Seras cried.
Zorin Blitz smirked. "There are other types of magic I might be able to use…"
"Use it!" Seras said with conviction. "Anything but the draught that cuts."
Zorin Blitz laughed. "Well, aren't you a tough little wench? Very well, if you truly are determined, I might be able to whip up one other kind of spell. You shall still get your draught that gives you legs, and I shall still get your voice—yes, even that—but there ist a different method that does not involve my blood or your tongue."
So saying, she flexed her tattooed hand, and a giant purple eye opened.
Seras flinched.
"Scared already? You shouldn't be. It won't hurt as much as the draught that cuts like knives. In fact, it won't hurt at all. I shall use a special, ancient magic with long-forgotten incantations that will make the potion thick as ooze, und it shall feel as thick und sloppy as the soft mud of the sea floor running through your veins. It will hurt, I will not lie, but not as bad as the knife, und it will be quick und passing. Once you become human, the transformation will be complete, und you will never feel the effects of the potion again."
Seras sighed with relief.
"… Until you turn back into a mermaid," the Sea Witch said.
"What?!"
"Oh, did I mention your life on land would still end if the Count chooses another? Silly me. If the count marries you, you shall remain human permanently, in this life und the next. But, if he chooses another, you'll turn back into a mermaid und… You'll belong to me!" Zorin Blitz murmured so huskily that Seras instinctively covered her breasts and flinched away.
Seras had no idea why Zorin Blitz would want to keep her as a slave, but the way she kept touching her and leering over her made her very uncomfortable indeed. The fact that she was so cruel and sadistic and seemed to enjoy bringing pain to even her 'little chickabiddies' did not help at all.
"Have we got a deal?" she grinned.
"… If I become your slave, what will you do with me?" Seras asked.
"What indeed?" the Sea Witch said with frightful sarcasm. "You're a pretty catch, why don't you figure it out?"
"Come on, Seras, even you can't be that stupid!" Schrödinger cried.
Seras wrapped her arms around herself with shame and embarrassment.
"Now, there is one more thing. We still must discuss the subject of payment!"
"But I can't give my…" Seras began, her hands instantly flying over her mouth.
Zorin then slapped her hands with a tentacle. "I'm not asking for that. You need not cover your pretty little mouth with your white little hands. What I'm asking cannot be extracted with any blade... though I haf tried," she grinned wickedly. "Nein, it's not your little pink tongue. It's just a token really, a trifle! You'll never even miss it. What I want from you is... your voice."
"… My voice?" Seras murmured, her fingers resting delicately on her neck.
"You've got it, sweet cheeks," Zorin said, "You'll have a more absolute draught, und so a more absolute payment. When it was just your tongue, there would still be a way to use your so pretty voice with wordless songs, for it rests in the throat where the tongue rests in the mouth. But now, since I am using absolute magic to make you an absolute human, you shall give your absolute voice. Since I'll extend my magic to give you human form, I demand you extend your voice for me to listen to whenever I want… should you fail to return the whole package," she leered.
"But if you take my voice," said the little mermaid, "what will be left to me?"
"You'll have your looks!" Zorin exclaimed, gesturing toward her body, "Your pretty face!"
Zorin then sauntered away, her hand on her hips. "Und don't underestimate the importance of BODY LANGUAGE!" she leered maniacally, thrusting her hips suggestively. "HA! The men up there don't like a lot of blather... They think a girl who gossips is a bore! Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not to say a word! Und after all, dear, what is idle prattle for?"
So saying, she threw her caldron on a small lava pit, to brew the draught.
"Come on! They're not all that impressed with conversation! True gentlemen avoid it when they can!"
As she talked, the Sea Witch constantly threw new ingredients into the caldron till it started to boil with the sound of a crocodile shedding tears.
"But they dote und swoon und fawn on a lady who's withdrawn! It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!"
So saying, the Sea Witch extracted a large whale's tongue and threw it into the cauldron, so that it boiled and boomed.
Seras flinched away from the steam and explosions.
"COME ON! You poor unfortunate soul! Go ahead! Make your choice!"
Zorin Blitz was getting riled up with maniac energy. Where before she merely leered and cackled with sadistic amusement, now she was screaming and laughing and gesturing with all of her might.
Zorin then held out a scythe in one hand and an arm full of tattoos and an eye on another. "We can do this one of two more ways. You can let me cut your tongue und cut my breast so you may feel the cut of endless knives slashing down your throat und through your legs und in your feet und in your heart after your true love picks another tart... OR you can trade your VOICE for a smooth und comfortable loss of speech, followed by a smooth und comfortable transformation into a smooth und comfortable life of slavery forever after he chooses someone else!"
All of these outcomes seemed disturbingly specific, and Seras vaguely wondered why the Sea Witch was so convinced her love would fall for another.
However, Zorin was a fast talker and kept throwing new details faster than Seras could keep up.
"I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all day," she said with casual indifference, and then a mural of the handsome count emerged from the cauldron before Seras. He smiled roguishly at her, and Seras melted before his insolent grin. "It won't cost much... JUST YOUR VOICE!" the Count bellowed, then Zorin's face burst through him.
Seras gasped and flinched back.
"It's a very simple deal und you don't haf much to choose. You want your voice, or tongue? It doesn't matter much, one way or another I shall get your speech und you shall haf your legs! You poor unfortunate soul. You want knives? Or mute?"
The Sea Witch then came upon Seras from behind. "If you want to learn to walk, my sweet, you've got to make a stand! Take a gulp and take a breath, und go ahead and pick a hand! (Flotsam, Jetsam, now I've got her, boys!) THE BOSS IS ON A ROLL!" Zorin bellowed triumphantly, diving into the air and unraveling her tentacles theatrically.
Seras looked up at her with horror, and looked for a moment like she would call it off.
Then, Zorin made the smartest move of her life: she wounded Seras' pride.
Gesturing to her with both hands, she bellowed sarcastically: "THIS POOR! UN! FORTUNATE SOUUUUL~!"
Seras glared defiantly, and flexed her hand. The whole reason she was doing this was to create a new life for herself, and the new life she wanted involved freedom and sunlight over the oppression and darkness of the Sea King's realm. In the split second it took her to choose a hand, Seras thought of how the legs she desired were required for 'running, jumping, dancing,' and how she could never enjoy those things if she always felt like she were treading on knives.
Seras closed her and looked away as she shot her right hand forward and grabbed Zorin's tattooed hand with the purple eye in the palm.
The Sea Witch then squeezed so hard Seras felt sure her hand would break, and she felt as though her life force drained for a moment. When she looked back, Seras saw that the tattoos on Zorin's right arm had glowed and traveled up her arm, around her body, then returned back to the place they belonged. Then Zorin let go and flexed her hand above her head, grinning wickedly.
She then turned to her potion, evoking its magic with chanting.
BELUGA SEVRUGA
COME WINDS OF THE CASPIAN SEA!
She bellowed so loudly the whole skeleton home and the polyp forest shook. The cauldron bubbled and boiled, and from the dread draught the Sea Witch evoked a terrible whirlpool that rivaled those outside her realm.
LARENGIX GLAUCITIS
ET MAX LARYNGITIS
LA VOCE TO ME!
While she chanted, she raised her tattooed hand high above her head, and then plunged her open palm deep within the boiling cauldron, eye first. After a few moments, it seemed the letters and symbols of the tattoos flowed out of her arm and into the concoction. It boiled and bubbled wildly, then suddenly the thick purple liquid of the potion saturated in the letters of the tattoos sprang out of the cauldron, shaped like two giant arms ending in hands with claws.
The Sea Witch looked truly possessed, and her eyes glowed red.
"NOW, SING!" she ordered, in a voice that was truly demonic.
Compelled by a force greater than her own, Seras felt herself begin to sing a wordless song.
"KEEP SINGING!" Zorin bellowed, and the giant clawed hands reached for Seras.
She almost lost her nerve, but carried out the tune without so much as a waiver.
Seras felt the liquid tattoo hands with claws cover her entire body and travel down her throat, where her voice felt thick as a lump and got plucked out of her throat like a fruit. She then saw and heard the glowing, singing little voice in front of her face, clutched between the magical claws of the Sea Witch, and her hands clutched her empty throat in horror.
Her glowing voice continued to sing as the magical hands carried it back to the Sea Witch, who held open a conch shell. The glowing tattoo hands then sank into the shell and took the glowing voice with it. As soon as the voice was locked tight, any pretense of sanity dropped.
The Sea Witch began to laugh maniacally, and the clawed potion tattoo hands that had plucked out the little mermaid's voice suddenly shot forward and engulfed her entire body. Seras felt herself getting saturated in the hot, thick, syrupy liquid, as it forced its way down her throat and through her veins. She felt as though her entire insides were thick with ooze, and she nearly passed out from blinding agony. Just as the Sea Witch promised, she could feel her long fish tail split down the middle and shrink into two human legs. Then, she felt shooting pain down the middle of each leg as bones formed within them. Like a flash of lightning that starts out as a skeletal bolt and then lights up the sky, Seras felt the blinding pain of her splitting legs and skeletal shoots before it expanded to the muscles, flesh, and skin. The pain was so intense, she blacked out.
After what felt like a few seconds, Seras slowly came to and vaguely wondered why her head hurt and why she felt such pressure in her chest.
Then, she realized to her panic and dismay that Zorin had turned her into human right on the sea floor! She couldn't breathe! Couldn't move! Her gills and fins were gone! She struggled to take in water without hurting her lungs and then convulsed. She then struggled to rise to the surface, but did not know how to use her new limbs and floundered on the sea floor.
"Whoa Schatzi! I got'cha!" Schrodinger cried cheerfully, and grabbed Seras under the shoulders and pushed her up toward the surface.
Zorin Blitz continued to laugh maniacally as Schrödinger helped Seras rise above her house of bones, her forest of doomed merpeople, her burning peat mire, her barren wasteland, and her dark perilous depths as they rose up to the surface above.
After years of resenting Schrödinger for being a faster swimmer than her, Seras suddenly felt a profound pang of gratitude as he rushed her up to the surface in record time. She felt as though the rapid change in water pressure would make her pop, but she was so desperate for air she hardly cared.
At the last possible second, Seras broke through the surface and took a deep gasp for air.
She then slumped back into the water, and felt Schrödinger hold her head above water as she had done for the count.
"Well, that wasn't so bad, eh, Seras?" Schrödinger smirked from below her.
Seras made a wry face, but was too exhausted to argue. Relief from the earlier agony, coupled with exhaustion from what happened finally seeped in, and Seras allowed herself to relax as Schrödinger swam her to shore.
