Cha-chan!!! Have no fear! Nako-chan is here! Bwahahaha! Gomen for taking so long to update! I was busy with concerts and recitals! *clap clap clap, Yes. thanks to Zaki-kun for watching all of my recitals! hahaha!* Sankyuu for all yer reviews! Cant write down all of your names cuz I'm in a rush, I'm gonna be late for Filipino class haha! Wont keep ya waiting any longer, here's chappie 4!:

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CHAPTER 4: Lost and Found.

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-CERULEA-

The young princess hasn't been out of her room for several hours now. She even skipped lunch and ignored her servants when they requested that she come out of her room to eat. They had even offered to take her meal into her room but she just brushed them off. She lay in bed, thinking deeply about what to do. There was no way she was going to go out with a military daddy's boy. She did not want to marry someone she barely knew, and in just two weeks?! No way. But the mighty king of Cerulea thought otherwise and required her to do so. Shizuru finally decided that there was only one way to get out of this mess.

She rose from her slumping position on the bed, wiped her tear stained cheeks dry, searched for her shellphone (hehe cellphone!) and dialed a number she knew all too well.

After a few rings, "What now, Bubuzuke?! Is the crepe there yet? Did he touch you?! Where are you? You stay right there! I'm gonna kick that bastard into next fleet!"

"It's 'creep'… and next 'week', Haruka-chan." A shy whisper was heard on the other line.

"I know what I'm saying, Yukino!"

"Haruka, Yukino, I need your help."

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-KUGA BEACH HOUSE-

It was a little past one o'clock when the vacationing group decided to take a break from all the beach volley, sandcastle building, swimming and mid-day body shots (courtesy of Midori). Mai had taken the liberty of preparing food as she didn't want anyone messing up her kitchen area. She made a started a head count to determine how much food she should make. She pursed her lips and thought for a moment, "Let's see…"

She looked around the beach, "There's Takumi and Akira," the young ninja was busy drawing in her sketchbook while Takumi laughed at the now sand-buried Chie. "And then Chie and Aoi."

Aoi giggled as she was filming her frustrated girlfriend via the incapacitated girl's own cell phone. Nao snickered with eyes glinting as she continued to pour more sand over the girl's body. "Nao, of course."

Out of nowhere, Midori wrapped her arms around Spider's neck and they both dived onto the sand, the older redhead obviously drunk once again. Mai sighed, "And Midori." She searched around for the robust grade schooler and the owner of the beach villa. "Now, where are Mikoto and Natsuki?"

She figured that they still weren't back from their swimming adventure. A sudden underwater escapade that began when the cat-girl unexpectedly dragged the biker to the middle of the sea. Mai had no worries about it though. Mikoto was a good swimmer. She could easily save Natsuki from drowning if that ever happened. What she didn't anticipate was the grade-schooler's one track mind when it came to food.

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-BACK AT CERULEA-

The plan was simple. Escape from the guards and swim as fast as you can to wherever your tail brings you.

"Shizuru, take your shell phone with you. Call us if you need anything, anytime. Be safe." Yukino hugged the crown princess and pulled back, "Take care."

"I will, Yukino. Ookini for your help. I will miss you both." The honey brunette placed her phone in a small bag she had slung on her shoulder.

"Bubuzuke! You know I'm against this but I don't want to see you sad when you are purged to marry that whoever."

"Forced, Haruka-chan."

"Exactly! Take care of yourself! Yukino and I will refract the guards for you."

"Distract."

The young princess shook her head. 'I'm really going to miss these two.'

She swam off to the mansion's garden, with her two best friends tailing her. When they reached the garden's back gate, they stealthily hid behind some seaweeds to assess the environment.

"Alright, there are three palace guards by the back door, we'll create a commotion to distract them, just like when we play tail tag. Only this time, you must stay by the sea weeds to avoid detection." The mousy brunette whispered.

"Hai."

"Go on, Bubuzuke." The loud blonde moved toward the opposite hedge of seaweeds and motioned for Yukino to swim after her. Once situated and ready, she rose from her concealment and dashed to the gate, yelling, "Oi! You lousy guards! What the smell do you think are you doing?"

"It's 'hell', Haruka",

The yellow haired mermaid rolled her eyes, "Yukino! Tsch. Hey! The king has called a meeting for the upcoming birthday flash! What are you doing here?!"

"That's birthday bash."

The three uniformed mermen looked at her, confused. One of the guards spoke, "Haruka-sama, what's the matter? We weren't called for anything."

"Stupid guards. That's why you'll never be recruited for the Cerulean Forces. The meeting was strutted 15 minutes ago!" Haruka roared. While the guards were occupied, Shizuru quietly swam toward the gate and waited for them to leave.

"Haruka, started!," Yukino lowered her head and faced the one of the uniformed mermen, "Ano, Guard-san, I think it would be best if you and your colleagues rush to the Militia Offices now. You wouldn't want to be fired, right?" she shyly asked.

The mermen looked at each other, left their post and raced to the said meeting place. As soon as the sped away, The tawny haired brunette by the gate dash to her freedom, quite teary eyed yet hopeful that she would be okay. She glanced toward the palace, at her friends, for the last time, and swam away from her home.

About an hour later, her purple tail led near the surface of the water. She headed to parts of the sea where she had never been before. 'So this is the dreaded surface? i wonder what is so dreadful about this? It doesnt seem so bad at all. maybe if I swim closer...'

Her agile tail flicked gracefully against the water as she made her way toward the alternate world above her home. Nearing the 'dreaded surface', she cautiously emerged from the water and took her first breath of air. She smiled against the cool breeze that swept the air around her and concluded that there was in fact nothing dreadful about the surface that all her kind feared. Her serene thoughts were interrupted when she heared shouting at a distance. 'Ara, it seems some wandering mermaids have already beat me to the surface.'

The honey brunette dove back into the water when she saw two figures having a heated conversation.

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-Somewhere in the water…-

"YOU! You- argh! *cough cough* Frickin Cat girl! *sputter* I could've drowned!" The Ice princess glared at the spiky haired girl. They were in the middle of the sea and Natsuki had almost drowned when the athletic little grade schooler decided it would be entertaining and fun to chase an enormous fish to have it for lunch. So there they were, amidst the big blue, with Mikoto hanging onto a huge yellow spotted fish, looking for land.

"Which way, Mikoto?"

"Ano…" She had no idea. 'If only I could hear Mai's voice from this distance…'

"Don't tell me were stranded here?!"

"I don't know." The fish wielding kid murmured.

"What do you mean you don't know?! How are we gonna get back? It's all your-"

Suddenly the cat-girl's head shot up, as if a high pitched whistled was heard by her super sensitive ears. "Shh!!"

"Did you just shush me!? I don't what your deal is but you did not just bring me to the middle of the sea to just shush me!" Natsuki was getting irritated at the little girl. 'The nerve to shut me up! Tsk'

"It's Mai!"

"Where?"

"Ramen!" and with that, Mikoto darted away from Natsuki, fish in tow. She scurried so fast that the sea had almost parted to make way from the amber eyed lass as she swam toward the scent of lunch. The biker, however, was long forgotten at Mikoto's first sniff of Mai's delicious ramen.

'Great. Just great!' The blue haired biker floated in the water, mind panicking, desperate to find land. 'I'm like Christopher fucking Columbus. Great!' She squinted her eyes, looking as far as her vision would allow her. 'Nothing!?' She was surrounded by azure and she was getting tired of it. She searched some more and was able to find a tinge of brown at a distance. 'Rock! Right there! That's a start.'

A massive boulder meant that land was close. It was quite far from her but she was determined to get to it no matter how long it took. It was a start to get her out of the dreaded water. Steady arms paddled towards her target, hoping to get to the boulder in one piece.

Unbeknownst to the distressed blunette, a swift and curious lavender tailed creature followed her to her destination.

Shizuru couldn't help but go after the creature that had two tails instead of one like her. 'Such pale tails and she has two of them? Two tails on one mermaid? Perhaps she is not a mermaid? Those seem like pretty tails though. What kind of mermaid is she?' Finally, her curiosity got the best of her as she carefully swam closer to the navy clothed person, arms reaching out to lay a finger on the thrashing pale appendages.

"Whatdaff-!?!?!" Natsuki stopped moving. 'What was that?' She twirled around, scanning the water she passed through, only to find nothing. 'Just a fish maybe.' She continued to swim to her goal.

'Ara? It makes a sound when I touch it? So it is a mermaid. It talks like one. Sort of loud though. Like Haruka. Nevertheless, I guess it's a mermaid. Really weird tails though.' The honey brunette giggled. 'Such smooth tails too.' She leaned in again to wrap her hand around the swimming girl's foot (or fin as Shizuru would call it).

"AAHHHHH!!!" Natsuki definitely felt that. 'No fish could have done that! No damn fish could grab my foot!' She poked her head into the water and slowly opened her eyes. And what she saw gave her a heart attack.

Shizuru let go of the foot and dropped her hands to her side, her tail swirling against the water, trying her best to look innocent as she saw the blunette looking directly at her. 'Ara? I got caught?'

"KYAAAAAHHH!!!"

The blunette flailed her arms against the water. 'It's not real. It's not real. It's not real.' The mantra repeated itself in her head. 'I did not just see a mermaid! A pretty mermaid with a fine purple tail and a nice rack! Whaah? No! No rack! I mean, there was. But. NO! That's impossible!'. She thrashed her feet and arms around to keep her head above the water. She looked around to find something to hold onto. "Damnit! Where's the fucking rock!?" she cursed.

"Ara. It's over there?"

"…" Natsuki froze. The fish-tailed thingie in front of her just spoke. And it had a sweet little accent too! "WHAT THE HELL!" she screamed as she frantically swam (more like pathetically scampered) to the direction she beautiful mermaid was pointing to. 'What? Beautiful?! No! Argh!'

Shizuru, of course, swam along with the tired puppy, giggling to herself as she saw the strained movement of the unnamed girl. "You know, you should relax your arms to help-"

"AARRGGHHHH! She's really talking!" With that, Natsuki moved her arms as fast as they could allow her to, not minding the change in the route she was heading. She just shook her arms about to gain as much space as she could with her eyes closed to avoid getting water in them. The mermaid followed pursuit, smiling. She found the cobalt haired girl very intriguing. She was a 'two-tailed' mermaid after all. The first two-tailed person she saw. The ONLY two-tailed thing she had ever talked to! Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden stop of the blunette's movements. The poor girl had been so anxious to find land that she didn't even see the huge boulder in her way. WHAM! Natsuki hit her head on the piece of rock and slumped against it. 'No more' she thought. 'No mermaids and water!' She paused to recollect and calm herself.

"Daijobu?"

That did it. The biker scrambled onto the rock and looked around only to find the tawny haired princess smiling at her. "What? Who?" She squinted, wiping saltwater from her eyes. "What are you?" Her viridian gaze surveyed the water creature in near her feet. The crimson eyed hime was gorgeous as far as the biker analyzed. She really was something. The fact that she was almost topless did not go unnoticed by Natsuki. That alone caused the hydrophobic youngster to produce a very interesting tinge of scarlet as she blushed. She shook her head and shut her eyes as tight as she could. She then tried to climb onto the rock. She took a deep breath and slowly opened an eye to look at the water. 'No water-thingie. Good.' A relieved sigh blew through her lips. 'Just my imagination. Silly me. Seeing topless women with scaly fish tails. Hm. Maybe I drank too much saltwater?' She brushed her hair back and whispered, "Now. Don't panic. Alright. Where's the beach house?"

"Ara, what is a beach house?"

Dark emerald eyes widened in shock. "Where the hell?!" she whipped her head to her side to find a smiling woman. Well, the top part of it was all woman. -and theres that blush again.- "What are you? Why are you talking? I'm talking to a-a….What are you!?" the cobalt haired girl huddled closer to the rock on her side as the mermaid situated herself atop the same boulder, smiling, her shiny purple tail dangling onto the water, splashing little waves around.

Natsuki couldn't help but notice this time. A gorgeous tawny haired woman before eyes. Silk-like wet hair that cascaded down her creamy shoulders, to her chest, covering two ample breasts. 'Wow. Bigger than Mai's?' the pup mused as her sight trailed down towards a flat, firm stomach. Her eyes fell lower as the bottom half of the woman was some sort of fish tail. 'A beautiful fish tail that is.' The noon sunlight hit the scales of the tail in a perfect angle, making the intricate designs on it sparkle with luminosity in an odd yet striking shade of lilac.

"Ara, it is quite impolite to stare, stranger-san..."

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TBC

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Omake:

Natsuki: oi! Hanako-temee!

Hanako: what?

Natsuki: w-why is Shizuru n-naked!?

Hanako: oh c'mon! chill, Kuga! she's not naked.

Natsuki: oh yeah? -0_o- what do you call this? And i qoute, -'Silk-like wet hair that cascaded down her creamy shoulders, to her chest, covering two ample breasts.'- unqoute! watdaf?!

Hanako: Kuga, read it again.

Natsuki: -'Silk-like wet hair that cascaded down her creamy shoulders, to her chest, covering two ample breasts.'-

Hanako: -slobbering?- one more time?

Natsuki: huwat!? no! no more! thats enough! she's naked!

Hanako: -snaps outta daydream of 'wet Shizuru land'- well, you said it yourself, Kuga, her hair was covering her ample breasts! she wasnt naked. Its just the top part of her body. -sips tea- she's half-naked!

Natsuki: -0_o- naked, half-naked, whatever! take it away from this site! remove it! now!

Hanako: Shizuru!!!

Shizuru: hn? Yes. Nako-chan?

Hanako: Kuga-san wants me to stop writing!? she hates my work! I cant write nany ShizNat anymore because of her. -sob-

Natsuki: oi! what are you, deaf?! I didnt say that!

Hanako: *sniff sniff sob* now she's yelling at me.

Shizuru: Nat-chan, calm down. does Natsuki not want me in her Nako-chan's fic?

Natsuki: what? no its not like that. y-you were... you were n-naked in it.

Shizuru: Natsuki does not want to see me naked? Natsuki must think my body is ugly. *t-e-a-r-s!*

Natsuki: are you kidding me?! NO! its beautiful! youre beautiful! very! youre gorgeous! youre-

Shizuru: *glomps!*

Natsuki: S-Shizuru! matte! Shizzzz....

Hanako: what about me? -completely forgotten and ignored by the two-

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Yes yes hate me. ^_^ Cliffhanger thingie and all. *Im a bit depressed. Go away.* Anyway, sorry this took so long and it seems the following chapters will take quite a while as well.

~Hanako/Nako-chan