Kaidoh, searching frantically for his Prince Tezuka in the ocean, felt horribly exhausted. He could hardly see due to the darkness and heavy rain, and having been to that tiring game show Sasuke earlier in the day, he had already spent most of his strength. Yet, he knew that his prince needed him and he could not die there, so he swam on with determination.

All in a sudden, yellow numbers appeared from nowhere in the dark and started to count down from fifty. Under it was a picture of a little white person who was walking. He started walking faster, and faster, and faster. Kaidoh quickly increased his swimming speed until it struck him that he wasn't crossing the street, and the numbers and the little traffic light shouldn't have been there. Unable to come up with a logical explanation, he could only head towards the lights confusedly.

The traffic lights turned into the shape of an arrow pointing towards the left. Kaidoh thought that it might tell him the whereabouts of Tezuka, and so agreeably followed the light.

The arrow suddenly pointed to another direction, and Kaidoh followed on.

Then the arrow pointed towards the right. Kaidoh's lungs were screaming "master, please stop, I'm tired," but Kaidoh still went on swimming.

"Sorry, you see, I am like you. I have my own master to protect," Kaidoh explained to his lungs apologetically.

"We understand," Kaidoh's lungs responded, feeling touched.

"Wait—what kind of person talks to his own lungs?" Kaidoh suddenly realized this and snapped back to reality. He knew that this was bad. Starting to apologize to his own lungs meant that he was probably losing consciousness already.

As he was almost going to give up, a pair of strong but gentle arms lifted him to the surface.

"Sorry about using all those arrows to lead you so far," a deep, sexy voice murmured beside him. "You see, where you were just swimming was the area that the Dangerous Merman Taiichi inhabits. Too many innocent people are attracted by his tail, kidnapped and forced to become his slave. I do not wish that you become one of them, and so led you away from him."

"You mean—our prince—" Kaidoh gasped, fearing that such a horrible fate would befall Tezuka. Prince Tezuka was such a noble, glorious man. It would be devastating if he were taken as a servant—

"Do not worry. Your people already found him, and he is all right now. They must be worried about you. Relax and just breathe, while I bring you back to shore," the deep voice assured him.

"Uh, thanks," Kaidoh whispered weakly, blinking open his eyes to see a large pair of glasses.

It occurred to him that he had seen something like this somewhere before.

"You are that… countdown guy from that…Sasuke game show?" He spluttered.

"Yes. I am what they call Inui the Merman, the mascot of the show. And you, I believe, are Kaidoh Kaoru, the guy that had came to the competition seven times in a row and failed every single time."

Kaidoh had never felt so embarrassed in his life. And trust me, he was easily embarrassed.

"I—why do you know me?"

"It's not every day that you see someone who fails seven competitions in a row," Inui replied innocently.

"Oh."

"I can help you win, you know. I have designed a special training course for you. "

Kaidoh was beginning to feel dizzy. After all, meeting a strange person in the ocean who claimed that he could help you win and that he had designed a special training course for you isn't something that happened every day.

"Data never lies. Come to the shore to see me tomorrow. I promise that after a few weeks, you can beat even the champion of last year's game show."

Simple-minded Kaidoh now felt tempted to accept this offer. He really wanted to win that game show and prove his ability. "But… why do you want to help me?"

"Money. You should give me half of the prize money you win."

"—Oh."

"Aw, I was just joking," Inui lifted his glasses with his hand that was not supporting Kaidoh. "Work with me. I can collect data, and you can become stronger. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Um… okay, I'll be there," Kaidoh murmured and smiled. His smile was an extremely small one, but Inui still knew that it was a smile. He decided to jot this down on his waterproof notebook when he got home.

As Kaidoh climbed up to shore with Inui's help, he turned to look at his savior. "It's cold down there. Don't you want to come up? I'm sure that the people in the castle will—"

"Can't," Inui shrugged, "no feet."

"What? You mean… you are…" Kaidoh gaped. Like all the people who watched or participated in Sasuke, Kaidoh had believed that Inui was just a human who liked swimming and acted as the game show mascot for a living. He now realized that Inui had never seemed a bit tired swimming about in all those large waves, and that in the whole course of their conversation, Inui had been able to carry him so lithely that he had not let him dip under the surface once. Human beings could never have done that.

"Please do not tell anyone. I'll lose my job," Inui nodded, exhibited the LED screen on his tail that showed the numbers of the current exchange currency, and then disappeared into the waves.

Kaidoh watched him leave, wondering if he was hallucinating. He did not come back to reality until he heard Momo sobbing wildly somewhere, "But who will fight with me now that viper is dead?"

"Idiot, who did you say was dead? You wanna fight?" Kaidoh cursed in anger. But he could hardly stand up, let alone fight. It was lucky that Momo heard him cursing and came to his rescue, or he would have to crawl back to the castle.

--

"Listen, you must not leave this bed until you have recovered. Understood?" Oishi ordered sternly to Kaidoh. He was always stern to patients, because he did not want them to get any additional injuries.

"What if we want to go to the bathroom?" Momo, who was also in bed due to his head injuries, pointed out.

"Shut up," Oishi snapped impatiently, checking around to make sure that everything was under control before leaving the room.

"Hey," as soon as Oishi was gone, Kaidoh confronted Momo with a whisper. "Do me a favor. Do something to distract Oishi tomorrow afternoon for me, okay? I need to go somewhere."

Even though Momo and Kaidoh fought all the time, when it came to helping each other get rid of the attentive Oishi they worked wonderfully together. Besides, doing strange things to get Oishi's attention was always great fun in their monotonous palace life.

"Sure. Where're you going?"

"Fshuu… to the sea. To meet someone."

--

"Eiji, humans are indeed very beautiful." Fuji sighed blissfully to his best friend. Ever since he had returned from his trip to The Surface, the water surrounding him had been pink with little bubbly flowers.

"Aww, I wish I could have gone," Eiji, who had been unfortunately sick on the day of the fireworks display, said enviously. "I want to see Prince Tezuka too."

"No way, Eiji. He's mine," possessive Fuji declared. "Though I let his attendant take him away this time, next time I won't let go that easily."

"But Fuji, how do you plan to meet him again? We are mermen, and we do not walk on land."

"I'm asking the Witch of the Deep Sea to help me."

"You mean you want to exchange your voice for legs, like in the story The Little Mermaid? But Fuji, you have such a nice voice! And if you become a human, I'll have no one to play with. Gakuto is also saying that he's in love with a blue-haired knight in the Neighboring Kingdom of the Neighboring Kingdom, and that he wants to become a human. If both of you leave, I'll be sooo bored."

"Don't worry, Eiji," Fuji smiled mysteriously. "I don't know about Gakuto, but I'm not planning to become a human. I'm going to get the Witch of the Deep Sea to help me make a potion that would turn the prince into a merman. If she wants something in exchange for letting him grow a tail, she can always take the prince's voice."

"Poor prince," Eiji commented. He had always known that his best friend was somewhat like this though, so he did not feel shocked. "Well, how do you plan to make him drink that potion?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I plan to talk to Taiichi about it."

"You mean Taiichi who always makes men his slaves by luring them into the water with his tail?"

"Yeah, him. I heard that Taiichi had found a new slave recently. He is muscular and has lovely white hair. I believe that after I talk to Taiichi, I'll soon find a way to get the prince to drink the potion."

"I see. That will work," Eiji nodded enthusiastically.

"Eiji, if you want, I'll kidnap another handsome human for you too. Now I remember that the prince's attendant isn't really all that bad-looking—"

"Don't, I won't know where to keep him," Eiji, who had to share a house with all those numerous family members and their pets, politely declined.

"That's okay. As soon as I kidnap Prince Tezuka, I'll be sure to show you first."

"Yay! Fuji, you're the best!"

--

Meanwhile, Tezuka, not knowing the horrible fate that was going to befall him, was still dealing with kingdom affairs in his castle.

"I wonder how the merman who saved me is doing…"

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To kalista jia: Thanks for the review :D Saw is scary. But then, I find everything scary…

To saya: Thanks for the review xDD

I'm going abroad tomorrow, so no updating next week. I'm REALLY REALLY EXCITED. :D I hope the plane won't crash…