Getting all the last fine tune things done for the publication of my first book-got the final draft of the cover and it looks SWEET and starting to figure out all the places I'll have to do signings and stuff-and I'm getting real nervous. I don't expect it to go amazing super well, but I don't want it to be a complete flop. : Oh well. I can only do my best, right?

Anyways, enjoy your weekly update! If I can get up to 60 reviews, I'll put up an extra chapter before next Wednesday. That means you'll get next weeks update AND and extra chapter. Two in one week! Fun fun, right?

Chapter Five

"The Fiji mermaid (also Feejee mermaid) was an object comprising the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows, where it was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was supposedly half mammal and half fish, a version of a mermaid." --Steven C Levi, "Western Folklore"

Mai the mermaid proved to be unresponsive after that. Either she had backed up enough that she couldn't hear him or she just didn't answer.

That didn't stop him for searching for new things to record and whatever evidence he could find to store away as proof. He talked to her for a bit about allowing him to pull off one of her scales, but she gave him a look so venomous, he didn't know if he dared it without any proper supplies to sedate her, otherwise she might drown him or Lin in the process.

He took a list of the ingredients of what the sandwiches had contained to take record of her diet. He wrote such detail descriptions of her anatomy that his hand ached after he was done. Then he took up his camera and was sure to take pictures from every angle, despite her attempts to wriggle to the farthest corner away from him and hide herself in a ball.

It was then that Lin put a hand on his shoulder.

"That's enough."

Kazuya's knee-jerk reaction was to slap his assistant's hand away. Never before had he captured a live specimen of his mythological studies. How could Lin think that he had taken enough? But then his eyes fell on the mermaid, who visibly trembled in the water. Stream after stream of bubbles floated up from where she had hidden her head beneath her arms.

He lowered his camera.

"They're just pictures."

But neither Lin nor the mermaid responded. Annoyed, he capped his lens and went to gather up his notes.

"Check her locks before you go, will you?"

Lin bowed his head in affirmation.

With that, Kazuya closed the door behind him and stepped out into the last dregs of sunset. The sky had been redone in silver blues underlain with gold, which reflected on the dark waters like molten metal, but compared to the prize of his mermaid, it was nothing to him.

He barely noticed the crew whispering together on their side of the table that night at dinner. The food prepared from boxes and cans tasted better than usual, and he found himself ravenous. Afterwards, he took a long shower, where he imagined underwater cities of coral and crystal where merpeople had built their own society. It would be like the discovery of life on other planets. Mankind all over the world would be introduced to their underwater brethren, and Kazuya Shibuya would be remembered for all time as the man who brought together the uniting of merfolk and landfolk, legend and fact, dreams and reality.

And it all waited for him in that tank.

He could have sung (which was very unlike himself, to the extreme). After showering and downing his evening tea, he didn't bother sleeping, but made a beeline to the ballroom. He passed the rarely seen fourth and fifth crew members: twin brothers, who worked the kitchen and maintenance, and had the worst case of social anxiety he had ever met. Sea spray misted across his skin from a moon painted ocean, and for the first time he thought he could finally comprehend the romance of the ocean.

Then he opened the door-

To find a pale skinned girl with her back to him, wearing nothing more than an orange and pink flower bikini.

She whirled around, her messy short hair catching to her eyelashes. Her hands flew up to her chest.

"Don't throw me back in! I won't run, please!"

But he just stared at her. His eyes went down to the copper scales lining the front of her shins and thighs like a layer of metal plating. The rest of the skin, up to where it ran beneath her bikini bottom and to her hips, was pink and raw looking, as though sunburnt, and her knees shook.

"I won't run..."

Kazuya closed the door behind him. When the snap made her jump, he sighed. "Stop your whining. If there's anything I really hate most in this world, its whining."

Locking the door behind him, he made his way towards her, shoulders back, masking his the tremor in his stomach. He knew so little about her. She could have lied or emitted something that day, so for all he knew, she had a self-defense mechanism that could leave him helpless. After all, merpeople had done so well to keep themselves in legend since the beginning of history. In his excitement, he had acted the fool, he should have brought Lin with him.

But, taking in her pink legs and the way they trembled beneath her, Kazuya found himself softened ever so slightly. He didn't think of himself as the compassionate type. Pity opened you up to be taken advantage of and scammed, both by people and the wiles of nature. Yet standing there, petite, mostly naked, shivering, and with those doe-like eyes wide with fear...

He stopped with only a yard between them. Cocking his head to the side, he leaned a hand on his belt loop and kept his eyes to her face.

He mentally shook himself. What in the world was he thinking?

"Back in the tank."

"No! Can't I at least have a prison with a bathroom?"

He blinked. That hadn't even crossed his mind. And yet, he could only respond with, "This isn't a prison."

"Oh, stop kidding yourself, you're keeping me as your guinea pig. Put chains on me, tie me up, but at least give me a place to sleep and a bathroom. I'll even pee in a cup, if you want me too."

Somehow, urine samples mixed with the crystalline dream of merfolk utopia still floating around in his head crashed into each other, and for the first time in a very long time, Kazuya found himself with his head thrown back in laughter.

What the hell. She was just a girl, after all. What was he so afraid of?

Once he caught his breath, he leveled his gaze at her, the back of his head hurting from the force of his smirk.

"How could I forget. Fine fine, come on. I'll give you a room to sleep in. It's not like you have anywhere else to go since you ran away from home, eh?"

She looked utterly confused, and a tad bit worried. But he could still feel the remains of his humor in his stomach. A girl who could turn into a mermaid, and he had almost forgotten to give her access to a toilet. Urine samples indeed.

As he let her out of the room, he heard her say, in shock disbelief, "You're bipolar, aren't you? Schizo? Just plain mental?"

"Whatever you want. There's got to be something wrong with me. After all, I already have looks and the brain, I can't be perfect."

"You're a narcissist then. Mr. Narcissist."

"The names Kazuya Shibuya, actually."

"Like I care, I've fallen in love with this realization. Narcissist. Naru the narcissist."

A mermaid giving him nicknames? How odd.

As expected, Lin waited at the door for them. As his assistant and, secretly, his hired bodyguard, Lin was never far from reach.

"Lin, I would appreciate it if you led Mai to one of the spare rooms."

Lin bowed.

"Oh, and Mai?"

"What?"

"If you should try to escape, you really will be traveling in the tank." He smiled dryly. "And that cute little door you wiggled out of will be locked and melted shut. No toilet. No sandwiches."

She visibly paled. Then, just as quickly, she turned red.

"You really are an asshole! What kind of guy captures girls and locks them up in a tank?"

"I'd be careful who you're calling an asshole. Lin here knows several types of martial arts and I'm not too picky about where I store my mermaid."

"Fine! Narcissist!"