"Oh…god. I have to stop hurting my head…."
Anio sat up, dazed. Her head was spinning, and to top it off, so was the world. She was in a building, she saw that. But where? How? Stop spinning, head! She told herself, and closed her eyes. The world stopped spinning. She took a deep breath, breathed it out, and opened her eyes.
"Hello, sweetie."
She shrieked, and immediately started backing away. "Gaitou!" she screamed, eyes wide and shaking.
"And here I thought I'd get a friendly response," he said, almost pouting.
The man her and her friends feared was right in front of her. With his leather pants and fur-lined coat, he looked more like an 80's star than what she had expected him to look like. In fact…she didn't even know how she knew it was Gaitou. She just…knew for some reason. When she had seen his face, that was the name that had come to mind.
"What do you want with me?" she demanded, her entire body shaking.
"What do I want?" he repeated. "Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to see you, that is all."
She stared at the man with fear. He wanted to 'see her'? That was likely.She backed up a little bit more, but she finally found it the end of the line. She looked back, and there was the large top of a clam. Anio looked around. She was in some sort of giant clam shell. It was decorated with glittering pillows and soft furs surrounding all of her.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked, gesturing to the bed. "I did it myself."
"Gaitou, I'm warning you…if you don't tell me what I'm doing here right this moment, I will rip you to shreds!" she said, although both of them knew her words were empty threats.
"Oh, I'm so scared!" he laughed. "You won't hurt me, I know that."
"What makes you think I won't?" she demanded, trying to buy herself time.
He smiled and came closer, circling the shell so he was next to her. She was trapped yet again. Anio tried to move away, but there was only so much space in the shell. "Anio, you know me. I know you. We won't hurt either of each other," he said, and there was something in his eyes. Could it be? Was it really…sadness?
"What do you mean?" she asked, eyebrows furrowing.
Gaitou ignored her words. He began walking around the clam shell again, hands clasped behind his back. "Now, I thought I'd introduce you to my son," he said.
She tensed. Wait…son? The epitome of evil had a son? Well, that just about did it. Anio raised an eyebrow at the man. Okay, a man with a son couldn't that be frightening. Actually, now that she thought about it, he wasn't that scary at all. She almost felt…safe in his presence. But that was wrong. It was a trap, she knew it. Anio stayed tense.
"Who's your son?" she asked.
"You actually already know him, I just thought I'd introduce you properly," he said, and smirked at her. "It will be interesting, this meeting."
That was it. Anio jumped out of the clam shell when Gaitou wasn't looking and ducked behind it. When Gaitou turned around, she was behind the shell, breathing heavily.
"Now Anio, I'm not in the mood for hide-and-seek," he growled.
She looked around. She had to find something to defend herself with, and quick. Real quick. Anio spun her head around, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the glint of silver. There! Seated on a small table was a small knife; a dagger. She looked around. Gaitou wouldn't be able to see her.
Anio used her time and darted across the room to the dagger, where she took it in her hand and spun behind a pillar. Adrenaline was rushing through her. She had to do this. She closed her eyes and breathed heavily. It was now or never. There was only one way out, and one barrier standing in front of her. Time to take down that barrier.
"Found you, sweetie."
A hand covered her screaming mouth and spun her around. It was too late! She was caught. Gaitou glared at her, his red eyes piercing through her. "You didn't really think you could hide from me, could you?" he demanded.
Her eyes were wide and frightened. But it was time. The dagger still behind her back, she brought into position and drove it forward—
But it wasn't enough. Gaitou caught the dagger nimbly with his other hand, and jerked it out of her hand. "Too bad," he said, and dropped the dagger onto the floor. He kicked it away. "You're going to have to be faster than that to kill me," he growled. His hand was dripping with blood.
"Son!" he yelled behind his back. "Come out here, now!"
Silence.
Gaitou frowned. "Son! I told you to come out here! Come out here and bind her, you idiot!"he screamed.
More silence.
"Do I have to do everything myself?" Gaitou growled, and spun the defenseless Anio around so he was gripping her wrists.
The world ended just then. Not literally, of course, but it felt like it. The entire world was shaking, and the two silver-haired figures were brought to their knees with the force of the shaking. Anio looked around, trying to find her dagger in the midst of her shaking. But everything was shaking! The building was started to crumble, pieces of the ceiling and the pillars falling to the floor with a great SLAM!
"NO!" Gaitou screamed. "What's going on!"
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! A dark hooded figure darted around the building, dodging the falling building. Anio watched him with wide eyes, unsure where he was going to land next. Then, suddenly, he disappeared. She looked around anxiously, but the figure was nowhere to be seen.
"Behind you."
She gasped, and spun around. There he was. A big black hood with three white wavy lines on it greeted her. The figure's head was down, so she was unable to figure out who it was.
"Who are you?" she demanded, backing away.
"Someone you can trust. Now, we must go. This place does not have much time left," he told her.
Without any warning the figure wrapped his hand around her waist and leapt up into the air, Anio unable to protest. They blasted through a hole in the building, and out into the wide open sea. Anio looked back, hearing Gaitou's screams.
"Don't worry about him, he'll be fine," the figure told her.
Her? Worrying about the mermaid princesses' greatest enemy? As if...But for some reason there was a part of her that was, dare she say it…worrying about the man. Anio shook her head and brought herself back to reality. It was time to deal with the problem at hand.
Her legs had turned back to a tail, and she was able to swim out of the figure's grip, getting as far as she could away from him but still in talking distance. The figure stopped, and Anio glared at him.
"What do you want?" she demanded.
The figure hesitated. "I am here to protect you, Anio. That is my only duty, and I was just doing that. Gaitou is…not ready to handle you quite yet."
"Handle me?" she echoed, furrowing her eyebrows. "Meaning…?"
He sighed. "I didn't think I would have to do this, but—"
"No, don't tell me, I really don't think I want to know," she said. "I just want to know who you are."
The figure didn't speak. Instead, he took a hand to his hood and pulled it back. Anio gasped and swam further back. It was…Yosuke! Her eyes as big as platters, her fingers curled up into fists. "What the heck are you doing here?" she demanded. "You-You-What the heck?"
Yosuke bowed his head. "I'm sorry. I just couldn't see you and my fa—" Yosuke suddenly cut off, sighing at his mistake.
If possible, Anio's eyes got even wider. "Yosuke…you're Gaitou's son?"
Silence.
Finally, after an eternity of silence, Yosuke answered.
"Yes."
If she was on land, she would've fallen. But she wasn't. Anio floated there in the water, completely dumbstruck. She stared at Yosuke with a newfound curiosity. Her friend's great enemy's son liked following her around. It was…really odd.
"Okay, I can deal with that," she said, trying to keep cool.
Yosuke looked up, his face full of shock. "Anio, are you sure?" he asked.
She nodded.
"Then…is it safe to tell you something else?" he asked, looking wary. Anio wasn't sure, but there was a part of her that really wanted to know. If she could deal with Yosuke's first bomb, she could survive the second!
"Just get it over with," she said.
Yosuke took a deep, deep breath.
"You're Gaitou's younger sister."
And Anio's world fell apart.