So, good news. My novel has been entered into the second round of the Inkitt contest, so there are 100 more free copies and to those of you who weren't able to get your review in on time, you can do so now. Bad news is...I still have to keep trying to win by nagging people to leave reviews on my book. T.T

*sigh* If you're interested in helping me get a publishing contract or just because you like my writing and would love a free book, go to Inkitt and search up "Erase Me" by yours truly, LoweFantasy.

If not, here's a chapter for you. Peace, ya'll.

Chapter 37

He ached.

He had hoped to never feel it again, but here he was, sitting on some Bahamas beach, waiting for a flash of copper—if there was to be a flash of copper.

Lin had taken it upon himself to arrange their trip home with his parents, as well as transportation for the rest of their crew along with their payment. Needless to say, Kazuya knew he had gone way over budget and that he'd have to apologies to his parents when he asked for a loan, but, then, he had also hoped to introduce them to the reason behind it all. Charming, cute, and warm, Mai would have pleased them, no doubt about it, especially his baby hungry mother.

But he had never thought she'd have…what, responsibilities? A family under the sea that may not let her back?

A family that had just ordered the execution of, not only his own crew, but that of the triple A ships as well?

Kazuya dug his toes into the sand. He wasn't stupid. He knew what that mist had meant the moment he had walked out into it. Only the merfolk could have brought about such random, catastrophic waves. No wonder that black merman—he didn't bother to remember his name—hadn't acted worried when he saw that ship.

But the triple A would come back, surely. They would have known where their ships had sunk. And a part of him wondered if the mermaid Masako had made it out alright.

But mostly, he just ached. Ached like a man whose liver was failing and his lungs not inclined to breathe.

It was because of this he had told the others to go on without him and leave him alone. Lin had been reluctant, but after leaving behind the one pistol which use to be Masako's, he left with the others.

And now here he was: dressed in clothes from a tourist shop, feet buried in the sand, eyes out towards the darkening sea, the setting sun to his back.

What if she didn't come back?

When he heard footfalls on the sand, he didn't care to think they had anything to do with him. However, he didn't find it entirely unwelcome when Yasu dropped at his side and handed him something wrapped in white deli paper.

"Num num, boss. Got to keep up that manly physic of yours."

Kazuya took it, unwrapped the sandwich, and started into it without tasting a bit. It was like chewing tissue paper.

Yasu also wore tourist shop clothes, but, unsurprisingly, it wasn't much different from what he had come on board in. His skin had tanned the least out of the lot of them, being in the engine room most of the time, but it wasn't much different from Kazuya's, which had finally slowed in its peeling. He'd be a sight back home.

"She'll come back," Yasu said.

"I don't need pointless sympathies," said Kazuya out the corner of his mouth.

"Come on, I mean it. She said she'd marry you, right? Besides, I saw her face when you pulled her out of the water." Yasu gave a happy little sigh, like a whistle. "Man oh man, I'd be lucky to ever see love like that again."

"She's only known me for a few months."

"Yeah, like that's ever mattered."

"It does. This isn't a fairy tale." Kazuya quieted at that. Those were dangerous words coming from the man who found the truth of reality in said fairy tales, and now, to all definitions, was currently living one. Forcing down another bite, he knotted his free hand in his overgrown hair and let his sandwich dangle between his knees. "Yasu, why are you here?"

"Emotional support. Also, I figured I'm more likely to see more mermaids if I hang around with you, so…"

"You're a pervert."

"Hey, I'm a man who knows what he likes and would rather hold naked women than look at them. That's more than I can say for a lot of dudes these days, wanker'n over their laptops. Disgusting."

Kazuya had to take a moment to get over the shock of what he had just heard before he said, "Please don't ever mention masturbating again. How can you even talk about stuff like that so casually? Don't you have any decorum?"

Yasu have him an odd look, as though Kazuya were the one raised in a barn and not him. "It's just us dudes. What's wrong?"

Kazuya wanted to slap him. "Don't you have anything intelligent to talk about?"

"Course I do. Whether it's interesting or not is a different story. Like I got this old '89 Chevy S10 back home I want to drop the axel on and make it a four wheel sand buggy, just for the heck of it." He paused to register Kazuya's blank look before smirking. "See? What I tell ya?"

So they both left it at that and went to staring out over the ocean together. Kazuya gave up half way through his sandwich and left it folded up in its wrapper between them. Mica and quartz glittered up from the white sand in what remained of the golden sunlight. It reminded him of a time that seemed years ago when Mai waited for him in shallow waves, every bit of her glistening like precious metals and jewels in the morning light.

Soon the sun went out like a lamp behind the island behind them, and Kazuya and Yasu had to move up the beach as the tide came in. They could see the silhouette of the other three back up the short gravel cliff side of their other three crewmembers, and on seeing them Kazuya hung back. He wasn't quite ready to meet their sympathies or empty words when they saw Mai wasn't with him.

Yasu looked back and lingered, even as a wave came up to lick at Kazuya's heels. Something in his dark eyes spoke of something just a little beyond sympathy as he met the scientist's gaze.

Like many of the new and mysterious things Kazuya had encountered in his recent interactions of the past week, it drew out a confession he hadn't thought needed to be said.

"I don't know how to move on if she doesn't get back." He hesitated, suddenly feeling cold and more than a little vulnerable in the twilight. "Do people even move on?"

Yasu shifted, glancing down at his feet as he did so. "What do you think all those love songs are about? Or do you even listen to music?"

"I listen to music."

"Then, no. I don't think you ever do move on."

And that frightened Kazuya more than seeing the mist about the deck lights or the outlined ghost of his yacht sinking belly up into the fathomless deep.

Yasu glanced up and gave him a little smile. "But I think you're dreading the verdict before it's even in. Look behind you."

Kazuya turned.

She waited not too far from where he had sat originally in shallow blue waters, her tail fin in the air above her and waves lapping over her shoulders, teasing the ends of her hair as though to take them to him. She had a smile to replace the set sun, and she once more wore one of the curious shell and fabric tops with short sleeves and spaces at the sides for gills.

"Naru! A little help?"

Something about his face made Yasu laugh, but he didn't care. He splashed to her, sending walls of water jumping out with each rushed step. He only slowed so as to not overwhelm her with water, and took extra care in scooping her up from the water and into his arms.

Then he kissed her, savoring the tang of salt.

"You're acting like I wouldn't come back," she said.

"Stupid Mai against all of those mermen and whoever else may not wish you to return? Hardly."

"Hey! I did rather well for myself!" The tail dangling from his arm slapped her fins against the waters. "Besides, I just had to work out a…compromise. That's all."

Before he could ask just what she had compromised, he heard a familiar shout back out at sea.

Five mermen waited just far enough that they wouldn't get beached as Mai had. One was the black scaled merman that had lied to them and translated for Mai, looking pale and unpleasant as ever before. The next man that drew his gaze was the giant Vovo, who hadn't strayed from Mai's side since the ship wreck, and who watched Kazuya now with just as much pent up ferocity as the black scaled one.

"In order to take her," said the black scaled man—Zen, Kazuya suddenly remembered. "Queen requests an equal…guest."

"As collateral," Mai said softly, copper eyelashes fanned against her cheeks as she averted her gaze. "It was the only way I could get her to agree on letting me go at all. Not only do I have to come back every summer, along with any children I might have, but to make sure we come back, someone needs to stay behind. Apparently they have a, um, a little island not far from the coast. A man name Jericho lives there and apparently is, well, quite sickly. They don't expect him to live long. He was one of their contacts and I suspect some girls may have come up to father daughters with him once or twice…on my grandmother's orders."

Kazuya could feel an embarrassed heat squirming in his stomach. Whoever stayed wouldn't have it much different than the mermaids at triple A, it was sounding like.

Mai's hands hooked about his neck went lax. "We don't have to, of course I can—"

"I'll go!"

Wild splashing announced the arrival of Yasu, who soaked himself from head to foot in his eagerness to get to Kazuya's side, his expression elated.

"I'll be your mermaid contact whatever!" He grinned at the stunned expressions of the mermen. "I'll get to meet some mermaids, right?"

None of the mermen looked like they knew how to respond to that question, and Mai only laughed.

"Yes, you'll get to meet mermaids," she said. "And the whole of the island will be open to you. You'll be required to upkeep the place, but they'll provide whatever you need. You can sell treasures from the sea for a good price and live comfortably. You'll be under oath to never leave here, though, and to never speak of the merfolk and their whereabouts unless it's to your successor." Her face softened and she once more went to looking down her cheeks. "You're in luck. The young man who was sent for to be the successor…didn't make it back from sea."

Kazuya's stomach clenched. So that's what John had been. More than a missionary.

Yasu, however, looked like he had just been offered the deal of a lifetime.

"Oh sweet mother Mary, this is—this is—wait, hold on, keep it straight, Yasu." He put his hands on either side of his face like the visors on a horse. "I'm here to make sure you come back, yeah, what happens if you don't?"

"We kill you," said Zen, all too much like stating the weather.

Yasu blanched.

Mai had started squirming in Kazuya's arms. "We don't have to do this—but-but if you're okay, I promise we'll—"

Kazuya stopped her with a gentle squeeze of his arms so she couldn't wriggle away. "When do you need her back by and for how long?"

Zen's hands rose dripping from the water. "Queen said all the human summer months."

"She means June, July, and August," said Mai quietly. "I'm to be at the mediator's cottage by the first of June and will be returned there at the 31st of August."

None of this seemed to settle right with him. It seemed far too easy.

"How do I know they won't just keep you if I bring you back?" he asked cautiously, all too aware of how Zen had started to move past Vovo the giant and looked to be considering how much further in he could go.

"Because," Mai bit her lip and looked back. "Because…through you I can produce more female heirs, and...and those heirs are going to need to understand the workings of the human world. My grandmother isn't so cruel as to keep those children from their father, but…" she ducked her head lower, shivering. "The day my grandmother dies, if there isn't a female heir old enough…no. They won't return me. I'll have to stay and take her place."

Kazuya had to fight back the urge to give an exasperated sigh. Guess he'd just have to keep in touch with Yasu, then. Like he gave a damn if their royal line was broken or not.

"Fine. Yasu?"

"Yeah boss?"

"Your email address is the same, right?"

To his satisfaction, the mermen looked confused.

Yasu was grinning like a drunk man, and saluted him like a sailor. "Yessir. I'll send pictures and—oh golly, can I meet one tonight? Just tonight, I promise I won't be a creep."

"You already are." Naru gave him a nudge towards the mermen. The tide was lapping up to his hips. "Here's your hostage, willing and able. We'll be back the fist of June."

He moved to turn, Mai still in his arms—when he was stopped by a sharp pain around his ankle that caused him to stumble and fall. Mai went splashing down into the water, which was high enough by now to temporarily submerge Kazuya's head.

When he came back up, Mai had been pushed aside, and an angry, pale face with ocean floor eyes glared into his. Something impossibly thin and painful as a needle pressed against his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, Kazuya thought he could see what looked like a long, sharpened fish bone.

"You bring her back," he hissed, low enough only they could hear. "Even if you choose to give up this one's life, I am good hunter. I will find you by your rivers and safe shores and drag you down till the deep water pop out your eyes."

"Zen!" Mai threw herself at his shoulders, panicked.

But the moment her fingers touched him, Kazuya was free, and Zen was slipping out of her grasp and back down into the waters and weaving away as quickly and silently as an eel.

Vovo the giant said some words and motioned to Yasu, who swam out to him looking equal amounts nervous and excited. The mermen gave a bow to Mai, though with their tails kept firm in the water, before speaking some words in mermaids in unison and turning back to the ocean with their human load.

Kazuya came back to Mai's trembling. Her face had twisted till her brown eyes had narrowed with pain.

"Mai?"

She paddled back to his arms and buried her face in his shirt. "Zen."

A part of him went still and cold. But he didn't question her. He knew she would tell him in all good time. After all, they now had all the time in the world.

Nag nag, Erase Me, nag, free book, nag, review-melt on floor.