Tada! We've reached chapter 10, horray!
It was one I dearly wished to reach as it is full of worldbuilding!
Though, fair warning, there are hints of pedophilia. (Which is a terrible, horrible thing!)
Chapter 10: Under the sea
""Nagisa."
The girl blinked at the sudden call of her name. Her eyes, glued to her food, reluctantly rose to meet the cool green eyes of her father.
The silence that fell around the table was tense. Yukio, the clueless little boy that he was, stared alternately at them while her mother shifted lightly on spot, leaning closer to her daughter than to her husband as if to protect her. Her chakra rattled warningly, soft advice to not create more troubles directed to both of them. Daichi's chakra spiked at her mother's effort.
Nagisa's lips thinned into a straight line and she leaned her elbows on the table, bracing for the fight.
He squinted at her, tapping the butt of his knife twice on the table. Nagisa straightened her back immediately before cursing herself and then the conditioning she went through.
A few years ago, Daichi has taken upon himself to teach her some table manners after one horrendous party, double-tapping when she fell back into an incorrect position.
"How are your studies progressing?" He asked -demand, really, a report of her last achievements.
Nagisa chewed on her squid carefully, considering the best way to answer. "Good. Yakihiro-sensei had me work on my accuracy. My endurance is good enough for my age and my taijutsu is coming along quite nicely. I can keep up with sensei most of the time."
The soft 'tap, tap, tap ' his finger made as he repeatedly tapped against the table was unnerving. He was getting impatient.
"What about fuinjutsu?"
"It is good enough," Nagisa answered, face tensing as if sensing a trap, "Sumi-sensei is a good teacher albeit a strict one."
Daichi frowned, his eyes growing colder by the second."Your lack of ambition is astonishing. Do you think it's appropriate for you - my daughter - to settle for good enough ?" He spat, his nostril flared before his face turned impassive. "You've become an important figure of Uzushio, everyone's eyes are on you. Don't forget yourself."
"Who cares?" Nagisa mouthed behind her hand, rolling her eyes before slouching over. She stared straight into her father's eyes with vindictive glee. "Their lives are sad if they're all watching for one little girl's slip up."
"Nagisa, that's enough." Sensing the upcoming disaster, Kazashi intervened, "Daichi, please forgive her, she is just-"
"-Quiet. I'm talking with my daughter." But she was cut off immediately. The implications were quite clear, don't headbutt in.
"As you wish but do remember Nagisa is just a child." Her mother huffed, wrapping her fingers around the neck of a bottle of seaweed alcohol, and served herself one full glass. Kazashi had taken it upon herself to stir the conversation away each time her father tried to enter sensitive subjects, especially after knowing how sensitive Nagisa was when her father was concerned. Her mother coddled and protected them while asking for understanding and forgiveness. It was getting tiring.
"Yes, and you've done a great job spoiling her. She can't even support people disagreeing with her."
"Mom," The girl in question butted in, feathers ruffled and cheeks flushed with annoyance, "maybe you should serve him a drink too, it might make dinners more tolerable."
Her parents did not reply, nor did his brother, who still had his eyes opened wide with bewilderment -he shouldn't, Nagisa darkly thought, their verbal matches were almost a daily occurrence.
"This is your idea of tolerable conversation, is it?" her father remarked, voice laden with irony. "Lashing out to upset me? So, if you find such matters enjoyable then maybe you're failing yourself on purpose too. To annoy me."
The girl in question furrowed her brows and pursed her lips. "What do you mean? I'm doing my best and the results are good enough. What more do you want?"
Her temper flared. Truthfully, Nagisa knew she tended to be unreasonable when her father spoke. But she couldn't stop herself.
"Do you think his daughter is doing good enough? Are you really going to let this child become better than you?" He hissed angrily at her, closing his hand into a fist.
Nagisa stared hard at her father, the corners of her lips curling bitterly as a cold weight sat on her guts. Her anger seized her throat.
"So this is what's bothering you. Mito is my friend. I will not be used for such frivolous matters - no one cares about who is better than the other - and I will not endanger my friendship with Mito because of your pride!"
Nagisa sneered, having completely lost her temper, and stood up. "Could you, please, for one day, not spoil our family times?"
"Nagisa, please. Try to understan-"
Her mother's plea was cut by the banging of the door, her father's face flushing red, the last thing carved on her mind.
The sky was turning red, the sea was calm but Nagisa wasn't.
Of all the things her father could have told her, it had to be about Mito. She exhaled heavily. She had worked too much on this friendship for Nagisa to throw it out of the window simply to please her father. She wasn't going to make concessions either.
The nerves! The nerves of this man! How dare he? How dare he try to butt in her business? She did what he told her to do! She made the first steps! It wasn't easy but she did. How dare he? How dare he hurt her again?
Out of frustration, Nagisa threw the sand she grabbed and-
"Ouch!" The voice had the same effect as cold water on a burn. "Why?"
The dress hugged her figure, the pale yellow fabric a bright contrast against her dark skin. Her hair, coiled into tight ringlets, bounced around her shoulders. She spat the sand Nagisa unknowingly threw her.
"Miru…?" When the hell did she appear?
"Finally!" The girl said, a bit of drool and grains of sand clung to her cheek, "I have been trying to get your attention for a while but I didn't want to interrupt your pacing and kicking. Sand is a tough enemy, isn't it?"
Though she ended on a lighter note, her eyes were filled with worry. Once she was sure Nagisa was calmer, she sat next to her, hugging her knees. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" She laughed drily but upon seeing her wide eyes, Nagisa softened a bit. "Sorry, I'm a bit… upset."
"I see. What's the matter?"
Nagisa kept quiet, a strange ball of something choking her. It was one thing to think about it, it was another to explain it.
"Do you… not want to talk about it?"
The younger girl, Nagisa, frowned at nothing. Her emotions were still all over the place and she didn't know if she felt really comfortable confiding in something so personal.
"It's just," she waved her hands before sighing, "family matters, I guess."
An uncomfortable silence settled with Nagisa watching the horizon, mulling on her thoughts while her hands automatically played with sand.
"Hmm, you know, in two days, we're going pearl diving. So if you want to escape for a bit, you can come."
Nagisa opened her eyes wide. Pearl diving? She didn't even have to think about it. "I'm in."
A cloud hovered, casting a shadow over the white and red sails. The boat was flying over the sea, cutting the treacherous waves that tried to overthrow it.
Nagisa stuck her arms out, feeling the wind running through her hair and her fingers. Tiny droplets of water kissed her skin each time they crashed into a wave. Her feet coated with chakra were the only reason why she wasn't stumbling like a baby fawn on the deck.
The boat was full of life, people of all ages were working together, throwing and pulling ropes to inflate the sails, shifting them a bit to better catch the wind. One was screaming orders with the typical liveliness of Uzushio's inhabitants.
Miru left her near the helm, out of the way, while she was busy being shown the ropes of sailoring.
With the ever-moving planks under her feet, the salt on her lips and the wind brushing her hair out of her face, Nagisa felt truly alive. A strange feeling of happiness weaved its way in her bones and spread to warm her guts. A smile that threatened to break her face in half.
It was exhilarating.
She remained rooted until the sails were tied and only when Miru's father beckoned her closer did she move. She tripped over a bucket, her shaky legs giving out under her. Her father caught her on her way down, a deep rumbling shaking his shoulders.
"Still growing your sea legs, I see." He teased. Nagisa smiled, embarrassed, "Miru must have explained to you."
The girl nodded. "Yes, of course."
"Alright, it's nothing against you but you will have to wait on the boat for a bit. Family jutsus, ya know." His eyes, grey as steel, twinkled kindly. "The little mermaid will wait with you-"
"-Dad!" Miru appeared out of nowhere, puffing red cheeks out, "you promised you wouldn't call me like that!" Her eyes moved for a second, enough to tell Nagisa that she was embarrassed her friend knew about it.
Nagisa squashed the giggles in her throat with a cough.
Miru's father laughed naturedly, a big hand crashing on his daughter's head before he energetically destroyed her ponytail. The girl pouted, grumbled, and tried to slap his hand away only for her father to dodge with a laugh.
"Be good you two, I will send Umi to collect you when everything is ready!"
"Yeah, leave us alone, old man!" Miru cried at her father's back as he leaped over the rail.
They were left alone on the deck with two other teens, a rough-looking girl and a timid, freckled boy busy glaring at her.
"May I help you?" Nagisa asked, voice on edge after they watched for too long.
Her friend's face turned dark, a nasty scowl twisting her cute features into something meaner. She squared her shoulders, ready for battle.
The freckled boy blushed, casting his eyes downward while the girl crossed her arms, eyes akin to flames. It was the boy who answered, a smile straining his lips and a stutter on his tongue
"Of c-c-c-course not, we-"
"Who are you?" The girl rudely interrupted. "You're not of our clan, so what are you doing here?"
"Hey! Watch your mouth, Yue! Don't talk to her like that, she is not someone you can disrespect like that."
Nagisa blinked at her friend. She knew a good person would stand up for their friends but she didn't expect Miru to actually do that. Initially, Nagisa never intended to answer her provocation. Sometimes, silence was the best answer to a fool. Honestly, she wouldn't mind watching Miru go feral on that girl. But the girl was wearing a coat over her bra, a coat looking a bit too much like a coat of kazoku - a black tailcoat with a mandarin collar and epaulets - for it to raise her hackles.
"Miru, wai-"
"-So what? Because she is your friend and a princess, she can be here? You're joking, she is just a child who speaks weirdly."
Miru closed her hands, knuckles turning whites and an ugly expression on her face. "Nagisa speaks weirdly because you're too stupid to understand her!"
Nagisa raised her head, puffing her chest out at the unexpected praise. The corners of her mouth moved up on their own accord and the little girl had to battle them hard to keep them into a straight line.
"Pardon? You're saying a little girl is smarter than me?" The Yue girl clenched her hand into a fist and slashed the air with it. "Then, let's prove it!"
"Actually," the shy boy raised a shaky finger, "It's likely that she is because she is considered as a genius-
"Shut up, Fenn!" He slouched on himself and ducked his head like a snail sensing danger. "It's bullshit spewed by the Uzumaki to make us look average!"
The silence that followed was eloquent.
Now, where did you hear that? Nagisa squinted, crossing her arms and very slowly turning toward the palling girl. Her slip of tongue was too dangerous to ignore.
"What kind of nonsense are you saying?" A voice, deep and deathly cold rose from their back. "You've spent too much time with that bastard, I see."
Nagisa jumped, chakra spiked and chakra-coated fists at the ready before she reigned in her instinct to punch the unexpected intruder.
Yue, on the other hand, ducked her head down, thoroughly chastised. "Please don't rattle me to dad." She mumbled and was quickly turned down by one angry Miru.
How the mighty has fallen... The previous predator turned into a scared puppy and Nagisa almost felt bad for her.
Almost.
"Please forgive that fool Nagisa-sama. She has spent her time with the wrong crowd recently but it's only one of her womanish fancies. It will soon change."
The little girl threw a glance over her shoulders and promptly froze.
If the sudden apparition of the man startled her, his appearance completely broke her. He was a sight for sore eyes, sprawled on the railing with a nicely proportionate face, a sharp jaw and long eyelashes, a strong body, and a very colorful tail. Orange, white, and black, the tail was of a clownfish, Nagisa realized, dumbfounded and mesmerized.
"Ah, Umi. Everything is ready?" Miru toddled off closer to the railing, a big and bright smile blooming on her face.
"Yes," he grinned, "we're waiting for the little misses to come."
"Yay, Nagisa, let's go!" And just like that, Miru sprinted toward the railing and jumped in the sea, her little hand firmly dragging Nagisa with her.
Shivers ran up and down her body. Cold. The water was cold. Or maybe she was too hot? Movements on her right. Her eyes flew open.
Miru's father's brown locks danced wildly with every shift, it swirled and curled as the man sped through signs. His lower body had fused with his companion, and instead of legs, there was a beautiful tail. The fins, thick and sturdy, were white with red spots akin to paint drops falling from a brush, while the main body was a beautiful gradient of red.
Nagisa watched despite the salt burning her eyes, completely fascinated. One couldn't clearly determine where the fish part begin and the human part end.
The man blew a bubble toward her. On its way to join her, other tiny bubbles converged and fused with the bigger bubble, growing bigger and bigger within a few seconds. The jutsu kiss her head, chakra tickling her cheeks like a sweet caress, and she could finally breathe.
Nagisa squawked, loudly, and distorted laughs reached her ears. It was weird noises. Their voices sounded more human underwater than above.
Miru's father smacked hard the teen that was laughing himself silly and mocking her. Nagisa was too busy watching around her to care.
Here, in the middle of the sea, Nagisa felt tiny.
White rays shone through the waves and currents, refracting on the rocks smoothed by the flow of the sea and showing the beauty of this other world. The sand was varied in color, browns akin to sand dunes at dawn, as pretty as the wood washed ashore upon windswept waves, whites like porcelain, shining like tiny jewels and blacks like the ink of a brush sweeping on paper, lightening once the excess was left behind.
Far below, where the sun rays barely touched the ground, she distinguished the outlines of Doric columns slowly eaten by green algae, foundations of old houses, crumbling but still present. Small colorful flowers and corals littered the seafloor like specks of colors on a green and white canvas.
Further away, she spied an old ship whose belly was cut open, the sails fluttered in the current as if remembering a time when it was proudly protecting their haven.
A hand caught her arm and carefully dragged her away. Nagisa tilted curiously her head at Miru, eyes sweeping over her figure. Just like she told her, Miru was also wearing the bubble jutsu, having just reached the wee age of 11, she would start to learn the family jutsus the day after Benten. Her friend only pointed at where she used to be.
Jellyfishes, violet or see-through, danced along with the current. Fishes curiously peeked at her, the most brazen dared to swim around her while the others contently watched from afar until the novelty she was faded. One, a beautifully pink angelfish, peacefully danced in front of her, turning and spinning for her eyes to feast on it before it swam away.
Nagisa chuckled, tugging on Miru's hand before pointing at the floor. Her eyes conveyed her desire to inspect the ruins closely. Miru nodded, her eyes sparkling and the corners of her mouth curling up. She let a cheerful laugh and started to swim.
The powerful tail of her father blocked them. "Before you leave, let's establish some rules."
"What? More rules?" Miru frowned, her cute lips pouting. She heaved a sigh, bubbles flying from her mouth. "I already have a knife and the beads."
"Those are for emergency," he explained before turning toward her, "We usually don't bring strangers with us when pearl-hunting, so it's a bit new for us too. Sorry for the many rules but I would hate for one of the princesses of Uzushio to be hurt while with us."
A strange shiver ran down his arms.
"So for now, bear with us. Better safe than sorry, right?" He stopped her whining with a swept of his hand. "So, don't go too far. If you feel like the current is taking you away or see danger, break the bead. If you're facing one of the beasts, don't panic. They are mostly blind and peaceful, but you never know. Azuki here lost his arm to one."
An older man deeply tanned with clear eyes and deep wrinkles nodded. Nagisa paled when her eyes fell on his right arm. Or where his right arm should be. Deep teeth marks dragged across half his torso and his shoulder, the scares, white and eye-catching. The cut on his stump wasn't clean, more like-
Like it has been chewed. Oh god…
"Don't go too deep. Miru, I know you can handle it but Nagisa is not a Daiba, she can't survive under extreme pressure." Her father, hands on his hips, hummed slightly. The bad on his shoulder was floating above his head, entangling with his hair. "Finally, the jutsu will hold for an hour. Past this time, there will be no oxygen. So you go back to the boat. Got it?"
The girls, both faces white, nodded earnestly.
A woman - broad shoulders, powerful arms, visible abs, and white hair - slapped Miru's father's back, laughing. "Don't scare them shitless now. Look at them, as white as baby mantas' bottoms. The attacks happened twice in the last century, no need to fret. And we're too far from the whirlpools. Just go enjoy the seafloor, eat a few stickys, and explore the vestige of Uzushio and the shipwrecks."
Her father glared at the woman, his expression as cold as ice but the woman couldn't care less. She sent him a smirk in answer.
Nagisa's mind was reeling. Her eyes rolled into orbits and foam ran down the side of her mouth. Uzushio's vestige…?
It was flooded? Uzushio used to be bigger? Did we lose a lot of knowledge? What happened?
Her head hurt; it was pulsing, as if hangovered, while a vicious desire to learn more clawed its way in her heart. Her lung hurt her too, as if-
"Breathe," a warm hand, her warmth in the middle of the cold sea, paused against her back.
Nagisa did as said, taking in a deep breath and everything felt better. She blinked at Miru. How? The girl snickered at the question in her eyes.
"You forget to breathe when you're too excited."
How… unexpectedly observant of her. Miru wasn't conscious of the others. Unless told, she didn't know about one's usual behavior, about their micro-expression or their habits. It was Nagisa's role. Miru was chattier and attracted the attention more; people would look at her, never the contrary.
So for her to know about that, it was unexpected. And weird.
Nagisa smiled, unable to say anything.
An old man whose bottom fused with a squid and carrying a harpoon came closer. "You should go," his smile was kind, he was missing a few teeth, "these two won't stop bickering before a long while."
They nodded.
"Do you know what she meant when she talked about Uzushio's vestiges?" Goosebumps erupted as a particularly cold current embraced them. Nagisa shuddered and sent a jealous glare at Miru. As a Daiba, her skin was thicker and rougher, she didn't feel the cold like normal people did.
The girl laughed, throwing her head back while her shoulders shook. "I knew you would ask that." She threw her a teasing smile, "You're such an intellectual. When you're not at your home or at the beach, you hole yourself in the library."
The Uzumaki girl pressed her lips into a thin line. Well, she wasn't wrong but why did she feel like she was being mocked?
"Whatever," she crossed her arms and huffed, "Just answer the question already."
"Yes, I actually know." With two powerful kicks, Miru propelled herself forward, spinning as she passed through the circle a dolphin made. She came back to her. "My father told me the first time we dived together."
Her eyes glassed a bit, a hand mindlessly rising to clutch her necklace. It was very simple with just an iridescent scale as a pendant. Like an afterthought, Nagisa copied her. Her finger running down the worn string to reach the small angelfish whose nose stubbornly pointed toward the surface, toward home.
It wasn't her first time diving and yet, she didn't have a companion. Intriguing. Did she need to reach an age or was she unclaimed?
Nagisa bit her lips, stopping herself from asking the questions on her mind. It's rude and it's a family matter.
Still, her curiosity reared to attention.
They floated in silence a few instants, Nagisa's back toward Miru to give her intimacy. The strange mood leaving as fast as it arrived.
"Right," her friend cleared her throat, "Before the flood, right? Well, we don't know much, it's just theories but it is believed that Uzushio was a peninsula. Something happened though, some say that the other clans were jealous and planned to attack us but Shio-zuchi-sama flooded the world to protect the Uzumaki and the few accepted clans."
Her friend spoke with such easy confidence that it was hard for Nagisa to not believe what she was telling her. However, while she didn't have clear memories about that time, she was sure the story-teller said that Uzushio used to be a floating island. Which meant-
"Is it a widely accepted theory?"
Miru shrugged. "Don't know, we don't really talk about that."
It would be weird if it was, considering that it went against their legends. Nagisa hummed under her breath, sweeping her hair out of her face. So the water rose rapidly and they had to take refuge further up. She felt a twitch in her fingers and the urge to go find Mito to share her discovery. Maybe they could scourge the library together to find more information?
"Hey, want to take a closer look?" When faced with hesitation, Miru rolled her eyes fondly. "Come on, it doesn't bite and if a stone viciously attacks you, I swear I will use a bead."
Nagisa clacked her tongue, annoyance coloring her face. The problem wasn't here. The vestiges were deep below the surface and halfway there, the pressure was high enough to make her skirmish. Still-
"Alright."
If something felt off, she could go back.
Down they went, Nagisa willingly swan dived into the very cold, hard to breathe zone. The water became dark blue.
She swam closer to what looked like a temple, ruins of an ancient time. Beautiful columns lost to the tide and covered in coral and kelp. The sun rays were shily reflecting against the stones, moving with the waves and bringing some semblance of life to something that has been abandoned.
A closer inspection revealed bits of paint that had yet to be washed away. Luminous gold ink carved and etched into the stone - probably prayers designed to keep the evil away- mosaics at the bottom, telling old stories, now lost forever.
Near the columns, laid against half-covered stairs, she found remnants of clay pots and jars. Most were utterly destroyed and the salt and sea did its job in eroding the decorations on it. However, with enough determination, Nagisa discovered a jar hidden under a rock and mostly covered by the sand.
Her treasure was old, she could feel part of it crumbling under her fingers, but somehow some decorations were spared from the marks of time. That's how she discovered the crest. It wasn't a maelstrom. It belonged neither to the Uzumaki nor to any clans present on Uzushio as of now.
How weird… An extinct clan? It was the smartest theory. But she should have learned about it.
The next few treasures she found were branded with the same crest, a cross that curled. And everywhere she looked-
-There wasn't any Uzumaki's crest.
Her brows creased. Uzushio had always belonged to the Uzumaki, so where the hell was their crest? Compared with how everything was branded Uzumaki or Uzumaki-made, the lack of crest was peculiar. Nagisa didn't know what to think about that.
Perhaps… It was a clan ground? If she wasn't wrong, the same thing happened in Konoha, there were Uchiha's ground or- wait, what was their name? The other clan with a dojutsu... She stared at nothing. Whatever. What mattered was that it was a possible theory, with a very likely outcome.
She swept at her hair again, grumbling that she should have braided the damn thing. They were getting too long, almost reaching her mid-back.
She huffed through her nose, going crossed eyes to watch the bubbles flying toward the surface. From the corner of her eyes, she spied Miru pushing several things in the piece of clothes that was covering her non-existent chest.
While Nagisa had been busy marveling at everything, her friend took it upon herself to collect every pretty shell she could find, hoping to gift it to Nagisa's grandmother. Perhaps she could do matching jewels for the two girls?
With this thought, she scourged every crevice, hands fluttering and touching everything, the smoothness of the rocks and the roughness of the corals, the cold stickiness of the algae and-
"Oh!" she cried out, nursing her arm. It felt like she touched an electric eel, like thousand of tiny needles pierced her fingers and ran up her arm. She bit back the sobs that tried to escape. It hurt and her hand was growing numb.
"What's happening?" Miru felt vibrations in her back, then worried eyes green eyes appeared. "Are you hurt?" Warm feelings spread in her gut at the concern.
"It's nothing. I just touched something weird and-"
A gasp. Nagisa wasn't listening anymore, instead, she was focusing on the spot Miru inadvertently showed her. She swam closer.
"No. Don't go closer!" Miru shouted, failing to grasp her arm. She couldn't go closer, she would get hurt.
Miru didn't want to see Nagisa hurt anymore. Maybe, at first, when Nagisa was only the 'Uzumaki princess' in her head, she did but now that she became Nagisa - sometimes, she was 'the weirdo that was her friend' but only in her head! -, she didn't. Miru was older now, she needed to protect her!
Nagisa never touched the thing, instead, she swam in circles under the anxious gaze of her friend until a bigger gasp left her small lips. She turned toward Miru, surprise, shock, and excitement dancing in her eyes until she settled for confusion. She scrunched her nose, the beauty mole on her cheek moving along her gasping mouth.
Nagisa was a cute kid.
"Chakra?" Miru tilted her head. What? "Why is there chakra?"
Her eyes, cloudy with confusion, suddenly lightened, as if she was struck by a realization. She dived back near the thing - a line of black sand? - and started to push things off the black line fervently.
"What are you… ?"
"Come on, help me."
Confused, she obeyed and help her push away corals and old stones.
Miru frowned, something wasn't adding. First, the line kept going on. But most importantly-
"Why is the current flowing this way?"
Nagisa paused. "What do you mean?"
"Well," for a second, the older girl was embarrassed. She is going to think I'm weird for knowing that. " We're in the RedStream." Faced with her dead-panned expression, Miru explained. "It's a warm current that flows from Uzushio toward the trench and filled with life. So your hair should be pushed in your face, but… They're going right, following another current. One that shouldn't exist inside the RedStream."
Her friend blinked, once, twice, thrice before her face twisted into a frown.
Underwater, Miru thought distractingly, her skin looked nice. She had a nice golden brown shade while Miru was more black than brown.
"Current, you say…" Nagisa muttered to herself before she stared vacantly at nothing.
Miru's heart squeezed. She didn't like it when Nagisa had that expression. She seemed so distant, taking refuge in a place she couldn't reach, leaving her alone in the present. The red-haired girl blinked, her face becoming alive once more.
"Do you know…" Nagisa stopped, thinking a bit more before she started again. "Do you know where the current is leading?"
Miru crunched her brows, fingers stroking her chin before she answered. "I think- I think they are leading toward the whirlpools."
It seemed that Nagisa was waiting for this answer as her ears seemed to prick up. Inwardly, Miru smiled at the rekindled flames that shone in her eyes. Still, she couldn't understand why the news made her this happy.
Nagisa kicked the ground and propelled herself up and up and further away from he-
"What are you doing?" Miru shouted in alarm. Today was supposed to be a nice outing between two friends. Why did it stray so much from the plan? Was it the pressure? Did they go too deep? Did it break Nagisa?
"Verifying a theory. Trying to have a global view of the thing."
A theory? What kind of theory?
"A mind-boggling, mind-changing theory that could shatter my whole perception of Uzushio."
How did she know what she was thinking? Could she read minds now?
"You're speaking, dummy."
Ah.
Another audible gasp and then, Nagisa burst into laughter, laughing herself silly until she was gasping for air, and Miru, below her, watched her.
May it fate or sheer dumb luck, the sun was shining right behind her head, setting fire to the shiny red lock scattered around her. A fiery crown, quite fitting for one of the princesses of this island.
Her heart was stomping a bit harder against her ribcage. A strange eerie feeling crept on her. It was like the first time she saw her, the same feeling that told her that the girl above her was different.
That she was destined for greatness.
Nagisa smiled brightly.
She couldn't explain what she was feeling, she just knew it was good. To think that- To think that it would be true. Her clan was truly mad. Her eyes traced the visible lines, breathing deeply to calm her racing heart.
"Mito is going to flip when I tell her." Even imagining her expression broadened her smile. Her eyes would sparkle, eyes round and mouth open, then when she fully understood what she told her, she would break in a frenzy, eyes taking a feverish hue.
It was incredible. Beyond anything Nagisa could imagine. She was floored.
When she caught the odd look Miru sent her, the younger girl smiled, beckoning her closer.
"You see the lines, the way it curved and joined others, well, it suspiciously looks like a kanji, 'water' - we should completely uncover the whole thing to be sure but..." She brushed her doubt with a hand, "What really matters is that kanji are used in sealing, you follow?"
Miru nodded.
"Add the fact that an unnatural current flowing toward the whirlpools is created, what do you get?" Miru's lips turned into a straight line. She failed to answer her. "You get the very likely theory that the whirlpools are artificials. They were created by fuinjutsu masters!"
"Yes, and?"
"What do you mean, 'and'? It's bloody marvelous. Fantastic! Do you realize the amount of time spent working on the seal, it must have taken years! Centuries! The absolute madmen! It's a work of art. Self-sufficient seals that created giant spirals of death."
Nagisa sighed dreamily. What a seal.
"Alright." The redhead frowned at the cautious answer. "But the lines of black sands should have been blown away with the tides. How are they still so-" Miru waved her hands.
"It's chakra. Chakra is keeping the seal together."
Still, to draw giant seals like that, the masters must have been something else. Maybe they were giants, it was the only rational explanation for the lines perfectly drawn. How many times did they have to redraw it? Did they draw poaches beforehand? Just how-
"Nagisa, look!" Miru pointed cheerfully her finger toward the deep dark blue further away, eager to stir the conversation toward a topic she was more familiar with, "You can see the trench from here. My father told me it's where the beast lay-" The words died in her throat.
Nagisa's blood ran cold and her heart jumped out of her ribcage and ran away.
Gigantic didn't quite cover the size of the sea serpent that soared from the trench. But seeing the beast with her own two eyes, Nagisa couldn't come up with a better term. The fright completely shut of her thesaurus mode.
Its infinite slithering body covered in green scales and its magenta's mane disappeared into the dark depth below once again, dragging with its massive jaws a whale.
Her mind was quiet, the shock having seized her most fundamental function. Miru was the first one to come back to her sense.
"Wha- What- ...?"
What did I just see?
Nagisa closed her mouth, staring vacantly at nothing.
"Did you… ?"
"Yes." Nagisa swallowed the panic rising in her throat. "I think- I think I just peed a little."
The remark that would have sent Miru giggling was only met with silence. Her friend swallowed loudly.
"I think I did too."
They remained rooted on-spot a few more minutes, trying desperately to shake the stupor off.
"I think we should head back."
"Miru," Nagisa nodded dumbly, "that's a fantastic idea."
"-we saw a serpent big like this," Miru opened wide her arms, it raised a few chuckles, " and it opened its jaws and - Bam! - it swallowed a whale whole. And then, it turned its massive head toward us. I thought we were down for it. Thankfully, we escaped."
Miru ended her tirade here, wet strands glued to her face and eyes opened. Her story raised quite a few brows and chuckles, mostly in disbelief. They knew her tendency of exaggerating things.
Nagisa was enjoying the nice breeze, watching the sailors knotting the ropes and moving the sails to catch the wind.
"You're going to make a wonderful storyteller." One sailor laughed. Miru crossed her arms, looking like an angry frog.
"It's true!" She exploded after another few remarks were made. "Nagisa, tell them."
Miru's eyes shined pitifully, imploring her to tell them because they would listen to her. Nagisa didn't have a reputation for making up stories and exaggerating after all.
The corners of her mouth wobbled, the temptation of disagreeing with her was incredibly sweet. But Nagisa ultimately nodded. "It's true, we saw a sea serpent from afar." She shuddered at the memory.
"What was the color of the mane?" The white-haired woman asked, sprawled near her with a hand dipping in the water. "Warm current at ten." They pulled the ropes.
Nagisa blinked. The color of the mane…?
"Magenta, I think."
"Oh! You've seen old Seri. He is impressive, isn't he?" The woman talked about the beast as if she was the proud mother of genius child. "But don't worry, he is old and quite meek. He is the smallest of them all."
The what? Smallest? ?
The word reverberated in her brain like an echo.
Uzushio really liked to remind her how small and weak she was.
"Hey, do you want to join me for Benten-hime?"
Miru's eyes gleamed like jewels for a second before she winced. "Sorry, the day after is my coming of age ceremony. I will get my companion!"
"It's alright," Nagisa answered warmly, inside though, she was groaning.
There goes my awesome idea of Mito and Miru becoming friends.
They trailed through the historic part of Uzushio. A group of children passed her, laughing and pushing each other. Faces usually covered in specks of dirt were cleaned and the hair, finely combed.
Nagisa smiled wrily.
It was weird though, sometimes she felt fondness watching children play, like an adult reminiscing of old times. Other times, she was annoyed and bitter. A bit jealous. It was almost like she was constantly shifting between old and young, never able to fit into one category.
On instinct, Nagisa dodged the arm coming her way, the owner of the limb, too engrossed in his story, didn't even realized he almost knocked someone out. Nagisa huffed a sigh.
Celebratory events in Uzushio were taken very seriously. The streets teemed with liveliness, the usually inky starry night was ablaze with lanterns, candles and big campfires projected difform shadows everywhere.
Tonight, the people of Uzushio were moving as one, breathing as one.
Tonight was Benten-hime's night.
They reached the river and took left. When the shroud of the high forest greeted its humble visitors, when an old but not forgotten statue rose splendidly from the ground, they stopped.
One could only see such dense vastness here, mazed with great oaks and pines as tall as hills, clusters of shrubbery and evergreen and wild daffodils. The soft glows of the torches set the surroundings ablaze, adding a soft gold to the vivid green and brown.
It was a mystic place, golden and red inks painted on old papers dangling from the branches, prayers for good fortune and the safe return of their sailors. The statue, two lovers with no distinctive feature entangled together, was covered in moss despite being scrubbed every two days.
An old legend wanted that two star-crossed lovers born from feuding clans met here until one of the lovers died following the attack of their clan. The remaining lover, out of his mind, went on a rampage, killing both his and his lover's clans, before he brought his lover's corpse back here and laid next to them, wailing. Shio-zuchi-sama took pity on the man, reminded of his own misfortune, and transformed the two lovers into stones for they would forever remain together.
It was quite morbid.
Nagisa stood near the statue, taking in her surrounding. She had promised Mito to meet here.
At first, when she had asked Mito, the girl had been torn. She seemed reluctant but her eyes shone brightly. Two desires collided within her but Nagisa was none the wiser of her plight. Finally, after enough mulling, she had agreed only if her father allowed it. Nagisa had found the colors she lost during the wait at that.
It took her two days before she came back toward her with an affirmative answer. Nagisa could have fainted with relief.
But still, where the hell are you Mito?
It was, Nagisa checked the sky, almost time and her cousin was nowhere to be seen. Did she ditch me? She shook her head. No, Mito s a nice girl, she wouldn't do that without a good excuse.
She shifted on her feet, growing impatient as seconds passed. She crossed her arms, fingers digging in her elbows. Maybe she should go searching her.
No, no, she shook her head again, a hand hovering over her hair, clearly tempted to be buried in her styled hair. Stay put, she is just late and she will- Ah, fuck it.
Nagisa turned on herself, searching for red. There was a lot of red, she was on Uzushio after all, and as today was an Uzumaki's feast, some people died their hair in red to pay tribute.
Alright, maybe not my best idea… Maybe I should- Uh?
Nagisa frowned, tilting her head and squinting. There was a girl waiting on the other side of the statue.
"Well, I'll be damned," Nagisa muttered. She slowly circled the two lovers, taking in the girl. A pretty green yukata and a mask pushed on her forehead. Mito's eyebrows were drawn in a faint expression of anxiety.
Nagisa laughed. She thought this kind of scenario only happened in books but they almost missed each other because they were waiting on different sides of the statue.
"Hey, little girl. Are you lost?"
Nagisa stopped in her stride. Her cousin hardly blinked - she sent the two men clothed in rags and stumbling around, drunk out of their minds, a contemptuous look. Though, Nagisa realized, it didn't come naturally as the expression was more stiff than contemptuous.
"I'm alright. I'm meeting someone." Nagisa heard her say, in a cool voice. The two fools did not take the hint.
"Of course, you're meeting someone. You met us!" His laugh was disturbing to hear, like acid grating on her eardrums. He watched the sky, elbowing his friend. The poison spread to her guts at his following words. "It's quite late, you must be hungry. Fancy eating a bit with your two nice friends?"
Nagisa felt nauseous. Did they- did they just- Mito had a chubby, young face. They couldn't not have realized that she was a child. So why…?
She felt like throwing up.
She knew those kinds of people existed but-
She never expected to see one on Uzushio.
"I said I'm meeting someone." Mito held her ground but the gleam of fear in her eyes was undeniable. "So move along."
The men laughed.
"Or what?"
Perhaps their confidence came from alcohol. They were in the middle of a crowd. Did they really expect to leave unscathed?
It came back to her like a tidal wave of realization - a realization should have preferred never having. She remembered back when she was Maria of a man collapsing in front of her, dead. He had been assassinated in the middle of a crowd.
Shivers ran down her arms.
"Or I will do something unpleasant to you," she informed them. Her hands were shaking, fingers tightly curled into fists.
Something akin to annoyance flashed in the man's eyes. His demeanor started to change. He took a step forward, hovering over her cousin. "Come on, don't be like that. We just want to help."
She needed to move, Nagisa realized, but her legs remained rooted on spot. What the hell. Mito is in danger. Why do I feel fear? She took one step through sheer willpower.
"I don't need your help." Mito did not falter, looking squarely in his eyes.
However, Nagisa faltered once more, unable to comprehend her cousin. Nagisa always believed that Mito was courageous. She was wrong. Mito was reckless.
Doesn't she feel fear?
His face turned ugly, mouth turning down in a grimace. He raised a hand, going for Mito. "Listen, you little-"
She wasn't the one to reach her cousin first. It was a woman, tall, sturdy and white-haired - is she the woman from a few days ago? - that caught his hand, holding painfully tight.
"Didn't you hear? She told you to shove off in a nice way." The heat of her words burned everyone around. The woman was furious. "So, shove off."
Her half-lidded eyes held a warning in them, tempting them to try pissing her off and she would show them pain.
The men gave Mito's savior a once-over, eyeing her bulging muscles and their own lack of strength before deciding that an altercation wasn't worth it. "Right, right. We would have left if she told us to."
The woman sneered, clutching his hand and twisting. The man howled in pain, a knee to the ground. His eyes were filled with unsheathed tears. "Don't approach any kid ever. Or else." Her voice deepened, her smile turning dangerous.
The men nodded fervently and the white-haired woman let them go. They ran, leaving behind a trail of dust.
Dusting her hands with a disgusted expression, as if she touched something particularly nasty, the woman turned toward Mito. "You okay-" Her eyes met Nagisa's eyes. "-tadpole!"
Nagisa blinked, startled. Tadpole?
"What are you doing here? I thought you would be with Miru."
So, it was indeed the Daiba woman. She took two steps toward them, Mito's eyes naturally fell on her.
"You are late," she told her, the tension slowly leaving her body. "So that I was going to leave."
No, you weren't. Nagisa kept this thought to herself, knowing that it would do her no good. She seemed to read her thoughts as she frowned and turned her face the other way.
"Sorry. Are you okay?"
"You know each other?" She spotted a glimpse of the woman's cheeky grin before she put back on the mask that was dangling from her neck.
"She is my cousin." Nagisa spied from the corner of her eyes Mito leaning toward them, the sparkle in her eyes that spoke to being intrigued. "Thank you for helping her."
"Yes," Mito nodded before bowing gracefully, "thank you for helping - even if everything was under control."
Nagisa squawked while a distorted - worse than usual - laugh reached her ears. Did Mito became more brazen under her care?
"Cheeky minx. So, you're the tadpole's cousin. Interesting. I will remember it." She tilted her head, watching something behind her shoulders. "Anyway, I'm off. Have fun. Go wild!"
The woman left, waving over her shoulder, leaving Mito with Nagisa.
"Who was it?" The younger girl, Mito, turned toward her, folding her hand into the sleeves of her yukata.
"Hmm, I don't know her name?" Mito raised a brow. "I mean, I met her a few days ago but I never caught her name."
Nagisa sheepishly shrugged, though, Mito didn't seem convinced.
"She gave you a nickname." She pointed out, still not ready to let that go. "You have to be close to give nickname."
Technically, it was true, if one looked at it through the posh and fancy lenses of Uzushio's nobility's glass. Though, nicknames could also be used as a way of belittling someone.
"Well-"
An explosion. Flashes of colors - red, blue and white - in the sky. Two big gasps.
"The dance!" Mito and Nagisa watched each other with bulging eyes.
They barely reached the on time, weaving through the crowd like shadows.
A shift in the air, a change in the rhythm of the tranquil song.
The dance began.
From the corner of her eyes, Nagisa spied Mito leaning forward eagerly, pushing locks out of her flushed face.
Colorful masks of gods and goddesses stormed to the middle of the ring, each dancer's position around the colossal campfire held carefully still.
The music died down.
Silence. The only noise heard was the sound of the streaming river and the heavy breathing of some.
Their costumes were all differents: a fitted bra wrapped around the breast, a fitted hip belt hanging loosely around wide sinfully tanned hips and a full-length skirt covering long and fit legs for some; the drawings of scales on powerful, shirtless torsos for others and the unexpected loosed yukata for the representations of the higher gods.
And yet, all had that one detail that reminded her of the sea.
A sway of hips, the start of a song.
She found herself wrapped within the melody, the tempo wild and thrumming through her veins, the notes grazing her skin like a sweet stroke; it enticed her to join the dance. That feverish energy that moved the dancers was growing inside her, warming her guts and spreading. It put her on the edge of a precipice she only wished to throw herself off with reckless abandon.
Her eyes were following their movements eagerly, a hitch that fully turned into a drumming pulsed in her hands.
With an amazed smile, Nagisa watched the crowd started to move. It was slow sways at first, then more upbeat moves until there was no choreography, just the need to move. The energy that gained her had also gained the others.
The dance, if she wasn't wrong, was supposed to enact the tale of Benten-Hime and Shio-Zuchi-sama. The birthing of the Uzumaki.
The drums' beats slowed, the flute ceased and two figures rose from the river. Exclamations fussed from all sides: screams and delightful cackles, cheers and loud proclamations of love.
It was madness and Nagisa absolutely adored it. Her grin threatened to tear her face apart but she couldn't care less. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the urge of simply… doing something.
The tempo picked up from slow and controlled to intense and wild.
The soft curve of a back greeted her eyes, the spine undulating and arching this way and that. The unknown woman tilted her head toward her, her pupils fully dilated and a wild smile turned into a smirk. She shook her shoulders, arching her back more and more until she was watching behind her.
She turned and spun before she addressed Nagisa another glance. It was quick but Nagisa was sure the woman saw her hands moving and her incapability of remaining still, and perhaps, if she looked deeply enough in her eyes, she could see the shackles Nagisa put on herself.
The woman gave her a pleased look, encouraging her to join them with a finger.
And Nagisa wanted to join, she really did, but she would be leaving Mito alone and she couldn't do that.
She closed her hands into fists and gritted her teeth.
A tap on her wrist made her relax her grip and she send a questioning glance toward Mito only to be surprised by the feverish glow of her eyes. Her friend's smile was growing wider and wider and she only had to tilt her head toward the crowd for Nagisa to nod.
Well, the wild beast that bit me infected you as well, uh?
She let Mito guided her deeper in the crowd.
"You looked particularly excited in the middle of the crowd. I think that the happiest I've seen you." Her teeth ripped the soft flesh of a peach apart with delight. The juice ran down the side of her face and Nagisa wiped it against her shoulder.
Mito smiled, raising a leg out of the water, admiring her wiggling toes before letting her foot splashed down in the river again. Sweat ran down her forehead and the back of her neck. She cackled when Nagisa flinched out of the way.
"Yes, I was." She paused and her eyes creased softly, "I am."
Nagisa hummed thoughtfully and after careful considerations, she sat down next to her once more.
"I'm glad then," And she really was.
They sat together for some time, gazing at the full moon and simply enjoying the afterglow of the dance.
"Thank you, Nagisa." Mito broke the silence. "It-... I thought I would never go to that feast ever again." A strange, bitter smile that didn't suit her face broke out, "It was the favorite day of my mother."
Nagisa held still, barely breathing. Should she say something? Should she wait for Mito to speak some more?
She settled for a soft humming, one conveying her willingness to listen but also to not force her to speak.
"My father is not who he used to be. Sometimes, it feels like he isn't even here. I- I fear that he will leave me to follow Mom." Her voice broke and it twisted Nagisa's heart. She held her hand to give her strength and support all the while blaming herself for being so terrible at comforting people.
"I like the liveliness of the party, it's noisy. Unlike at home. Mom used to- she used to always talk. There was almost no silence but now... "
She stopped talking, her face, lighted by the soft rays of the moon, twisted in a pained expression. It weighed on her.
Nagisa bit her lips, moaning internally about her lack of talent for comforting people before she sighed.
"It's going to be hard-" grief and everything following was hard to deal - " -but it's not impossible. It will be hard and painful but one day, it won't hurt as much as it used to. It's hard but it won't always be."
How she dearly wished someone told her that when she was going mad with sadness. Those words, a kind presence. A pillar of strength.
"So you need to keep moving forward and when you falter, when you crumble" Nagisa closed her eyes, conveying the feelings hidden inside her heart, "I will be there to pick you up."
Mito let a few sobs out, safely buried in the arms of her cousin.
...
To be continued?
Here we are the end of chapter 10. Hopefully, you like it!
I gave my everything for the description in this one!
Anyway, as always, thank you for helping me writing this chapter, your support, comments always fill me with will!
It's not betaread so there might be a lot of mistakes, ignore it.
Take care, write reviews if you want to share your opinion and wear masks please!
I'm off!
