Chapter 20: Kōun; Good fortune
Tsubasa looked out into the vast ocean and took a deep breath, appreciating the stickiness of his skin from the saltwater and welcoming the cleanliness of the open sea air. As far as his eye could see, the sky seemed to meet with the water at the horizon, but that wasn't the only thing he was looking at. At the front of the ship, stood Misaki holding her hair behind her ear against the constant breeze. No matter how hard Tsubasa tried averting his eyes, they would somehow roam back to her.
Suddenly beside him, someone cleared his throat.
"UH-HUM"
Tsubasa felt his heart shoot to his throat and quickly shifted his gaze.
"You don't have to pretend like the wood on your ship's wheel is of your greatest interest." Natsume sneered.
"How long have you been standing there?" Tsubasa took even more interest in the pieces of wood that were flaking off his dear ship's wheel.
Natsume snorted, "Long enough to know you're interested in the princess' lady-in-waiting."
Tsubasa immediately retorted, "Don't pretend to be innocent. I saw the way you were looking at her." Placing extra emphasis on the last word.
Natsume shifted uncomfortably. He thought back on the journey; each time he looked at Mikan, something stirred within him. However, each time he thought of the possibilities to those feelings, he suppressed all of it. Every thought which lead to her, he avoided and locked it in a small box in his mind.
Being called out on the way he was looking at her… that very thought disturbed Natsume.
"Mikan!" Sumire's voice was heard from a distance and Natsume's head immediately whipped in that direction.
Mikan was walking straight towards the open part of the ship. She held on to the wooden barrier and lifted one foot, ready to take the next step into the dark waters. At this instant, Natsume ran as fast as his legs could move and before she took that perilous step, he grabbed her round the waist and pulled her down.
Sumire ran up to the duo, "Mikan! Snap out of it!"
Natsume immediately pulled Mikan off his body and grabbed her by her shoulders. Her eyes were glazed over and out of focused. Her lips moved on their own, repeating the same things again and again.
"I'm coming… please… wait…"
Gazing up at Sumire, Natsume shot off a series of questions, "how long has this been going on?! Why isn't anyone keeping an eye on her?!"
"She was asleep, so Imai-san and I took our eyes off her, and in the next moment she was gone. Then when we found her, you know the rest." Sumire explained exasperatedly.
"Lay off the blames Hyuuga." Hotaru appeared on board and injected a serum into Mikan's arm.
"What in the world is that?!" Natsume held Mikan protectively.
"It's a sleeping serum. She's been in this state for 2 whole hours and it's taking a toll on her. She needs to rest, and this is the only way. To be honest, I didn't expect the previous dose to wear off so quickly." Hotaru explained, ignoring the glares Natsume's crimson eyes were bearing down on her.
"It means we're close by." Tsubasa remarked, "tell everyone to meet in my quarters."
Sumire and Hotaru followed Tsubasa closely, leaving Natsume and Mikan on the cold wooden decks of the ship.
Picking up Mikan bridal style, he felt her slow, even, breathing and as he moved to carry her off decks, Hotaru's head appeared from the stairs.
"You can leave her on her bed. She won't wander around like the last time, at least for the next hour." With that, she disappeared again.
Letting out a sigh, he looked down at the sleeping princess and his stomach did a flip. Shaking his head to clear all thoughts, he cleared his throat and carried Mikan to her quarters, as a professional.
Ruka peered at the tattered map which was sitting in the middle of Tsubasa's study table.
"Is this nautical map even trustworthy Ando-senpai?" Hotaru narrowed her eyes suspiciously, while Ruka nodded.
Letting out a short 'pft', Tsubasa looked at everyone in the room.
"The map was handed down to me from my mentor and from his mentor…" seeing as how they were still not believing him, Tsubasa took out a compass. "Look, we're around this area at the moment."
"Around? You don't sound so sure of yourself senpai." Natsume attacked.
"Hold on will ya'll?" Putting one end of the compass at their current location, he pulled the other leg of the compass open. "Basing on Mikan-hime's reaction, we're in the vicinity of…" Tsubasa explained while drawing a rather small circle.
"Sirens?" Sumire voiced the word which was scrawled cursively in the circle Tsubasa had drawn.
Everyone looked up at Tsubasa, hoping for more explanations.
"They don't exist." Misaki commented, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Oh, they do, just that no one has lived to tell of their existence." Tsubasa replied confidently.
"And pray tell… why are you so confident?" Natsume questioned.
"Because my dear kouhai, this journey that you are on makes no sense at all. You have seen things which are not meant to exist, dealt with beings that were only found in stories. Is this really the time to be striking out ideas when your princess is in a delirious state?"
The silence cut through the room. No one dared say anything.
"So why is it then, that we are not affected?" Ruka quietly brought up the issue.
Placing a finger on his chin, Tsubasa tapped it while in thought. "Perhaps…"
"Perhaps it's her turn to receive the clues." Sumire voiced out.
"What do you mean?"
"Just like the terra element where I received clues, maybe Mikan is receiving clues to where to find the aqua element."
Ruka and Natsume nodded in agreement. As it stands now, there was nothing that they could have done to ease the situation.
Suddenly, thunder erupted in the vicinity and the static from the lightning shot through the room.
Tsubasa walked over to one of the windows overlooking the sea and let out a soft sigh.
"What is it?" Misaki asked with concern.
"It has begun. Prepare yourselves and whatever happens, don't listen to the songs." Tsubasa commented.
At this moment, Hotaru placed a light blue bag on the table.
"Everyone, please take one."
The group moved towards the bag and took out a small earpiece of different colours.
"I have inserted a tracker on it and also, it would serve as our mode of communication. Please keep it on you at all times."
"Where do you have the time to make all these inventions?" Ruka muttered in astonishment.
"There is always time, Nogi."
"Please hurry… we're running out of time."
"Who is?" Mikan asked to the emptiness.
"There is no time to explain. You are near."
"Where?"
"Please…"
"Wait! I cannot help you if I do not know what you are talking about!" Mikan ran around in the white plane shouting at a faceless voice.
"Come to me, one who is the key." The voice sang
"Please explain!"
"All will come to explain itself." And the voice faded away.
Mikan called out but all that returned was her own echo. Stopping to catch her breath, she looked up and saw the girl with the silver hair.
"Mistress…"
"Were you the one calling out to me?" Mikan questioned Kami's sword.
The girl shook her head.
"Then who was that? She's been calling out to me since I went near the ocean."
"You'll find out soon."
"Not you too!" Mikan grew in frustration.
"Your physical body… it's…"
"MIKAN!"
"Do you hear that?" Mikan asked Kami's sword.
"MIKKKAAANNNN!"
"Open your eyes mistress." With that the girl disappeared.
"MIKAN!"
Mikan felt her whole body being weighed down. The sounds of the waves crashed again and again, deafening all other sounds except her name. She felt so tired and cold, most of all, she did not want to open her eyes.
"MIKAN GODDAMIT! MOVE YOUR BODY!" Someone, a man, was shouting at her to move.
"Where am I?" Mikan thought to herself.
She felt her body bobbing up and down.
"Ah yes, I'm on a ship. My limbs feel too heavy to move…"
Mikan then felt her body slip off whatever was supporting her and she plunged into the depths of the ocean.
"It's so hard to breathe…"
Using all the effort she could muster, Mikan opened her eyes and surrounding her was pitch darkness. So much so, she questioned if her eyes were even open at that moment. Her lungs burned with such ferocity that the thought of her drowning quickly slapped her in the head.
"Air! I need air!"
Kicking her legs, she attempted to propel herself upwards but no matter how hard she kicked, she did not move forward. Looking down at what was preventing her from moving, she saw a pair of hands grabbing on to her legs.
Reaching up as far as she could, she tried to pull herself up to the surface, but the pair of hands kept pulling her back.
Her lungs screamed for air and she thrashed about frantically in the dark waters. She could hear the muffled sounds of shouting at the surface and her limbs, at this stage, felt like dead weights. No one knew she was here; no one could save her.
Once again, her whole body was overwhelmed by the feeling of tiredness and she gave up. Her vision blacked out slowly and she felt her body float into the unknown.
Natsume felt the boat lurch violently to the side and his gut feeling told him that this was going to be a rough ride. Just as the group exited from Tsubasa's quarters, he heard the dreaded sound.
There it was being carried by the wind, the sickly-sweet singing of the sirens. Their words were hard to make out, but the tune was so enchanting that one would just drop everything they were doing and move closer to the edge of the boat for a clearer hearing.
He felt his body move on his own but was stopped by the incessant beeping in his right ear. Halting in his place, he put his hand to his right ear.
"That friends, is the sensor detecting a change in your brainwaves. As soon as you become enchanted by their death songs, a loud beeping will continue to ring until the sensor detects that you've returned to consciouness." Hotaru's voice came in through the earpiece they were wearing. Looking around at where they were, the group secretly thanked Hotaru for her inventions.
Especially Tsubasa, for he was about to jump headfirst into the violent sea. Clearing his throat, he started shouting orders for his men to adjust the sails and take in the ropes as raindrops starting pelted down on them.
The raindrops were large and heavy, each causing a small stinging pain when it made contact with skin. Again, the boat lurched and Natsume grabbed on to the railing for support. Then he heard their song.
"Come to us… poor lonely soul…"
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The loud ringing snapped him out of his daydream and this time, he noted the chaos on deck. Everyone was running around, trying to control the ship which was being blown like a piece of paper in this weather.
"MIKAN!" Sumire's shrill voice cut through the air and at the same time, the boat lurched violently to the side.
Natsume's eyes followed the movement of crates falling overboard and with it, he saw Mikan thrown off deck.
"SHIT!" His brain screamed and he ran to the side.
"HYUUGA! DON'T DO IT!" Tsubasa shouted at him, but he didn't care. No one could stop him, not when the person he was supposed to be protecting just fell into the abyss of the ocean.
Diving headfirst, he tucked his body into a streamline figure and swam as fast as he could towards the princess.
"MIKAN!" He shouted, hauling her unresponsive body onto a floating plank.
"MIIKKKAANNN!" Natsume shouted even louder, tapping her on the face while feeling for her pulse. It was there, but the lack of response worried him.
Mikan scrunched up her eyebrows. Although the reaction caused Natsume to relax a little, she still did not open her eyes.
Then suddenly, he heard the siren's song and Mikan was dragged underwater.
"Come to us, rest your body. Come to us, you poor lonely soul. Rest your eyes, rest your tired self. Stay with us, forget your woes…"
BEEP BEEP BEEP
The burning sensation in his lungs allowed Natsume to make sense of his situation. His eyes immediately took in whatever they could when the lightning illuminated the surroundings in the brief moment, and he swam as hard as he could towards the surface.
"Damn the singing!" He scolded himself and kicked as hard as he could in the darkness.
The lightning flashed again and this time, his eyes caught on to the sight of Mikan struggling 10 meters away from him. Surfacing, he took a big gulp of air and dived back towards her. He could see her thrashing about, and the next flash of light revealed a siren dragging her down into the depths of the ocean.
Reaching out as far as he could, he attempted to grab on to her hand and dragged her to the surface, but the siren sensed that and pulled her down faster.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" His brain screamed at his physical slowness as Mikan once again disappeared from his sight.
He ignored his instincts for air and swam deeper and deeper.
At this moment, something silvery caught his attention and he felt someone hold on to his hand. With a light tug, he too was being dragged into the depths of darkness. However instead of feeling fear, he felt that this creature was going to bring him to where Mikan was.
"Come to us, rest your body. Come to us, you poor lonely soul. Rest your eyes, rest your tired self. Stay with us, forget your woes…"
Natsume heard the song again and as it faded off, he felt someone shove a pill into his mouth. Swallowing it, his eyes focused and he saw a girl with messy ice-blue hair in front of him.
"I'm sorry, but it's going to hurt for a while." She spoke to him and in that instant, he felt an immense stabbing chill between his legs. The sides of his neck started to itch terribly, and he scratched at it frantically. Twitching from side to side, his transformation was complete.
Feeling a little odd that he could no longer sense where his legs were, he looked down and in replace of that was a crimson tail.
"WHAT THE!" He shouted out loud and it suddenly occurred to him that he was able to breathe and speak underwater.
Looking around from the girl, he saw her in the distance where she beckoned for him urgently.
"Hurry! We have to get to her as well!" Pushing off with her tail, she disappeared with the current.
Not knowing how to use his new limb, Natsume concentrated on moving off and somehow, his tail gave a powerful sweep. Natsume got the hang of swimming with his tail and found himself surfing the current. Once he stopped concentrating on the need to swim, it suddenly dawned on Natsume that he could somehow see in the darkness of the ocean.
The ocean's depths were not as voided of light as he once thought they were. Little plants and organisms glowed in the dark, providing just enough light for them to see where they were going. Whenever he felt a little lost, the quick glimmer of the girl's ice blue hair caught these small amounts of light and he followed her.
Soon they reached a narrow opening and seeing her squeeze through it, he noted that they were at the bottom of the ocean. Gliding his body past the small gap, he stopped in mid-water to take in the sights.
There, standing in its full glory was a castle of made entirely of petrified coral. Its brilliant white was able to shine through due to the immense number of glowing plants. It was as if they weren't at the bottom of the ocean anymore, but near the surface. As Natsume swam closer and closer, the magnitude of the castle left him in awe. Looking around to find the ice-blue haired mermaid, he realised that she had disappeared amongst the crowd of other merpeople.
However, what caught attention was Mikan's motionless body being dragged through the doors of the castle, in the arms of an unknown merman. Unlike him, Mikan was still in her human form which worried him even more.
"How long has she gone without oxygen?"
Ignoring the curious gazes of the ocean's inhabitants, he flicked his tail and swam as fast as he could towards the doors. Thinking that he could squeeze through the closing doors, he was suddenly repelled by an electrical shock.
"LET ME IN!" Natsume cried out, only to be shocked by another bolt of electricity. Two electric eels swam dangerously close to him and he backed away from the castle doors.
"Please! You don't understand, you must let me through!" This time, guards appeared at the walls of the castle and aimed their arrows at him.
Putting his hands up in an attempt to get them to cooperate, he tried again, "please! Do what you want with me, but that girl who was brought through the gates, she cannot drown here!"
Natsume flicked his tail agitatedly and swam left and right.
Suddenly the guards lowered their weapons and stood to attention. Wondering what was going on, Natsume stopped swimming and looked to the gates which slowly opened.
"Stand down." The mermaid with the ice-blue hair swam out and motioned for everyone to stop being hostile. She glanced at Natsume and motioned for him to come closer to the gates.
"But…" One of the guards on the lower levels started to question her but she glared at him and he immediately returned to attention.
"Hurry, we've met some… complications." She beckoned Natsume to follow closely behind and once he entered into the vicinity; the gates closed with a loud bang.
Natsume observed that his companion's tail was exactly the same colour as her hair and somehow, whenever she was in the presence of others, they would stop and lower their heads. Unlike the warmth that he felt on the outside of the palace, the insides were colder. The interior seemed to lack life and every so often, he would pass a section of a room which looked like it was completely frozen.
"Who is she?"
Making a sharp turn, they entered into a large room and there, lying on a large ice table, was Mikan.
Natsume overtook his companion and swam up to her side. Grabbing her hand, his other hand immediately flew to her neck to check for a pulse. It was very faint and her lips were turning blue.
"Give her the pill that you gave to me!" Natsume shouted at the girl.
"We've tried, but her body functions are shutting down. She's not going to be able to swallow it." It was the man who carried Mikan through to the gates.
Lurching from Mikan, Natsume pressed the merman against the closet wall. "And why do you think that is?" Natsume hissed.
The ice-blue hair girl jumped at the abrupt movement and stood there quivering in fear.
"Back off!" The red headed man shouted and somehow, Natsume's body did as the man asked. Feeling strange that he was doing something that he did not want to, Natsume lurched again towards him, but his body stopped short of touching the man.
"Enough of this Reo… we're going to lose her at this rate." The girl meekly commented. "You should have given it to her the moment you found her."
"Yeah you bastard!" Natsume retorted while eyeing the red headed man's movements.
Taking out a small silver pill from his pouch, he waved it in front of Natsume. "I didn't because she was already unconscious when I found her."
Rationalising everything in his brain, Natsume grabbed the pill and popped it into his own mouth.
"May the Gods forgive me for touching their chosen one."
Finishing his prayer, Natsume pressed his lips on Mikan's and parted them with his. Then in one quick manoeuvre, he used his tongue to push the silver pill into hers. Backing away from her, Natsume silently prayed that she would swallow it.
Everyone watched Mikan's throat and just when they were about to lose hope, Mikan swallowed the pill.
"She'll be safe now." The ice-blue hair girl lightly touched Natsume's arm.
His crimson eyes fell onto her silver ones, "who are you? And why did you drag Mikan to the depths of the ocean?"
"Nobara-sama, what do I do with the rest?" The man named Reo bowed low and indicated to the new people in the room.
"Mikan-hime!" A high-pitched voice resounded through the small room and a flash of pink entered his line of vision.
Natsume turned his head and there he saw Tsubasa, Misaki and Yoichi, except instead of having legs, they too had a tail.
"Why, nice to see that you're fine, Hyuuga." Tsubasa remarked, swishing his new dark blue tail around. "It's quite an interesting feeling, having a tail instead of legs. Don't you agree Yoichi?"
The silver haired boy looked at him in surprise. Were they that close to be calling each other on a first name basis? Looking down at his own dull silver tail, he shrugged in reply.
"Is she going to be all right?" Misaki ignored the random comments Tsubasa was throwing out and turned her attention to Natsume and Nobara. "Who are you?" Seeing that this was the first time they were meeting the ice-blue haired lady.
Before she could give an answer, Mikan's body was shrouded in a bright light and as it disappeared, her legs were replaced by a bright orange. From the sides of her neck, gills formed, and her breathing was now more obvious.
The lady named Nobara spoke up, "she's a lucky one. A good sign to start."
"What do you mean?" Yoichi asked.
"Most people will not survive the descent into the depths of the ocean in their mere human forms, but she has been protected by an Alice stone. Sadly, it has served its purpose and that was how you came to find her, brother." Nobara looked Natsume in the eyes.
"What?" Natsume furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her.
"I mean, when you found her, her barrier Alice stone was exhausted, that was why she was turning blue. She lacked oxygen." Nobara misunderstood Natsume's question.
Shaking his head, Natsume clarified, "no… why did you call me brother?"
Nobara's gentle blue eyes looked directly into his crimson ones. "Do you not know me brother?"
"No… I don't." Natsume was getting a weird vibe and the rest of the people in the room concentrated on their conversation.
"It's me, Nobara. How could you not sense me? I'm…"
Natsume immediately saw a flashback of the past and his eyes glazed over.
"I'm the holder of the aqua stone. You, chosen one, have travelled great lengths and lived through many treacherous situations to come and find me." A lady with the exact ice-blue hair spoke to the small girl.
"Sakura, can you understand what she's saying?" Natsume looked to the small girl.
Sakura bowed low, "Your grace, thank you for honouring me with an audience with you. Though I have to admit, it was a little difficult guessing where you might be."
The lady waved away her guards and walked towards her, "even so, you managed to find us despite the difficulty. Come, I will give you what you seek because time is not your friend. Hurry, take this stone and travel on to meet the rest of my brothers."
Nobara looked at Natsume and seeing his glazed eyes, she understood immediately. When he came to, he immediately questioned her on the one detail that stood out the most.
"If you're the holder of the aqua stone, why are you now not human?" Natsume pointed out. "What happened in the time Sakura sort you out and now?"
"Time did its part, but mostly it's because humans could not accept the way of living practiced by the aqua clan. So they drove us further and further to the sea. By then my ancestors were so desperate that we decided to live in the ocean. We sea-folks were given a gift of breathing underwater. Over time, that gift became innate and living here was more comfortable than living on land." Nobara explained.
"So you were the one calling her? You sirens?" Misaki interjected.
"Yes and no. We are merpeople, not sirens. Do not mistake us for our blood-thirsty cousins who dragged your crew into the ocean to drown them. But thanks to them, we found her." Nobara indicated to Mikan's resting body.
"Then who did the calling?" Tsubasa asked.
"I merely borrowed my servant's Alice. He was gifted with an extraordinary gift. Most likely obtained from the union between a merman and a siren." Reo then bowed low as Nobara spoke of him.
"I understand that this may be rude of me, but who exactly are you ma'am?" Yoichi tilted his head.
Giving a quick nod of the head, the ice-blue hair girl introduced herself formally. "My name is Nobara Ibaragi and I am the current vessel for the aqua element."