Hello everyone! It's Ritoru Kani! And I will be narrating for this story. I hope you enjoy it. It's a very old story of mine that I wrote so long ago, and I finally decided to re-write and re-vamp it! Please don't laugh, I really enjoyed writing this then and I hope that you'll enjoy it enough to want me to write more! Please, please! Give me any comments or suggestions that I can improve the story. I'm always open for more ideas and such because I'm still editing and re-writing everything. Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo! If I did, Ryo-Ohki would be real and would be eating from her carrot dish right now.
Giggles.
Giggles.
Bubbles floated by.
And more bubbles wafted up.
A tiny little mermaid surfaced through the water, her golden eyes widened and twinkled in the summer light. "Hooray! So this is the surface!" Ryoko shouted to herself in victory and laughed, "And they said I couldn't get up here! Well, I sure showed them!" She giggled again; slipping away from the palace guards is so much fun, and her newly-found secret made it so easy to travel from the deep.
Her whole life—her whole eight years, she wanted to visit the surface, and she finally made it. Ryoko shook her head and her hair took its spiky shape again. But she looked around and found that there was not much to look at. "What? No way, I can't have gone through all this trouble just to look at water…" She looked around and scanned the ocean. "Oh damn it! Oops!" Ryoko grinned and clamped her hands over mouth. "Oopsie, I said a bad word…but, there's no one around to yell at me…" her grin grew wider as she looked around again, "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! HA HA HA! And no one can tell me what to do!"
Ryoko looked up and stared at the sky. "Oooh…blue! Wow…I never knew sea foam could get up that high!" She jumped out of the water and fell back with a splash. "Hey! What gives?" She tried again and splashed back down. "Grr…oh well…" Ryoko looked around and saw a small little thing far in the distance. "Ooh? What's that?" She squinted her eyes and saw it was just a big hunk of wood from far away. "Oh! That must be a ship! That means there must be humans there!" Ryoko smiled and darted underwater. "Real humans! Not just ones in pictures! Oh boy!" She darted even faster and the hunk of wood grew larger.
Ryoko stuck her head above the waves again. She looked up the walls of the ship and eyed the stray ropes that hung over the deck. Ryoko heard childish laughter like her own, and a thump. A peculiar shaped piece of wood flew overboard and splashed right next to her. It floated. How peculiar. She poked it and looked to the deck where it had flung off from. "Ouch!" She heard the same childish voice shout, it sounded very much like a boy's, "Oh no! My sword! It went overboard…"
Ryoko picked it up and looked at it. It was very much a sword, a wooden sword. There was a lot of detail put into it, the wood was polished beautifully and even gold was laced on the handle. "Hey! What are you doing down there?" Ryoko looked up and saw a little boy looking down back at her, "Huh?" The little boy had big brown eyes and short spiky black hair with a long strand poking at the back. He was tan, he spent quite a lot of time in the sun. "What are you doing down in the water?"
"I live here!" She said, as-a-matter-of-factly.
"No you don't! Only mermaids can live in the water."
"I'm a mermaid!"
"Nuh uh!"
"Uh huh!"
"Nuh uh!"
"Uh huh!"
"Nuh uh!"
"Uh huh!"
"Oh yeah? Then where's your tail?"
"Right here!" Ryoko leaned back and sported her shining cyan fishtail.
"Oh…" the boy's mouth gaped, he didn't really know what to say, "Well…uh…can I have my sword back? Please Miss Mermaid?"
"Why don't you come down here and get it?" Ryoko grinned and waved around the wooden sword in her hand.
"But…Uh, I don't know how to swim…" The little boy looked back down at Ryoko's silly grin.
"Aw! Come on! Everyone knows how to swim! How can you not know how to swim?"
"I mean! I don't know how to swim because my family is really important and stuff and I don't have enough time to learn how!" He crossed his arms with a pout, hoping to impress her with his "royalty".
"Well, you know, you can start to learn now!" Ryoko giggled and splashed around in the water, she didn't really care how important he is, she was having fun.
"Erm…" He backed away a little to think. But as he stood forward to retort back at the little mermaid's comment, his foot lost balance on spilled water and he fell forward, "Whoa!" The little boy fell under the railing and plunged in the water.
As he sunk down, Ryoko giggled and looked at him as she dove down deeper, "Yay! Now you can play with me! See? You're swimming! I told you anyone can swim!"
But the boy didn't say anything back; he only scrambled for the surface and only bubbles escaped from his mouth. Ryoko stared at him peculiarly; she knew she was forgetting something, but what? The little boy slowly stopped flailing and just sunk down, his eyes softly fixed on Ryoko, drooping closed and no bubbles came from his mouth.
Ryoko remembered. Humans can't breathe underwater! He'd die if she didn't bring him up to the surface. She dove down and caught him, her little arms held him tightly and her tail strained to get her faster up. But oh! He was so heavy for a little girl like herself to carry! 'Are all humans this heavy?!' She thought to herself.
She looked up through the surface of the water. There were even more humans over the railing, and they looked worried. She couldn't be seen with the unconscious little boy, they would think she had hurt him. They might catch her and eat her! Ryoko turned sharply and made way to the opposite side of the ship where she found him. She saw the toy sword and grabbed that too, and stuck it in the boy's belt.
Finally, she reached the surface again; she was careful to hold the boy's head over the water and looked for more stray ropes. There! There they were! She pulled with one hand on the rope and pulled her and the boy up with her. He was even heavier out of the water! How could humans live like this? Being weighted down…
At last! She had reached the deck of the ship, her tail ached from the new use of supporting her on small wooden platforms and rope. Ryoko gently flopped the little boy back on deck and dove quickly in the water, leaving only a splash.
How exciting it was! She was already planning her next trip.
'But next time…' She resolved, 'I won't go talking to humans anymore…'
And she made her way back to her underwater kingdom with her giggles echoing on the ocean tide.
On deck, the whole ship was in panic over the loss of the young boy. Their eyes searched frantically on the surface of the water, even the sailor that dove in the water to look for him gave up and was pulled back on the ship. "Oh! My son! My Tenchi…" A woman buried her face on her husband's shoulder as he held her.
There was a wet thump and splash was heard, and they all looked over to see the little boy, soaked and out cold. The woman ran over and kneeled over him. "Tenchi! Oh Tenchi! Speak to me!" She shook him gently and the boy sputtered water, his eyes opened lazily. "Thank goodness you're alive!" She gave him a big squeeze and the whole crew heaved a sigh of relief.
"Mother? …Mother, a mermaid saved me…" he muttered quietly and looked down where is sword was stuck on his belt, "Thanks for giving back my sword…" he smiled and fell asleep in his mother's arms.
"Oh…you silly little boy…" His mother's eyes teared and held him in a tighter hug. His father kneeled down next to her and put his hand on the boy's head. "He's all right…Our boy's all right…" He smiled a shaky smile and sighed. Murmurs of relief and questions wafted through the crew.
"How did the young prince get back on deck?"
"Perhaps a mermaid really did save him…"