Kiki's crew is a force to be reckoned with, a force that few dare to cross. They say a woman on a pirate's ship would inevitably lead to its sinking, but Kiki has shown time and time again, that rather than her boat sinking, it's a sign that other boats that challenge it will end up sinking.
So, she manages her crew with a terrifying level of accuracy, with no detail left undiscovered. Her crew is quick to follow her orders and trusts her to get them through all of this, no matter where that leaves them, because there is no mess that Kiki can't solve.
And yet it's practically the dead of night, her men are asleep, when the sea sets their boat rocking dangerously across the waves, and when lightning illuminates the night for only a few moments here or there. It's bright flashes and the loud crackle of thunder remind her that the sea is a monstrous beast sometimes, and a pirate chooses to contend with it.
And beneath the cracking waves, that nearly send her boat down to the very depths of the ocean, there's a glimpse of green and a tail, like a sea monster coming out to play. And she remembers those old siren tales, that always were enough to turn her attention away from, enough to rise up a feeling of disbelief within her.
She avoided the tales and avoided getting caught in them. Somehow she feels that if she were to give in and believe, it would make a mockery of her ship and her crew, and she refuses that. Beyond all of that, it had never seemed plausible to her. Men that tasted death and survived, sometimes hallucinated when they did so anyway.
WIth the salt of the sea in their mouths and the storm drowning out all noise other than its own, of course a few men would mistake a fish for a mermaid or mistake the swirling wind for a siren's song.
And then, as the ship rocks, she catches a better glimpse of the tail from before, and the scales that move freely across skin like little tattoos. And she glimpses not a mermaid and certainly not a siren, if the lack of a song wasn't evidence enough, but she sees scales crawl up from a man's waist and over even parts of his arms. They don't hide his striking skin that isn't really tan, but isn't moonlight pale either, a color in between, a mix of the two almost.
And there are brown eyes that at the moment don't even look at her with compassion. It is like she is an ant crossing the sea and not a woman, not a person, not human. Kiki's eyes narrow, as she focuses on this creature that had never entered the mix of the tales before.
Perhaps mermen only came out to terrorize the women that flocked to the sea, as few as they are. Kiki refuses to let her ship fall prey to a creature that won't even acknowledge her own power and ability. She spins the wheel, and pushes against the wind with the best of her ability.
And as they steer away, edging and creeping closer towards where they came from, the ship rocks dangerously from a blow that was more solid than the wind, and she peers down, to see that the merman as curled himself around the boat, intent on sinking it clearly.
"Leave us alone, mermaid." Kiki isn't sure what the correct term for the male version is, but she doesn't care to throw out any accurate words regardless.
"I'm not a mermaid." He practically snarls, a hint of anger creeping ever steadily into his voice, and Kiki wonders if he'll sink the ship in a burst of rage, though he seems a little more in control of himself than that.
"I wouldn't know." And Kiki for a moment steers the ship out of his grasp, and when she ees him draw nearer to seize it again, she catches sight of just how massive his tail is. He isn't just strong enough to sink a ship, but fairly large enough to do so as well.
"You should." He answers, and holds the ship back from its escape route, and Kiki wonders if there's perhaps a better way to take care of this. So, she steps away from the steering wheel, trusting that her men will catch it when they wake up and set it right.
And she grabs her sword, ever ready at her hip, and begins the process to climb down into the sea. Even though holding a sword fight against a merman in the ocean sounds like an impossible feat. Kiki is stubborn and determined, and she's pretty positive that she'll find a way.
Even if he holds the physical strength and the benefit of being made for the sea, though she does hold the only weapon out of the two of them, as far as she is aware of however.
And when she's just shy of the water, she whips out the sword and hits the merman in the shoulder, who for his part does wince and back up just a little, though without letting go of her ship.
He flings his tail up just enough to drop her the rest of the way into the water, but her grip on her blade is sturdy and steady enough that she doesn't lose it in the fall. And she brings her sword back up again, to contend with water while literally fighting with a merman in the sea.
And he catches her blade, perhaps on some instinct, as she swings it towards him, wincing when the blade cuts through his hand and leaves his own blood dripping between them. And yet she brings it around again, just for him to get smart and use his opposite hand to pull it by its handle out of her own hand.
"Please stop." And he unwinds himself from her ship, tail let go, body not trying to hold on to her ship anywhere.
"Why? You already want to sink my ship." Kiki informs him, with steely blue eyes.
"Right now, I'll let it go." He sighs, giving up clearly, "I'd rather you stop hitting me with this." He held up her sword with careful ease, and Kiki marvels that he doesn't even know the word for a sword, how few pirates must have discovered him and went after him before now.
"You deserved it for putting my men and my life in danger." Kiki told him, refusing to even begin to apologize for diving into the sea to fight him.
"Are you their leader?" He asks, just now probably considering the fact that she deos more than just steer the ship.
"Yes, I am their captain." It's a rank that she wouldn't ever deny; a female captain is a rarity, and Kiki sees no reason to discredit her own achievement.
"I see." He stares at her, looking like there are a million turns of phrase running through his head, perhaps pleas, perhaps compromises. But he doesn't voice any of them regardless.
"Can I have my sword back and return to my men?" She asks, through gritted teeth, still determined to get the better of this whole situation, but she's never really been trained to fight while swimming in the sea. It seems like an impossible task when he's the one holding her only weapon now and seemingly has the strength to singlehandedly sink ships.
"No." He gives her a look that questions why he'd ever allow that, "I don't trust you."
"I don't trust you either." She tells him and reaches for her sword, to which he just moves it out of her reach. He's much taller than her, a fact that she hadn't considered from the top of her boat, but now is painfully clear.
"You could leave them; they'll be fine." Out of this whole exchange, this is the part that feels the most kind and somehow the most genuine.
"They are my crew." Kiki tells him as if he somehow did not know this, "I should not just abandon them."
He sighs, "But if you do, I'll spare them, and tell the others too."
"Others?" Kiki asks, hoping that maybe she can swim just a tad closer without disturbing the sea in noticeable ways to grab her sword from his hand before he notices.
"There are others." He tells her, looking so disappointed that she didn't know that fact by sheer intuition. "I'm a merman, and there are other mermen and mermaids too, since that's the only term you know."
He sounded upset with her, done with her, and she wondered how they even came to a conversation about any of this at all. They aren't fighting to kill each other, which is odd enough with a sea creature that seemed intent on sinking her whole ship and not saving a single member of her crew, preferring to do so while most are asleep.
"Okay." Kiki sighed, "Why would you let me live and spare my crew if I refuse my sword and don't go back to them?" It's a decent enough question.
"Because you could help us out?" He offers, looking a little at a loss for words, "I'm not sure if you'll be super helpful, but down here, it doesn't seem right to kill you."
"You've never killed directly before?" Kiki spoke up, "Only indirectly?"
"No..." He answered, but it was complete avoidance, and she felt a hint of compassion for this merman despite herself, though it didn't excuse the fact that he likely killed indiscriminately all pirates.
"So, you really don't want to kill me, Mr. Merman?" She asked, despite herself, and his face turned a surprising shade of red.
"I'm Mitsuhide." He sighed, giving up, "And please don't call me Mr. Merman."
And Kiki smiled, and somehow this ended her days as a pirate captain and began her days as the friend of a merman, though she isn't sure how or even why her heart softened up, just that it did, and truly a rather unexpected friendship formed that day.