Chapter Two: Second Generation Mystery

Shinju and Hannon carefully carried Luchia's unconscious body into the master bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Shinju was still tightly hanging on to the pendant her mother had entrusted to her. Hannon saw the worried look on her face, and took Shinju's hands in her own.

She tried to force the worry out of her voice, and actually succeeded pretty well at doing that. "I told you not to worry; everything is going to be fine. I'll alert the other Mermaid Kingdoms of Gakuto's return. Here," she said in a comforting voice as she gently took the pendant from Shinju's hands. "You should wear it around your neck instead of crushing it in your hands!" She fastened it around Shinju's delicate neck. "There, you look almost like your mother with that pendant on. Only difference is your hair color…that you got from your father." She smiled in approval.

It was true. Though Shinju bore a striking resemblance to her mother Luchia, she had a much darker hair color that matched her father's instead of the pale-blond that her mother possessed.

"Alright, you promised, we are going to go look for your father. Okay?" added Hannon, grabbing on to Shinju's tiny hand. "Where did you last see him?"

Shinju hesitated. "Um…in the throne room, I think. When that big purple worm thing came crashing through the ceiling, Daddy pushed me out of the way screaming something along the lines of, "Find your mother! I will be okay!" and then he disappeared. The water turned murky, so I turned around and swam as fast as I could to find my mama."

"And that's when those shark ladies caught you."

Shinju looked down at the ground, apparently ashamed at her inability to protect herself. She was a mermaid princess for crying out loud, she should have had no problem escaping from those two or kicking their butts all by herself. Luchia had always told her to believe in herself, and that she could overcome any obstacle in her way if she followed her heart. But she knew that she would have never had the courage, even if she did have the power.

There was a loud crashing sound that suddenly echoed throughout the halls. Shinju was brought out of her self-pity almost immediately, and perked up to see where the noise had come from. Hannon had also been startled. They're not back again, are they?

Then all of their worries were lost. "Whoops! My bad!" called out a familiar voice. It was Coco, the yellow Mermaid Princess followed closely by Umi, her daughter, and all of the other Mermaid Princesses and their daughters. Even Hannon's daughter was there.

Hannon let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's only you guys. I thought it might be Gakuto again."

Coco froze mid-swim. "Gakuto?" Her face was filled with fear. "I thought we defeated him! I remember it like it was yesterday! He was trapped in the black abyss with Sara." Coco and Karen both began to tear up at this memory. Sara had been a very dear friend prior to her betrayal, and a fellow Mermaid Princess to boot. "Why would he be back?"

Ignoring all of this serious chatter, Shinju caught sight of the little yellow mermaid hiding behind Coco's back. "Umi!" she called out with glee.

Umi turned her head and looked at Shinju with her sad, yet happy smile. It was odd how Umi's smile could have that kind of effect on you. She waved her hand at Shinju, acknowledging that she had actually said something, and then she continued to cling to her mother. She was nothing like Coco. In fact, she was the exact opposite. While Coco was usually outgoing and a natural-born leader, Umi was shy, clingy, and desperately wanted to get away from all of the attention she naturally got from being a princess. Yet she was Shinju's friend nonetheless.

Hannon, Coco, and the other Mermaids resumed their conversation about how it could or couldn't be possible that Gakuto had returned while Shinju swam over to Umi and the other descendants. "Hey," she whispered. "How have you been? I haven't seen you guys in like weeks!"

Umi just smiled and nodded, and the other mermaids swam in closer.

"So do you have any idea why we were all called here Shinju?" asked Hitode, Karen's daughter.

"This weird guy named Gakuto broke into the palace on this big ugly worm-thing and two creepy shark women and tried to kidnap me! But then Hannon-san came and rescued me."

"Mom's so cool!" exclaimed Mizu, Hannon's daughter. "But how does this have anything to do with us?"

"I don't really know," replied Shinju.

"Oh, well…" said Mizu.

Shinju paused, and took a look around the throne room. It was an absolute disaster from when Gakuto had come. "How come your mom decided to drop by in the first place?"

"We were in the neighborhood. Mom also saw the black storm, and decided to come here to investigate. She told me to stay with Umi and her mom."

Then Umi spoke. "But my mom gave me her pearl pendant and told me to use it in case there were monsters," added Umi. She held up the pendant that was dangling around her neck. It was identical to Shinju's except for the fact that it was yellow instead of pink.

"Your mom gave you her pendant too?" Shinju asked, clearly puzzled.

"That's not fair! My mom still has hers!" exclaimed Mizu.

"Me to!" added Hitode.

"Well, that sure is a weird coincidence," said Shinju.

"Yeah, it's weird. I wonder why she can't just use it herself. I mean, she's older than me and wiser than me, and can probably use it a lot better than I can. Right?" said Umi.

Shinju hadn't thought about it that way before. What exactly was going on? Why couldn't either Umi's mother or her own mother use the power of their pearls? And if they couldn't, wouldn't that mean…? "Hannon!" she announced.

Coco, Hannon and the others stopped their conversation mid-sentence. "You can't use your pearl powers anymore, can you?" asked Shinju with a commanding tone.

Hannon looked at her fearfully.

"Does that mean I got rid of the baddies by myself?" she added.

Hannon expressed a look of relief when she saw Shinju's face light up at the thought that she really did have the power to protect herself and others around her. "Yes, Shinju, you got rid of them all by yourself. All I did was boost your confidence." Hannon smiled and winked at Shinju.

Shinju smiled widely, but her happiness was quickly wiped away when she came to the realization that she could no longer receive help from her beloved mother. Her face suddenly became solemn, and then filled with an underlying resolve. She took hold of one of Umi's hands and nodded towards her, receiving a nod in return as if they could read one another's minds.

"Let's go find my dad," and she didn't say another word as she swam off into the distance with Umi by her side and the others following close behind her.