So.
I finished this chapter much quicker than I expected.
I would've finished it last night if I wasn't too busy looking for Ryoko and Tsuruya's (from Haruhi Suzumiya) song files. Which I still haven't found -hint hint-
I don't own Mermaid Melody, or half the characters in this fic. Concrit makes me happy and Flames make me laugh
Enjoy Chapter 3 of 'Umi'
Hiya Suzumi!
I'm Sakura Hanabi, the North Pacific Princess! I'm sure you heard of me!
Anyway, Happy Birthday! And now that you're 13, you can join our Princess meetings!
The head of the meetings, Seira, is on land doing some investigation, so it might take a while for her to get back. Still, you should come over here and meet everyone else!
From
Sakura Hanabi
"YES!"
The chef dropped her spoon in her soup out of surprise when she heard Suzumi's cry of Joy. She fished around in the hot soup, trying to find the spoon and sighed.
"She's probably just got her invitation" the chef thought as her co-workers exchanged glances.
"Meru, Meru!" Suzumi called out as she swam as fast as she could through the palace. She rounded a corner and swam into the first door she saw. Her advisor was sitting on her bed, going through her collection of letters.
"Meru, I can go to the princess meetings now!" Suzumi squealed as she landed on Meru's bed, sending her letters flying everywhere. Meru smiled as the young girl laughed happily.
Shortly before Hanon disappeared, the Princess told Meru that she was the most trusted mermaid out of her entire kingdom and that if anything happened, that she should lead the country. Meru was honoured at the compliment, but never took it seriously until Hanon did disappear. For the few years that Suzumi wasn't alive for, Meru was in charge of the kingdom. When Suzumi was born, Meru was her caretaker, and now that she's old enough to run the kingdom on her own, she's her advisor.
"That's great!" Meru said, trying to hide the urge to yell at Suzumi to pick up all her letters that went flying.
"I know! And can you lend me a map? I'm not entirely sure how to get to the Orange kingdom…" Suzumi said, turning over on her stomach. Meru laughed at Suzumi's failure to seem adult-like, admitting that she had no idea how to get to the Indian Ocean.
"I have a map, but you won't need one, since Roselle is coming tomorrow to lead you" Meru said, gliding off the bed and picking up the letters. Suzumi's face brightened up.
"Roselle? She's actually coming?" Suzumi exclaimed "When?"
"Later this afternoon" Meru said, smiling at Suzumi's reaction "She'll be staying the night, and tomorrow you two will leave". Suzumi didn't even bother replying, since her swimming hastily to her bedroom was enough to give Meru an idea of what she was feeling.
Suzumi sat on her bed and looked at her bookshelf. She had many books from above the ocean stacked on the many shelves. It was good having such a large collection to show off, but it was very bad when there were so many good books to choose from. Suzumi sighed and closed her eyes and waved her finger around. When she opened her eyes, her finger was pointing towards her music book. She smiled and took it out. Her music book was actually a collection of 'Jpop' lyrics Hanon had put together when she was living on land. Sadly for Suzumi, she didn't know the tune of the songs, but she enjoyed making up her own, or managing to find someone who did know the tune.
"Nazonazo mitai ni chikyuugi wo tokiakashitara…" Suzumi sang, opening up to the page to one of her favourite songs "Watashi wa dokoka e wa ikenai"
"Brilliant!" a familiar voice called. Suzumi straightened up and looked to the window to the left of her bed.
"Will you ever change sides?" Suzumi asked the dark blue tailed mermaid sitting on her windowsill.
"I like the left side more than the right" the familiar mermaid replied simply "It doesn't have splinters". Suzumi set down her music book and hugged her best friend, Roselle.
"Happy Birthday Suzumu" Roselle laughed as she pushed Suzumi away. Suzumi groaned at the nickname Roselle gave her.
"Do you really think I'm that good? At singing I mean" Suzumi asked.
"Well, pretty much all mermaids are good singers, so I guess that's kinda granted that you're good" Roselle replied, getting off the windowsill and looking at Suzumi's lyric book. Suzumi sighed and braced herself for what was coming next.
"What are these songs anyway? Don't you have any mermaid songs?" Roselle asked, raising her eyebrow 'I mean, 'Sunny Sunny Fun? Can't you settle for a normal song like…Legend of Mermaid?'. Suzumi laughed and shook her head.
"They get old after a while" she replied, looking at her friend. Roselle just nodded and yawned.
"Well, I've been swimming all night, so mind if I go to bed now? It's only 7:00" Roselle said, untying her seashell bra and hopping in Suzumi's bed. Suzumi smiled at her friend's easy going ways.
"How many years has it been? 2 I think" Suzumi thought, looking at her best friend. Suzumi loved looking at the details of things. It always fascinated her, especially with people. She swam quietly over to where Roselle was and looked her.
When they first met nine years ago, Roselle's hair was wavy and longer than her tail. It always infuriated the girl that she wasn't allowed short hair. Every year however, she would cut a centimetre off. When she was 13, she decided to cut it all off and leave just a blob of hair on her head. People complained it was too similar to a boy's haircut, but she just laughed it off. Suzumi liked the change, since it suited Roselle's personality more than long hair. Like Roselle's successor, Noel, her hair was a pale shade of blue. Her eyes were a steely blue colour. She was in almost every physical way like Noel. She felt happy for her friend, but she was incredibly jealous. She would love to be thought of as a spitting image of Hanon.
Suzumi sighed and rubbed her eyes. She had been up since 5:00 that morning, so she figured it'd be reasonable enough to sleep at this hour too. She slipped off her singlet and hopped in bed with Roselle.
"Just like old times…" she thought happily.
"Say something Suzumu, your silence is disturbing" Roselle said, looking behind at her stunned friend "It's just the largest castle in the entire sea; there are bigger ones on land". Suzumi shook her head to break out of her trance and followed Roselle.
After a week of travelling and side tracks, the two made it to the largest castle under the ocean. The Orange Kingdom's Castle. Years ago, it was the Pink Kingdom's Castle, but ever since the Orange Princess was made the leader of all the Mermaid Kingdoms, the Orange castle was given renovations to make it more suitable for the Princess meetings.
"I know a way to get into the castle without making a commotion" Roselle said, grabbing Suzumi's hand.
"Commotion?" Suzumi asked. Roselle sighed.
"You know, like a big welcoming ceremony" Roselle said. Suzumi looked slightly disappointed, but she would rather meet the rest of the princesses than have a welcoming ceremony.
As the two were swimming, Roselle bent over and picked up an orange rock.
"Rub this over your tail; I'll get the wigs ready" Roselle commanded Suzumi as she fished through her bag. As Suzumi rubbed, her tail started turning orange. Suzumi dropped the rock in shock and looked at Roselle.
"It's temporary, don't worry" Roselle said, handing Suzumi a long orange wig. Suzumi put it on without saying anything, picked up the rock and handed it to Roselle. Roselle finished her 'transformation' and began swimming towards the castle. Nobody noticed the flaws in their disguise, like their seashell bras being Aqua and Deep Blue, and they reached the castle without any trouble.
"Okay, Suzumi, hand me your wig and I'll get rid of your orange tail" Roselle said.
"Roselle, you should really stop using that disguise" A voice came from behind them "It doesn't hurt that much to have our kingdom welcome you!". Roselle's shoulders slumped as she turned around.
"Hey Hiromu" she said, frowning at the older mermaid. Hiromu laughed.
"Good to see you Roselle" Hiromu laughed, and looked at Suzumi.
"You must be the Aqua princess! Welcome to the Indian Ocean" Hiromu said, taking Suzumi's hand and shook it "I'm Hiromu Tanake, Seira's advisor
"It's a pleasure!" Suzumi replied, her formal Princess side taking over. Hiromu smiled in return. As well as her Princess side, her detailed side took over.
Hiromu had dark, auburn hair. It had many bangs framing her face, and that was it. It reached no farther than the top of her neck. Her eyes were a dark reddish colour, but it was hard to tell by the small glasses taking up half of her eye height, not that her eyes were terribly big to begin with. She had a very un-feminine body; very little curves or bust. It was hard to notice though, since Hiromu used a dark orange, long sleeved shirt instead of a bra made out of seashells to cover her chest. Her tail was a darker orange than what Suzumi had seen from the rest of the Orange mermaids.
"So, I'll show Suzumi her room while you, Roselle, go to the meeting room" Hiromu said, making Suzumi break away from her thoughts. Roselle waved good bye to Suzumi as she swam to the centre of the castle. Suzumi waved back, and then turned to Hiromu and saw that the orange mermaid had already swum towards her room.
"So, how many Mermaid Princesses are here?" She asked, catching up to Hiromu.
"Hmm" Hiromu thought, still swimming "We have the Aqua Princess, you, the Deep Blue Princess, the Purple Princess, the Pink Princess and…that's it". Suzumi's eyes widened.
"Where are Mayumi and Seira?" Suzumi asked "Or the Yellow Princess?". Hiromu shrugged.
"Well, Mayumi is on land somewhere, Seira is looking for Mayumi and lord knows where the Yellow Princess is" Hiromu said. She stopped at a door, inserted the key and opened the door. Inside was a large circular room with furniture and six doors about two meters from each other. While the room had an orange theme, like the rest of the castle, the six doors were painted pink, aqua, green, deep blue, purple or yellow.
"Your room is obviously the Aqua one" Hiromu said, pointing to the left of the room "The other mermaids are in the meeting room, so when you're settled down just call and I'll lead you there" Hiromu finished, and glided out of the room.
Suzumi smiled at the door that Hiromu left from and swam to her room. She opened the door and looked around. The room was very strange. It was like what the ocean's name suggested, very Indian styled. The colour theme was light blue, but it was nothing like Suzumi's room back home. She sat down on the bed and sighed happily. Her muscles relaxed and the tension in her back was gone. It was the first time in a week that she had properly relaxed.
"I'll sleep for a bit…They can wait long enough…" Suzumi thought, drifting off to sleep.
No cliffhanger? Oh Mah Lawd!
I won't post my little ramblings here, but your OCs WILL appear next chapter.
Anyway, the next chapter will be out later. This is the longest chapter so far, so yeah. I'm all written out.