Well, I've changed the summary, a task I've wanted to do for a while.
No matter, this took a while to do. I kept getting writers block.
Also, I apologise if the increasing length of the chapters is getting annoying. I have alot to write...and the story isn't even halfway finished. If I was going by my plan at the beginning of this story, this thing would be at it's climax by now. Yay for my foreshadowing/slow pacing! (srsly, I've foreshadowed so many things in this story...)
Disclaimer: I don't own Mermaid Melody. I also don't have something witty to say along with this.
"Breakfast!" a small voice called from the stove as Suzumi walked in the Doumoto apartment. The people who were already in the room were all looking weary and muttered greetings to Suzumi. Suzumi pulled up a chair from the corner of the room and placed it next in between Hanon and Kojirou.
"Morning all!" Suzumi yawned as she stretched. The small window to her right showed that the sun had only just risen, and the town was still sleeping. Shizu carried the seven pancakes she cooked to the table, placed them infront of everyone, and squeezed herself into the seat between her father and Sakura.
"You outdid yourself, Shizu!" Suzumi sighed, getting agreements from everyone at the table; Hanon, Kaito, Kojirou, Noburu and Sakura. Shizu smiled and shrugged.
"It's your last day, so I had to" Shizu said, with a tone of disappointment in her voice. Suzumi smiled back, comforting Shizu.
"Hey! Don't be sad! I'll be back! Hiro-something will have to make sure of that!" Suzumi exclaimed, stuffing a piece of her pancake in her mouth.
"It's Hiromu" Hanon corrected. Several people had no idea what these girls were talking about.
"You know Hiromu?" Suzumi asked, swallowing her pancake. Hanon nodded.
"Yep! I only knew her for about a year before…" Hanon exclaimed, before quieting down. Suzumi didn't bother questioning her, as she finished up her food.
"So, Shizu" Kaito started, filling in the silence "Today's Tuesday…do you want to go to school?" he asked hopefully. Shizu shook her head, crossing her arms, showing her father that she wouldn't budge, no matter what.
"Shizu…" Kaito sighed in exasperation "You're not included in our hiding…you can go outside" Shizu still ignored him and tried to talk to Suzumi.
"Listen, Shizu, I went to school, and I was a surfing champion, and I had to balance…other things on top of that" Kaito said, making a last effort attempt to get Shizu out of the house and see her old friends.
"Oh yeah, and going to school did you so much good since you're living in this tiny dump, scared of everything with your wife having dumped you and your daughter being dead!"
"Shizuha! You're not missing out on your education, no matter what your mother said back then!" Kaito yelled, Shizu obviously having struck his weak spot. The room felt another wave of silent awkwardness, as Shizu's face said that her father had struck her own weak spot.
"Well, me and Sakura outta get goin'…" Suzumi remarked, walking out of the awkwardly silent room. Sakura followed in a hurry, sending a nervous, yet cheerful smile back to Noburu. And with that, the two mermaids were gone. For how long, no one knew.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck…" Hiromu cursed under her breath, rummaging through the kitchen cupboards of Kinoh's small, dark apartment.
"What are you looking for?" Kinoh asked nonchalantly, not looking up from her novel.
"My pearl, of course!" Hiromu almost yelled at her roommate. Kinoh rolled her eyes and walked over to Hiromu.
"First, remember where you last saw it" Kinoh said calmly, her hands on Hiromu's shoulders. Hiromu rolled her eyes this time, and put no effort into her thought.
"Obviously in this kitchen, as I wouldn't be looking for it" Hiromu remarked, trying to get out of Kinoh's grip.
"Now, where in kitchen?" Kinoh asked, obviously knowing where Hiromu's pearl was. Hiromu was silent for a second, and then a look of realisation came over the redhead's face as she hit her head with her palm.
"The fridge" she stated grumpily, walking over to Kinoh's light brown fridge from the 80's to get out her pearl. Sure enough, the dark orange pearl was sitting in the egg packet, wedged between four eggs. She scooped it up, and then began to walk out the door, alarming Kinoh.
"Wait! You're not going back to the ocean, are you?" Kinoh asked, running to the front door with her arm slightly outstretched. Hiromu turned her head back in Kinoh's direction and nodded slightly. Kinoh's arm went limp against her side again.
"Tomorrow's my 18th birthday, though!" the myrtle headed girl sighed.
"I know!" Hiromu called, waving her arm in a goodbye "I'll be back around then!" Kinoh leant on the door frame, watching Hiromu disappear down the stairs.
"Always moving…" Kinoh sighed, her cheek sliding down the rough frame.
"Aah! So it's your birthday tomorrow?" a friendly and familiar voice called out. Kinoh looked around, and saw her neighbour.
"Yeah, it is, Mica" Kinoh sighed, straightening up. The girl infront of her, whose brown hair was pulled into a French Braid, stepped closer and craned her neck to see out the window next to her to see Hiromu walking out of the town square.
"She's going again, isn't she?" Mica sighed, patting Kinoh's shoulder.
"Yeah, afraid so…" Kinoh said, feeling much better now that her friend had come just in time. Mica had lived in the apartment next to Kinoh for as long as both the girls could remember. They both found each other's company amazing, considering the similarities and differences the two had. Mica was cheery, friendly and colourful, while Kinoh preferred to be dark, reserved and cynical. But, both were shy, quiet and grew up in the same environment. They were often alone in their apartments, as Mica's brother was often off working in other countries, and Hiromu was always in the Indian Ocean. Neither of their caretakers liked the idea of either of them having friends, so they kept their friendship quiet. But since they were always alone, they were always around. Even when there were basketball games on that Kinoh had to announce, or when Mica had her shift on down at the local 7/11, they would follow each other.
"So, what do you want for your birthday?" Mica asked walking into Kinoh's apartment "You know I can get you a few things from the 7/11!" Mica continued, winking at Kinoh.
"Get me a way into Hiromu's mind, why don't you?" Kinoh sighed, flopping down on her sofa. Mica smiled bitterly, knowing that Kinoh would go into another of her angry trails of thought on Hiromu.
"I just don't get her!" Kinoh said, exasperated "She's so confusing! First of all, I've known her all of my life, but she's always been 20! Then, I can't even tell if she's my best friend, guardian or boss! She even hits on me sometimes, which confuses the hell out of me! I can't even tell if it's paedophilia, since I have no idea how old she actually is! She also tells me to act a bit more feminine, even if only a little bit more, while she goes and acts like a complete dyke herself! Then there's the fact that she doesn't give a crap about anything in my life, yet she's always so up in arms about her own job! And, mind you, her own job is something mind boggling in itself! She doesn't even belong with all the people she works with, yet she is so dedicated to them!" Mica, at that point, covered Kinoh's mouth with her own hand.
"Geez! I know you're frustrated, but it sounds like you hate her!" Mica exclaimed. Kinoh pouted and hunched over, crossing her arms.
"It's just…ever since I was old enough to take care of myself, which was six, her disappearances have become more frequent and the times when she actually cared about me has completely gone!" Kinoh muttered, making Mica no more concerned than before.
"Listen, there must be something wrong with her…I mean, haven't you heard the rumours?" Mica asked. Kinoh shook her head.
"Well, there are rumours about Hiromu, mainly about how her getting mixed up in two love triangles at the same time, and everyone else involved dieing, messing up her up emotionally and mentally…" Mica started, but was cut off by Kinoh.
"What?! Are you serious?!" Kinoh exclaimed "She never tells me anything! How does the rumour mill know more about her than I do?!"
"The rumour mill is older than you are" Mica laughed "Of course it'd know…this all happened when Hiromu was younger than both of us, it's probably something that she'd want to forget than bring up" Kinoh shrugged, muttering 'I guess'. After that the conversation was closed, as Mica had a glimpse at the time from her watch.
"Sorry! I need to go to work now!" Mica exclaimed, jumping up. As she ran out the door, she paused for a moment.
"Oh, and how is that girl?" she asked, making Kinoh confused "You know! The one you guys found dead last week?". Kinoh looked down bitterly.
"Not well at all" Kinoh sighed "She was dead from the minute we found her…we buried her just outside of town…I could take you to her grave later!" at this news, Mica looked disappointed.
"Yeah, that'd be nice" Mica smiled sadly, before rushing off to get to work, leaving Kinoh along in her small, dark apartment.
"Oh god, has the water always been this cold?!" Suzumi gasped having swum a couple of miles.
"Really now, you should've been accustomed to the water by now!" Sakura scolded "We're almost there! You can see Roselle again!". Suzumi stared at Sakura strangely.
"And Roselle is…who?" Suzumi asked, still shivering.
"Uh, no one…just your best friend!" Sakura exclaimed, amazed at Suzumi's continuing weird behaviour.
"Ooooh! That Roselle!" Suzumi laughed "It's been ages! Gosh, I wonder how she's going! I hope we can braid her hair like old times again!". Sakura stopped in her tracks and stared at Suzumi.
"Look, I have no idea what you're doing, but it's getting old!" Sakura yelled "You've changed everything about you! You even went to the trouble of changing your tail's colour! This joke isn't funny anymore!" Suzumi just stared.
"Fucking hell! Can't you just accept me for who I am?!" Suzumi yelled back "I'm not a poser, you goddamn motherfucker! I haven't changed anything either! Maybe you haven't got to know me well enough!"
"Suzumi, you do know Roselle's hair has been short for over a decade now? No long hair? And you saw her less than a fortnight ago" Sakura huffed, crossing her arms. Suzumi's angered expression drained away, leaving one that showed her very thought; shit, I messed up again.
"W-whatever" Suzumi yelled back after a minute of awkward silence "I don't give a shit about what you think of me! I'm just glad my time with you is over! No more Ms tightass and her fucking boyfriend to annoy me!" Suzumi swam ahead of Sakura, her face burning of embarrassment and anger.
In less than fifteen minutes, the girls arrived at the Orange Castle without any hassle. The castle seemed empty and lifeless, but there was a small sound of chatter from the meeting room. The girls quickly made their way to the source of the chatter, but were stopped by a sound of airy laughter from behind them.
"Welcome back girls!" Hiromu laughed, swimming up to them and patting their backs "Now, you two could either tell us about your time on land, or go rest!"
Conflicting answers of "We'll tell!" and "Nah, I wanna rest" were heard from the girls. Suzumi smirked when she heard Sakura's answer, and changed her's to "Actually, I'll tell. I really don't want Ms tightass to get angry at me for doing things my own way…"
Before Sakura could make her angry retort, Hiromu sniggered and swam between the two.
"Damn, don't rip each other apart…" Hiromu continued to snigger "Sakura, come with me to the meeting room…Suzumi, get lost and go sleep" Suzumi poked her tongue out at Sakura and dashed up the stairs to her right.
"Nice to see you're going to go help the cooks with tonight's dinner!" Hiromu called out as she led Sakura to the meeting room. Suzumi laughed in embarrassment, then swam overhead the other two mermaids, towards her bedroom.
As she got to the circular room between the mermaid's bedrooms, Suzumi wasn't surprised to see that no one was there. She dashed into the room that was obviously hers, and slumped on the nearest soft object there was; her bed.
"Fuuuck" she groaned, burying her head in her hands "Dammit, I hate this…princess thing" she continued to groan. She sat up and stared at herself in the full body mirror next to her.
"Ew" she remarked at the combination of a seashell bra and her flat-as-a-surfboard body "I miss those second hand t-shirts Kenta gave me…" she remarked, remembering her male human friend's second hand gifts that he'd always send for her birthday. She got up and filed through the drawers below her, turning up her nose at every frilly thing she found.
"Ah, this'll do!" she exclaimed dully, discovering a tatty, vivid blue shirt with a popped collar. She slipped it on after taking off her seashell bra. She smiled at her appearance in the mirror, and then slipped out of her cool aqua room and into the bright orange room.
"Hell, what do mermaids do again?" she asked the empty space around her. Getting too used to the modern technology of the human world was too overwhelming; and brainwashing.
"Heya!" a cheery voice exclaimed, coming from the purple doorway. Suzumi turned around to the voice, and saw a not-so-familiar mermaid, leaning against the door frame.
"I see you're back!" she continued to talk, holding a large pad of paper behind her back.
"I see you're…um, who?" Suzumi asked, taking a light interest in the purple mermaid infront her, preferring to stare at the door out of the room, wishing she could be gone through it.
"Ah, I remember now, we only talked for about…uh, two seconds! Yeah, anyway, I'm Yuki Tougen!" Yuki said happily, bowing slightly to the younger girl "Ignore everything Hiromu has said about 'Yukina', I like Yuki better"
"Yah-huh…" Suzumi said, bowing back. Yuki grinned and swam over to Suzumi.
"So, why aren't you in the meeting room?" Yuki asked, still holding the pad behind her back.
"Same goes for you, aren't you supposed to be hearing about our trip?" Suzumi asked, tired of the conversation already.
"Aren't you supposed to be telling us about your trip?" Yuki retorted. Suzumi shrugged.
"Ms Tigh- Sakura's got that covered" Suzumi assured. Yuki nodded, leaving the large room in silence.
"I drew something new today, you know!" Yuki exclaimed, pulling out her large pad. Suzumi raised her eyebrows, obviously not caring. Yuki flipped through her book and got halfway through until she stopped, staring at it proudly.
"And, this is what?..." Suzumi asked, just before Yuki could explain.
"It's my pearl, sitting on in the middle of a ring! Magnified quite a bit, though" Yuki stated, obviously proud of the work. Suzumi was impressed, too.
"Holy! That's awesome! The shading…gosh, that's good!" Suzumi gushed, gazing at the picture.
A room filled with insane laughter greeted Roselle, as she flung open the door to find her two best friends, cracking themselves up on the middle of the floor. Her eyes widened as she saw Suzumi. But when it registered that she was laughing with Yuki like she always does with the purple mermaid, she felt a pang of jealousy. It didn't last very long though, as she cleared her voice.
"Hiromu wants you guys downstairs now…she's gonna announce who's going up on land next" She said blankly, waiting for the two sniggering girls to pull themselves together.
"I'm so using that joke for my friend!" Suzumi laughed as the three swam downstairs. When they arrived at the meeting room, the rest of the Princesses stared at Suzumi, from just hearing Sakura's testimony on how much the girl changed in one week. Suzumi tried to hold herself back from giving them all the two fingered salute, but she couldn't help doing it for just one swift second.
"Okay, I'll be blunt…" Hiromu said, leaning against the table with one arm before everyone got seated "That operation was fucking stupid". Nobody said anything to that, as Hiromu went on.
"So, instead of sending two people up for one and a half weeks like planned, I'm just gonna send you all up at once. I, of course, will accompany you. You will not have to stick together like a bunch of flies to a spider's web. No, I'd prefer that you didn't…but I have one favour to ask" Hiromu finished, pausing for a second.
"This person's 18th birthday is tomorrow…she's like a child, a sister, a best friend and I honestly trust her and care for her more than anything this earth has to offer…please help me organise a party for her? This is incredibly important to me…and you all owe me in one way or another, so…" Hiromu asked, almost pleaded with the Princesses infront of her.
"Sure", "Okay", "Of course" and "Hell yeah!" came from the group of girls infront of her. Hiromu smiled in relief.
"Well, since it's only about 10:00am, we have plenty of time to get ready to go up to land! Remember…just don't get yourselves killed!" Hiromu finished as she let the girls go, hoping her last statement got across to the girls.
"Mica! Quit daydreaming and get back to work!" a sharp, commanding voice barked at the young brunette, who was just staring at a slow ceiling fan. She jolted awake and stared at the voice's owner. She sighed in relief; instead of her grumpy manager, who was bordering on his 33rd birthday, she saw her masculine friend, wearing an amused grin, much like Hiromu's trademark smile.
"Kinoh! It took you long enough!" Mica exclaimed, staring at the clock at the front of the store. It was long past the end of her shift.
"More like it took you long enough!" Kinoh sniggered, setting down a packet of Garlic Bread for Mica to scan "We're having pizza tonight" Kinoh said, showing Mica the boxes of Hawaiian and BBQ pizza.
"Ah, that's where the smell's from" Mica laughed, high-fifing Kinoh. The evening had shaded the small town in shadows and a thulium pink glow, which spread onto the 7/11's welcome mat and no further. The town was filled with people walking home from a day at work, and young school children playing or walking home, sometimes with their parents. As the two girls walked out of the 7/11, they noticed a young strawberry blonde-headed girl. She was bouncing a tennis ball nonchalantly, not noticing the small bustle of the town around her.
"Oh wow" Mica gasped, seeing something in the girl Kinoh didn't.
"What, Mica?" Kinoh asked, stopping to look at the girl "Just because her hair is blonde and not black"
"No, she looks familiar" Mica mused to herself "Like, you know how when you meet someone, you have this feeling like you've known them, but instead you've never remembered seeing them? It's like…I don't know, I feel I've seen her"
"Nope, never felt that" Kinoh said, noticing the girl turn around and look at them. The girl, looking distressed, called out "Piss off!" before running off. Mica yelled out an apology, but it was too late.
"Well, I know I've seen her…not because she's lived in this town like I have, just…I know I've seen her…but she was older, and she looked much happier than she did just then…but sometimes she looked much sadder…"
"Uh-huh, okay, you keep thinking that, Mica" Kinoh said, passing off Mica's musings as nonsense, and began to walk back to the apartments. Mica kept staring after that girl and only noticed that Kinoh was gone until her friend called out to her.
"You're so spaced out" Kinoh laughed, rustling Mica's hair. Mica nodded in agreement, still looking back at the girl.
'It's like…a past life' Michal Amagi mused, walking in silence with her friend 'and it's out to irk me'
So, uh, Aloi and Mookie, if you're even reading this fic anymore...sorry if I portrayed your characters wrong. And Mookie, I'm not trying to make out Sakura to be a 'tightass', that's just Suzumi's view on her, and lord knows what Suzumi can think about people xD. She's just a character who writes herself xD
Read and Review!