Chapter 1: Mysterious Fathoms Below

Ever since the human race first appeared, there have been tales of fantastical creatures that proved a threat to human life. There were creatures that lived in the wild to eat them, like chimeras; there were creatures in the realms of the dead, like giant, three-headed dogs; there were creatures even hidden among society, like werewolves and vampires. Then, of course, there were the beautiful mermaids of oceans who sang to sailors so that they'd crash their ships into the rocks they sat on. Of course, all of these creatures are simply fantastical; there is no shred of evidence that they were nothing more than the imaginary creation of human fears…

Or is there?

True sailors might tell you differently. Many of them claim to have seen real life merpeople; some even say they caught one or met one…there was even, many, many years ago, a prince who saw and fell in love with a merman. This story was passed down through the line of the prince many years afterward, as to help explain the odd connection each of the heirs has had with the sea nearby their grand, white palace.

The story starts with a beautiful, cloudless day; the seas were calm, the wind was singing a friendly song and the seawaters reflected the radiant sun back to the sky. A ship was sailing through the ocean nearby the white royal palace, and some dolphins splashed around it, twirling and showing off before diving back into the ocean's depths.

A tall man with pointed brown hair and brown eyes and wearing a stuffy butler-like uniform was bent over the ship, obviously quite seasick.

"Are you alright, Tristan?" asked a girl with short brown hair and blue eyes and wearing an equally stuffy maid-like uniform.

Tristan finally lifted his head up to look at her, his face quite green.

"Oh yeah…I'm fine, Tea…" he attempted to sound reassuring, but his attempt didn't quite work since he bent over the ship again two seconds later.

Tea sighed, sweatdropping slightly. "Well, at least Yugi's enjoying himself…where is Yugi, anyway?"

Tristan came back up and wiped his sweaty brow. "Feh, who knows? We really need to get a leash for that boy…"

A youthful laugh rang out above them, and the two servants looked up to see a boy with spiky tricolor hair and wide violet eyes and wearing loose black pants and an oversized white shirt climbing down the rope ladder connected to the crow's nest.

"Yugi, you really shouldn't be hanging up around in the crow's nest," Tristan chastised. "Tea and I are supposed to be looking after you…what do you expect us to say to the king if he learns you broke your neck or something?"

Yugi laughed again. "Tristan, you worry too much; it's not like I was jumping from the crow's nest all the way down to the deck or something…and Gramps wouldn't get upset with you for something that was my fault."

Tristan snorted. "But you're the prince, Yugi."

"That's right," Tea agreed as Tristan bent over the edge of the ship for the third time. "You need to be careful."

"Aw c'mon, lass," laughed the captain, a young man with a foreign accent, messy brown hair and blue eyes named Valon. "You don't honestly think we'd let our dear prince get into any harm?"

"Yeah, we're not going to throw him overboard," concurred the first mate, a man with red hair and hazel-blue eyes named Amelda.

Tea looked reproachfully at the two smirking sailors. "You better not, or the king would throw you so far out to sea that you'd never see land again."

Valon and Amelda's smiles immediately left their faces.

"Crikey, lass," the Captain muttered. "You need to learn to lighten up."

"Even if the prince went overboard, I doubt he'd be in much danger," a heavily built sailor with blond hair and sideburns and sharp blue eyes named Raphael stated. "Seeing how good of a mood King Aknamkanon is today, I doubt he'd let him drown."

"King Aknamkanon?" inquired Yugi. "Who's he?"

Amelda, Valon and Raphael looked at Yugi as if he were crazy.

"King Aknamkanon of the Merpeople, of course!" Amelda answered. "I thought everyone knew about him…"

"Merpeople?" Tristan repeated scornfully. "There's no such thing."

"Yes, there is!" Valon insisted. "My pa saw one with his very own eyes!"

"Really?" Yugi asked interestedly.

"Aye," Valon assented. "He was a fisherman, see; he was checking his net for fish he could sell at the market the next day, when he found the most amazing thing! A man with hair as white as clouds, skin tanned like the sand on the beach and eyes the color of newly-grown lavender…but this man was no ordinary man…where a normal man would have two legs, this man had a red tail like a fish! His left fin had been badly cut when he got trapped in the net, see, so my pa unhooked his tail and tried to bandage his wound, but the merman squirmed away from him and jumped back into the water and out of sight! My pa never saw him since…but when he came home the next day, he found a pearl as big as me own eye on the dock near where he fished! That pearl was enough for me pa to buy his own ship…"

Valon looked around at his ship proudly. "…And I'd bet anything that it was the merman who placed the pearl there, to repay Pa for letting him go."

"Wow," Yugi breathed, his violet eyes shining. "That's so amazing!"

"It's a nice story," Tea stated seriously, "but you shouldn't encourage Yugi by making up that sort of stuff…he's way too imaginative as it is."

"I'm not making it up!" Valon said indignantly. "It's the honest-to-God truth!"

Tristan and Tea exchanged a doubtful look. Yugi, however, looked out to sea dreamily.

"I wish I could see a merman," he murmured to himself.

Meanwhile, in the waters underneath Valon's grand ship, there was a ruckus in the coral palace of King Aknamkanon. The High Priests that served as the Royal Court had just realized that the Crown Prince had disappeared again.

"Oh, what are we going to do?" moaned a merman with long brown hair and eyes and a purple tail named Mahaado. "If King Aknamkanon finds out…we're all going to be fried!"

"It's not our fault my cousin can't keep his fins in one place," a young brown-haired, blue-eyed and blue-tailed merman named Seto muttered.

"No, but we will be his Court in the future," pointed out Aknadin, a bearded merman with a silver tail who was Seto's father and Aknamkanon's brother.

A mermaid with black hair, blue eyes and an orange tail named Isis nodded. "And as such, we have to keep an eye on him."

Seto groaned, scratching the top of his head in frustration. "Forcrying out loud! I'm a High Priest, not a nanny!"

Two more mermen, one with dark hair, green eyes and a yellow tail and the other bald with blue eyes and a brown tail, opened the door to the conference hall and joined the group.

"Karim, Shada," greeted Aknadin. "Any sign of the prince?"

"None," Karim and Shada stated in regretful unison.

All six Priests sighed tiredly.

"Where the hell could that stupid prince be?" growled Seto.

Ironically enough, the prince was not that far away from the palace.

A young merman with star-like tricolor hair hanging down on his shoulder, sharp-lidded red eyes, tan skin and a black tail looked over the mast of a sunken ship, grinning excitedly as if it were his birthday.

"Atemu! Oi, Atemu, slow down!"

Atemu rolled his eyes and turned to see a blond merman with warm brown eyes and a green tail with a scar shaped like a sharp-lidded "J" on his right fin swimming toward him.

"Joey, hurry up!" Atemu said impatiently.

Joey caught up to him, panting a little. "Easy for you to say…you're the fastest swimmer in the entire ocean!"

"Who's got the longer fin out of the two of us?" Atemu joshed.

"Who's got less muscle and flesh to move around?" countered Joey.

"Touché."

Joey shrugged. "Anyway…why'd you want to meet here?"

Atemu swam over to the door to the brig of the ship and gestured to the seaweed that had grown around it so that it kept the door from being opened.

"I couldn't open it by myself," he explained, "but I could see something through the porthole…it looks like some sort of game."

Joey sighed, smirking slightly. "Should've known you needed my help for another one of your human-game escapades…oh well, let me see…"

He tugged up on the door as Atemu tore aside some of the seaweed, and at last, the door opened with a shriek.

"Yes!" Atemu whispered, swimming in to investigate the supposed game he'd seen through the porthole.

"What is it?" Joey asked, shoving some of the sea fungi that had grown around it aside.

"It looks like some sort of board," Atemu murmured, swimming around to observe it at different angles.

"And these?" inquired Joey, picking up one of the small knick-knacks that had fallen off the board onto the floor.

Atemu took it and squinted at it. "It looks like a game piece…oh, of course! See these black and white squares on the board? I bet these pieces have to move across it to get to the other side to win the game!"

"So I guess it's like that old joke, eh?" Joey teased, grinning. "'Why did the guppy cross the road? To get to the other side!'"

Atemu punched Joey in the arm, smiling. "Oh shut up…c'mon," he picked up the black and white board and started putting the pieces that littered the floor into a drawstring bag around his wrist, "Let's go find Ryou…he'll know what the rules to this game are!"

Ryou was a childhood friend of Joey and Atemu's who had always been very interested in humans; a few years ago, he had been exiled from the kingdom after he went up to the surface and made contact with a little girl, so now he hid in the outskirts of the area to continue his research on humans.

Joey and Atemu swam away from the shipwreck and headed away from the castle until they reached a group of underwater caves. After weaving in and out of them for a while they found the one with seaweed covering the entrance to serve as a door.

Atemu pushed the seaweed aside and called, "Ryou? Bakura? You home?"

"Well, well, well," laughed a deep voice. "Look who came to pay us a visit…the little prince."

A merman with lavender eyes, tan skin, a pearl barrette in his short white hair, a double "X" scar on his left cheek and a long slash-like scar down the left fin of his red tail swam out of a room to greet the two, smirking and crossing his arms.

"Hey, Bakura," Atemu greeted, looking serious instead of cheerful like he had with Joey. "Is Ryou here?"

"Of course Aibou is here," Bakura replied in an almost sneering way. "He's in the library."

"Aibou," or "partner," was a term used by merpeople for their mates, who could be picked out by a piece of jewelry or hairpiece identical to their partner's. Ryou had met Bakura when he'd first been exiled and the two became very close after discovering their shared interest in humans. Bakura, however, didn't always take the research quite as seriously as Ryou; he was more interested in observing than recording…that, and he loved to pick on Atemu, as he knew more about humans than the young merprince and Atemu was so curious about their games.

"Found a new game, little prince?" Bakura asked Atemu, gesturing to the black and white board in his hand and smirking broadly. "Maybe I can show you how to play…OW!"

Ryou, a merman with soft brown eyes, a turquoise tail and a barrette similar to Bakura's in his long white hair, had just appeared beside Bakura and had whacked him on the head.

"The last time you tried to show someone how to play a game, you made up new rules for Go Fish so that it was a cousin to Strip Poker," Ryou snapped.

Bakura rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Aw c'mon, Aibou, I only did it so that I could get closer to you…I meant no harm."

Ryou snorted, before smiling at Joey and Atemu. "It's good to see you two…I found a game a few days ago that you might be interested in, Atemu…"

"Really?" Atemu inquired, sounding eager. "Is it played on a board like this?"

He showed the board to Ryou, who shook his head.

"No, it's quite different from chess…I'll show you how to play that another time, but what I was just able to get is a real treasure…I still can't believe I have them all in one piece…"

Atemu, Joey and Bakura followed Ryou into the library; it was a large room in two halves, one with an underwater part where Ryou recorded his research and a cavern above water where Ryou kept the books and other items that would be soiled by water.

Atemu put the chessboard and pieces down as Ryou went up to the top half of the cavern, before returning again underwater and showing a set of cards in plastic sleeves to Atemu.

"A little boy left these on the beach the other day after playing a game with one of his friend and losing," Ryou explained. "Fortunately they were in these plastic sleeves when I found them, so I didn't have a problem bringing them with me underwater…I guess the person who gave these to the boy was worried he'd ruin or rip them. Anyway, these cards are from a game called Duel Monsters…"

"Drooling Monsters?" recurred Joey.

"Duel Monsters," Ryou corrected as Atemu looked over the drawings on the cards in awe. "You see, each monster card has an attack power, a defense power and sometimes a special effect. You have to fight your opponent with these monsters and helpful cards called magic and traps, until either you surrender or you wipe out your opponent's lifepoints."

"Duel Monsters…" Atemu murmured, before his face broke out into a smirk. "It sounds fun! I wish I had more cards…and someone to play with," he added with a slight sigh.

Bakura patted the top of Atemu's head as if he were a kitten. "Aw, poor little prince…you could always go ask your daddy if you can go play with a human!"

Ryou whacked Bakura over the head for suggesting such a thing, while Atemu's eyes widened in horror.

"Oh shit!" the prince shouted. "I have to get back to the palace…Dad's going to kill me if he sees I snuck out again!"

And without another word, Joey and Atemu swam as fast as their fins could take them back toward the palace.

"Your Highness, really, this is the fifth time this week!" Isis scolded Atemu as he rested his head on the conference table. "Do you find amusement in us having heart attacks when we find out you're gone?"

"I find amusement when I leave, Isis," Atemu muttered. "The palace is so boring!"

"You need to learn how to rule the kingdom," Aknadin told his nephew. "You'll have to tolerate some boredom to do so."

Seto nodded. "And the way our lessons are going with Shada, I'd say I'm learning a hell of a lot more than you."

Atemu glowered at Seto. "C'mon Seto, everyone knows you're a genius, and besides…isn't it more practical for me to learn about the kingdom by actually going out into it instead of just studying?"

"Like you really stay inside the palace walls?" Mahaado asked, smiling wryly.

Atemu blushed, and then he immediately acted confused. "What? Of course I-"

"Really, Atemu," said Karim. "We know very well that you're trying to learn more about humans…something you know the king would highly disapprove of. Your mother died because of human fishermen, or have you forgotten?"

Atemu crossed his arms. "No, but judging an entire race based on a few people is wrong. It would be like saying all merpeople are judgmental because Father is."

"Whether you like it or not, my prince, contact with humans is forbidden," Shada reminded him.

"I haven't had contact with humans!"

"But you've had contact with their things, and if you don't stop, you may become tempted to make contact with them later."

The other priests nodded. Atemu snorted, before swimming off in the direction of his room.

Joey waved at Atemu outside his window, and the prince grinned at him before opening the window and swimming out to meet him. Then the two swam off away from the palace.

Little did they know that a young merman with a blue tail had followed Atemu to his room and had seen him sneak out, before curiously swimming after them.