Hi everyone. First thing I wanted to say is HAPPY NEW YEAR! This chapter will be more explaining about background stories, so sorry if you wanted action. That will happen later in future chapters. Enjoy.


Chapter 32: Past Love

-Pearl Waters-

In the afternoon, after the girls returned from school, they immediately have a discussion in the dining room. Kaito, Masahiro, Nagisa, and Makoto joined in on the discussion. Akari and Julie are hoping to let the girls know more about the past so they can know what they have to do now.

"Do you want to explain or should I?" Julie asked Akari.

"I think I should tell it, you know, because I was the first born." Akari decided. She then turned the everyone else. "When the Earth was young, humans and mermaids once co-exist together. However, like the sea isn't always pleasant, so were the people on land. Those who lives closer to the ocean know of our kind, but not those who lived far away. Some caused an offense, capturing us for their selfish reasons. It was an act of betrayal to the Sea Goddess' trust, many of the ships would sink from the rough and angry seas. That's the reason why us mermaids no longer show yourselves to the humans and hid whenever we see you. If we have to venture into this world, we have to blend in. We were able to do so thanks to Aqua Regina's blessing. However, to prevent another selfish event to ever happen again, the two worlds would have to be separate. Now that we looked like humans and we have become secretive, mermaids became nothing then just an ordinary fairy tale passed down to children." she explained.

"Lucia onee-chan, you know that four years ago, on my eleventh birthday, I surfaced for the first time. I was on a quest with Taiyo to find the Legendary Flower Jewel of Restoration- to bring the two worlds together again." Julie explained.

"So if we find the jewel..." Rina trailed off.

"We can bring back what was lost, right?" Hanon finished with a question at the end.

"Right, but as you can see, I only found the jewel, but there are no flowers in it." Julie showed the girls the empty glass orb. "There are twenty-two flowers we have to find, two are represented by each Mermaid Princess similar to our pearls. When all of them are gathered, it will merged with the jewel to completely form the Flower Jewel of Restoration." Julie further explained.

"What do we do after it's complete?" Seira questioned.

"We have to put it in the hands of a statue of the Earth Goddess, Terra Elaina, and the statue of Aqua Regina. The Earth Goddess is the younger sister of the Sea Goddess. Aqua Regina controls the sea and her 'children' are the mermaids while Terra Elaina controls the earth and her 'children' are the humans." Julie answered.

"Remember when you went to the Kingdom of Reina, when you saw another shrine, but it wasn't for the mermaids or Aqua Regina?" Akari asked them. They nod their heads, except Makoto. "That statue was her."

"But the statues you have to find is in the ancient Kingdom of Kiseki, their birthplace and where they eventually became the rulers of the land and sea." Julie told them.

-Beach-

After the discussion was over, Julie went to the beach where she was sitting on a rock in her mermaid form. She stared at the sunset as she is going back though memory lane. Another thing that was on her mind is her wolf self. Back in the past, when her beloved sister, Snow White, killed her, she didn't know that it was an accident since she gives out a silver aura. If Rose Red wasn't cursed to be a werewolf, she would have been okay. What was bothering her is why has her curse awaken now, especially after all this time, this is the moment it picks to surface?

Julie shook at the thought and tried to remembered those happy times in her new life. What happened four years ago that she didn't tell Lucia or the others.

-Flashback (Four Years Ago)-

A month before she was to began her one week quest, eleven year old Julie was taken to the human world with Taiyo to know the place before going on her quest. In one night, she was out in the ocean when she saw a young human boy was drowning. Swimming as fast as she could, she save his life and took him to a rocky area of the beach.

"Hey, are you okay? Hang in there!" Julie told the boy. She was shaking him until he stirred from unconsciousness.

"Y-You saved me, mermaid." the boy weakly respond.

"Shh, don't speak right now. Everything will be alright." Julie assured the boy as he closed his eyes again. She sings a song to help soothe the boy.

Aishiatte tsutaeatte motto soba de kanjitai no
LOVE LETTER FROM MY HEART
LOVE LETTER FOR YOUR SMILE
Uchiaketai kono omoi wo

Dare no sei demo nai no ni nee itsuka kowaku natte
Iitai kimochi kuchibiru de kakurenbo na ONE-SIDED LOVE
Tomori hajimeru machiakari "Suki" to Mail ni shite
Pika pika no hikari ni nose kimi ni todoketai no ni

Aishiatte tsutaeatte motto soba de kanjitai no
LOVE LETTER FROM MY HEART
LOVE LETTER FOR YOUR SMILE
Uchiaketai kono omoi wo

The boy was the same age as the princess, having dark brown hair and when he had opened his eyes, it was a beautiful midnight blue color. Julie kept the boy company until it was morning. The boy woke up to find that he was alone.

"Mermaid? Where are you?" the boy asked. He was staring to panic, he wanted to know more about his mermaid.

"I'm right here." Julie spoke softly. The boy run to see the Red Princess laying closer to the water, her tail was splashed with water from the tides. "I'm glad to see that you're feeling better."

"Thank you..." the boy trailed off. "Um..."

"Julie." Julie told him.

"Eh?"

"My name is Julie Emiko." Julie introduce herself.

"Thank you, Julie. My name Satoru Kokai." Satoru told her.

They spent almost the whole morning getting to know each other, except Julie had to leave because humans were starting to come to the beach. Later in the afternoon...

Satoru was at home after he left the beach. It was such a coincidence that Julie saved him and he ended up on the beach that was close to where his house is. He had told the mermaid where he lived, but he wondered how will she know.

"Good afternoon, Satoru." a voice spoke.

Satoru turned to see it was Julie, except she looked different. Her eyes became a lighter shade of ruby-red and her red hair turned dark brown, but what was the major difference is her mermaid tail was replace with a pair of human legs. She was wearing a red dress that reached passed her knees.

"Julie, but how?" Satoru questioned.

"I guess you don't know much about fairy tales." Julie giggled playfully. "Satoru, can you show me places? Like what a store is or a playground? Taiyo had told me a lot about your world, but I never seen it for myself."

"Who's Taiyo?" Satoru asked.

"He's my selkie friend." Julie answered.

"Alright, where do you want to go first?" Satoru questioned.

"How about the playground?" she suggested.

"Okay, come on." he grabbed her hand.

Julie was surprised that he grabbed her hand as he takes her to the destination. Nevertheless, she was happy that he hold her hand as she runs with him.

-Places-

The two children played for hours on the playground, they got to know each other even more. Satoru learns that Julie is a forgotten Mermaid Princess while Julie learns that Satoru's parents are divorced. He is currently living with his mother. After the playground, Satoru showed Julie the many stores in town. Later, he took Julie to his house to introduce her to his mother.

"Mom, this is Julie, my friend." Satoru told his mother.

"Julie, this is my mother, Hana Kokai." Satoru introduce her to his mother.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kokai-san."

"My, what a polite little girl." Kokai-san was already fond of the princess.

After they chat for a little while, Julie noticed the time.

"Oh, my. I have to leave or my friend would be worried about me." Julie got up.

"Satoru can escort you. Satoru, come escort Julie-chan home." Kokai-san yelled.

"Okay." he responded.

When the two got outside...

"You have been walking barefooted this whole time?" Satoru just noticed the Julie isn't wearing any shoes.

"When I came here, Taiyo can only provided me with clothes. He couldn't find shoes for me, so I've been walking like this since the afternoon." Julie explained.

"Why didn't you tell me? You could have hurt yourself!" Satoru told her as he went in his house to get something.

He came back with a box and opened it. It was a pair of lovely shoes. The eleven year-old boy slip the shoes on Julie's feet. The moment he gave her the pair, she felt something that she never had before. She knew this feeling ever since she saved him last night.

"Thank you..." Julie could only manage to say.

After he took her to her friend Taiyo, unknowing to him, she kept those shoes as a memento. After a few more days, they have become more closer than ever. It was closed to Christmas and Julie wanted to know more about human holidays. The day before Christmas Eve, as they watched the twinkling stars, Satoru gave her a necklace that is shaped like a key. A pink heart with silver butterfly wings on golden chains. A white moonstone is at the center of the heart. She was happy of the gift she was given since she considered it an early Christmas present. She hasn't told him yet, but unfortunately, she had to leave on Christmas Day which means tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, when the clock strikes midnight, she has to leave to begin her quest.

On Christmas Eve, at night, Julie waited in the waters to see if Satoru would come. The morning didn't go too well. She saw Satoru with a girl and it appears to be a close friend of his. She gave him an offer: Once midnight struck, she'll have to leave to go on her quest. After that, she cannot return to the surface again. If he meet her at the beach, she'll tell something very special to him, but he doesn't make it in time and choose his close friend, then she will let him go. What she didn't tell him is that all she wants is for him to be happy, even if he can't be with her, knowing that he will be happy will be enough for her... Or so she thought.

She continued to wait anxiously to see if he would come. However, the clock tower struck midnight and she can hear the chime coming from the bell.

"He didn't came." Julie spoke sadly. She wanted to let go of this feeling inside her, she wanted to let go of the necklace he gave her, but she couldn't. Taiyo appeared besides her.

"It's time to go, Julie." he told her.

"Can we stay just a little while longer?" Julie asked hopefully.

"We can't stay any longer in this world, Princess." he was firm of his answer.

"Alright." she replied sadly. "You go ahead, I'll catch up."

Taiyo dived into the water as Julie turned sadly at the beach.

'I thought that I could have told you... How much you meant to me. In the end, what it just a mistake? Satoru... No, Prince Earl.' she thought.

She moved her lips to sing a different song.

Totsuzen no kotoba de SCENARIO mitai ni susundeku
Zureteyuku zureteyuku serifu dake ga
Kamiawazu sora wo mai PERIOD wo utsu
Hajimari mo owari mo onaji you ni
Iki mo dekinai kurai azayaka na SCENE
Afuredasu omoi ga munashiku saseru no
Dousureba ima wo norikoerareru

Honto wa sunao ni you're the only one
Kimi ni tsutaetakatta you're the only one
Itakutemo kurushikutemo dakedo good bye
Arigatou iwasete you you're the only one

Itsu no hi ka ima ga omoide ni natte
Egao de dareka no tonari ni itemo
Kimi no naka no watashi ga kiesattemo
Kono saki mo kitto zutto you're the only, only one

After she finished, she left behind one shoe in the sand before diving back into the water.

-Flashback Ends-

'I told Seira once, 'To don't make that same mistake like I did'. But was it right back when it was me and him?' Julie thought as she heard footsteps.

From her enhanced hearing and smell to detect scent, thanks to her werewolf abilities, she knew someone is behind her. However, it wasn't just an ordinary human. The scent of the flowers that she grew to love, all because of him. She turned with the look of shock in her eyes.

"It's been a while, Julie." the voice told her.

"Satoru."


I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The first song Julie sang was Love Letter and second one was Only One, both are songs by BoA. If you really like this story, Favorite, Follow, and Review. See you soon.