Cheza awoke early the next morning, shifting to her side she found Kurama was no longer in bed with her. Sitting up, Cheza began to stretch her limbs. Her
eyes suddenly widened remembering last night's events, her eyes darted to the circular window occupying her room. A lone clown fish was the only sign of life
outside her window. Sighing, Cheza made her way to the bathroom to make herself presentable before heading to the dining hall, the place she figured she
would find Kurama.
Exiting her room she made her way through a short narrow hallway and into a large room that contained an island bar and an entertainment system along
with multiple chairs. The room was reserved specifically for the gang and contained everyone's rooms within it as well, making the entire area isolated from any
outsiders. The room was beautiful, the entire ceiling was a gigantic glass window showing off the underwater world around them.
Cheza spotted Keiko first, who was dressed in a turquoise bikini with black polka dots. "Good morning Cheza! I was fixing to go up deck and tan, want to join
me?" "Hey! Why aren't you inviting me!?" Yusuke interjected while popping open a bottle of tequila. Keiko frowned, "Because you embarrass me when you are
drunk! and what are doing getting drunk at 9:00 in the morning anyways!?" Yusuke filled his shot glass and slammed the glass down after swallowing its
contents. "Jeese..relax Keiko, that's the reason we're here for.. to relax and have fun!" Yusuke shot back. "Um..actually I was going to head to the dining hall
to look for Kurama." Cheza remarked. "He's not in the dining hall, he said he was going to the library." Yusuke informed. "This ship has a library?" Cheza asked.
"I guess so, I didn't know there was one either. Leave it to Kurama to find a library on a ship this huge." Yusuke replied.
"I'd like to accompany you if you don't mind Cheza." Cheza turned spotting Yukina for the time, had she been sitting on the couch the whole time? "Sounds like
a plan..you don't by chance know how to get to it do you?" Yukina nodded, "Actually I do. I picked up a map in the dining hall, it shows where everything is and
how to get to it."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"WOW! Cheza exclaimed as she entered the cruise ship library. The room was gigantic and consisted of two levels. The ceiling to this room was a gigantic glass
window as well, revealing sharks, various fish, even whales on occasion swimming overhead. "Kurama must be in heaven right now." Cheza and Yukina turned
to see Yusuke grinning ear to ear. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's find Kurama!"
"That may be easier said than done" Cheza replied, after all this room was massive and consisted of row after row of books. Walking down the large wooden
staircase and towards the bookshelves, Hiei came into view. In his hands lay a brown tattered book with various starfish and seashells adorning the cover.
The pages were stained with age and contained tiny black letters. The left side of the page consisted of a women with long red hair and ruby red eyes to
match. She looked human..that is until you got to her lower half, a tail consisting of shiny purple-ish/green-ish colored scales. She would be considered quite
beautiful in the eyes of most men. Cheza's eyes studied the figure on the right side of the page, a creature with green algae like hair and red glowing eyes
stared at her from the pages depths. Her ears resembled fish like fins and her teeth were as sharp as daggers. Her face displayed more fish like qualities than
human ones. The creatures humanoid like fingers contained long sharp nails and between each finger lay webbing.
"Is that the same women?" Yukina asked curiously while examining each picture. "Yes, these creatures take on a more humanoid appearance when hunting."
Cheza turned to see Kurama now standing beside her. "They are vicious creatures that lure men to their deaths." Hiei commented. "They are known to play
some sort of melody in order to lure men to them, they become so entranced by their beauty they fall under the creatures spell and end up being devoured."
Kurama informed.
"And here I thought mermaids were friendly, I guess Aerial(little mermaid) is a special case." Yusuke wise-cracked. "So that creature that I saw was a mermaid
on the hunt for his next meal?" Cheza asked.
"I have looked up information about the waters this cruise ship sails on, in the past few years over 800 people have vanished from these waters. So, to
answer your question Cheza, yes I believe he was in the process of hunting for prey" "Why haven't we heard about this before?" Yusuke asked. "The media
has done quite a good job of hiding it from the public." came Kurama's reply. "So what's our next plan of action?" Yusuke asked. " Continue our research and
keep away from the water." Kurama replied. "That shouldn't be much of an issue, there's only 12 different pools around here..I don't see anyone taking a dip in
the shark filled ocean anytime soon." Yusuke remarked.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/evening/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\/\
Cheza popped another shrimp in her mouth before turning her attention to the waiter approaching them. The main course of lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams,
and Sushi had been served now desert was arriving. Hiei had decided to join everyone for dinner since Yukina asked him too. After dessert the gang decided to
retire to their rooms and watch a movie. Kurama and Kuwabara had to practically carry Yusuke back, he was drunk out of his mind. Almost to their room, Keiko
suddenly came to a halt. "Darn it! I forgot my purse!" Cheza eyed the boys, Yusuke was in no condition to go with her and Kurama and Kuwabara had their
hands full carrying him. "I'll go with you" Cheza stated. "I'll come too, we are safer in numbers." Yukina commented. "Please be careful" Kurama chimed in, his
eyes locking onto Cheza.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
It didn't take long for Keiko to locate her purse, surprisingly no one had stolen it. Walking back towards their rooms, Keiko came to a stop once again upon
descending the stairs to the lower deck. "Do you guys hear that?" A faint melody could be heard in the night air. Yukina looked around, "It's coming from over
there." The ice maiden pointed towards her left and over the railing, the three girls approached the railing and looked down into the water. A loud splash was
heard making the three girls jump. Their eyes landed back on the water, a man had jumped off the ship and was now screaming for his life. "We have to do
something!" Keiko exclaimed. Before anyone could react a pair of glowing red eyes appeared below the water's surface near the man, soon 6 sets of eyes
appeared. "Oh no! come on we have to hel" A hand on Keiko's shoulder caused her to stop midsentence, Hiei now stood beside her. "There is nothing we can
do for him, it's too late." The girls winced as the man's screams of agony filled the air. In a matter of seconds the screaming came to a halt and all that was left
of the man was a white blood stained hat floating in the water. One of the mermaids looked straight up at them and smiled, revealing a set of blood stained
teeth. Keiko screamed and took off running for their room, Yukina and Cheza followed suit.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The door to the main room suddenly busted opened causing Kuwabara to jump. Tears were streaming down Keiko face, Yukina and Cheza appeared to be in
shock. Hiei appeared in the doorway, Kurama approached Cheza, concern etched into his features. "What happened?" "There was a man…he..he jumped into
the water! Those..those monsters devoured him! It was awful!" Keiko exclaimed hysterically. Before Kurama had a chance to respond Kuwabara cut in,
"Uh..Kurama." Kuwabara pointed towards the glass ceiling. Everyone looked up to see the same mermaid who had smiled up at them staring at them. Once
again a creepy smile appeared on the creature's face and she pointed straight at Kuwabara while licking her lips. "What's it doing!? Its freaking me out!"
Kuwabara exclaimed. Suddenly she took off, disappearing from view. "Only two days left..two days and I'll be far away from water and creepy mermaids"
Kuwabara said to himself.
"Why are they targeting us for!? Keiko asked while holding onto Yukina. "I have a theory, I believe there is something much bigger lurking in these waters.
From what information I could gather in the library the number of disappearances in this area has nearly quadrupled in the last few years. I believe there may
have always been mermaids here, but they survived on some type of aquatic life form, occasionally dining on a human when the chance arose. Something has
invaded their territory and has taken their food supply, leaving them with nothing to survive on..nothing besides humans." Kurama commented. "Do you have
any idea what this "something" could be?" Kuwabara asked while staring up at the glass ceiling, shivering slightly. "When I was doing my research in the
library a name consistently kept popping up, a name of a creature I thought was no longer in existence…."
"The Isonade" Hiei cut in. " What's an Isonade?" Kuwabara asked curiously. "A gigantic shark like sea monster that will rip you to shreds in a heartbeat." Hiei
replied. "You..you don't think we'll run into it do you Kurama?" Kuwabara asked while staring back up at the glass ceiling. " There have not been any recent
sightings of the creature so I cannot say." "You'd think a creature that big would be hard to miss." Kuwabara commented. "So..what now?" Keiko asked while
still holding onto Yukina, eyes filled with fright as she to stared up at the glass ceiling. "We must keep watch over the humans aboard this ship, we cannot
allow any more innocent humans to fall victim to these blood thirsty mermaids."
End of Chapter