Morg: Heyo! Back again for another awesome chapter!

Ikuto: What makes you think this will be awesome?

Amu: What makes you think we want another chapter?

Morg: What makes either of you think I care what you want?

Ikuto: Fair enough.

Amu: We don't own you, you don't own us.

Morg: Exactly. Back off!

~At the Water's Edge~

The ship was cramped. Putting it lightly, the merpeople sharing the space found it to be hell. The royals, or at least Utau, were making it work. The cramped conditions meant that the proprieties that the royals were used to had to be thrown out the door. Tadase didn't seem to like it, but Utau was clearly putting on a brave face in order to impress the captain. Her actions made Amu laugh, though she never did so out loud. Ikuto avoided her. It was clear to everyone, and yet the princess persisted.

Watching everyone else and trying to focus on other things was really just a distraction for the pinkette. The further north they sailed to more restless Amu became. She was jittery and nervous. Every sound made her jump or startle. Anxiousness was rushing through her veins. The worst part was, Amu had no idea why.

Ikuto, not because he was a creeper and was always staring at Amu, noticed the mermaid's actions. Something was definitely off with her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Sighing, Ikuto leaned against the railing so that he was looking away from Amu. "Please don't lie to me. I can see that you aren't."

Amu let out her own sigh as she watched the waves of the ocean. The air was growing colder, but she wanted to be out of the cabin of the yacht. Being around the others was only distracting for so long. There were times when she felt like she needed to be alone to get herself back under control. That's what worried her so much. She'd never felt out of control before. "If you knew the answer then why did you ask?"

Glancing at the girl out of the corner of his eyes, Ikuto gave a soft shrug of his shoulders. "So you'd know that I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it. I've seen you whispering with Rima and Nagi, you know. They're also worried about you."

Amu wasn't surprised that Ikuto had noticed their behavior. On a ship the size of the one that they were on, there wasn't room for secrets. "To tell you the truth, I don't know what's wrong."

A splash sounded from the other side of the ship. It was clear that it was just a rough wave but the sound still had Amu ducking her head a bit. It was a reaction that Ikuto had never seen from the pinkette before. It was almost as if she was afraid. "If you don't know the problem then tell me how it's affecting you. How are you feeling?"

The question had Amu sitting in silence for a few minutes. She hadn't considered thinking about what she was feeling. She had more just been worrying about why she was feeling the way she did. It was sort of hard for her to put into words. "I feel… I feel as though I'm out of control. I feel as though the elements of the earth that I'm usually so in sync with are pulling me apart. I feel a deep power that keeps dragging me into it rather than letting me be. Usually I can shut out any outside forces. Usually nature doesn't affect me. It's supposed to be the other way around, but not this time. This time I feel as though at any second I might explode."

The words were barely out of her mouth when Kukai and Daichi came flying out of the upper cabin. Skidding to a stop, Kukai ignored the pain of Daichi's claws digging into his shoulder as the bird tried to stay with him. "We have a problem! We have a huge and fiery problem!"

Not even Kukai's tendency to over exaggerate a lot of things made Ikuto ignore his first mate. There were times to joke around and then there weren't. Kukai obviously wasn't kidding. "What is it?"

Kukai took in a huge gasp of air before rushing through the words. "There instruments are going crazy in here! The compass has stopped working and I can't get any readings. The only thing I know is that the water is getting hotter and hotter the further we go. It can only be one thing."

Amu suddenly felt calm. Not that the effect that her powers had on her stopped. No, she was still feeling torn apart and ragged, but she suddenly understood why. She could feel it, deep within the ocean. "There's an underwater volcano. It is soon to erupt."

Never in his life would Ikuto ever doubt Amu. Not when it came to something to do with one of the elements that she clearly had power over. Especially not when it came to how she'd been acting the last few days. "That's what's making you anxious, isn't it? You could feel the power deep in the earth but you didn't understand what it was."

Nodding only once, Amu shuddered as she realized what was happening. "We need to get out of here."

Kukai was way ahead of the mermaid on that front. "I'm trying but I can't seem to get anything to work! Everything has gone haywire! Besides that, we don't even know which direction to go in to avoid the worst of it."

Amu looked up at the male that was still at the railing above her and Ikuto's heads. "So just turn the ship and go a different direction. We can go back and then I'll be able to tell you how far around we have to go."

"Can't you just do that now?"

The waves were becoming stronger. Amu should have noticed it when the last one splashed against the side of the boat harder than the previous ones. They were clearly already in danger. "No, I can't. Everything is too out of control right now."

"Just turn us around, Kukai."

Ikuto's words had barely left his mouth when Utau, Rima and Nagi dragged themselves out onto the deck of the ship.

Frowning, Utau came to rest near the railing so that she could see out over the water. "Why are we turning around? Why is the water so rough up here?"

Nagi and Rima were clearly wondering the same thing but hadn't asked directly.

Amu sighed. "We're over a volcano field. One soon to erupt."

The curious looks on Nagi's and Rima's faces turned into ones of fright. They clasped hands but remained silent.

Utau, on the other hand, didn't seem to hold the same idea to stay quiet. "We have to get out of here! The volcano could boil the water hot enough to kill us and our fish! They could be suffering down there in the hold!"

Knowing that the princess was right but being unable to do anything about it had Amu staring out over the water. They needed to leave. She could feel the volcano calling to her. It was drawing power from her. She was making everything worse. "We need to stop talking about this and do something about it instead."

"Turn us around!"

"I can't! Everything is electric and nothing is working! There's nothing I can do!"

Nagi looked down into the water. There were bits of steam being released from random pockets of air that came up. The water was getting hotter. "We can get in and turn the boat."

"The water might already be too hot."

Rima's aversion to Nagi getting in the water was understandable. Still, they didn't have many options left for them to use. No action could be their end.

Amu gripped the railing. She could feel everything building inside of her. "We have to try. We have to turn around!"

"No!" Tadase was quick to pull himself out of the cabin as he spoke. He'd made it there in time to catch the end of whatever was being said. He was tired of being out of the water and surrounded by dumb humans. They weren't turning around. He wanted the pearl and he wanted it sooner rather than later. "We aren't turning around. We've come too far to do that now."

"Tadase, you don't understand! We're over-"

Cutting off his sister, Tadase pulled himself as tall as he could be while out of the water and sitting on the deck of the ship. His words were harsh. "I don't care what sort of situation we're in. We go on."

Utau scowled at the prince. "If you weren't my brother I'd throw you into the water and watch you cook."

Her words must have made some sort of impression because Tadase paled a bit. He didn't answer.

Ikuto let out a sigh. Since it was his ship he was the one that was supposed to make decisions. "I'm afraid that I'll have to agree with Tadase."

"Ikuto!"

Ignoring Amu's cry of his name, Ikuto squared his shoulders. "We're already moving at a fast speed and we can't slow down or turn without you getting into the water. The waves are dangerous enough. There's the possibility of one of you getting slammed into the side of the boat and I'll not risk that sort of injury. Besides, we don't know if the water is too hot already or not. I won't put you into that sort of danger either."

No one on the little boat did anything. The waves made they all rock and sway. At some point, Yaya and Kairi had shown up to listen in to what was being decided. They knew that something wrong was happening.

"What are your orders, Ikuto?"

Kukai's question broke everyone's silence. Though no one else spoke as they all looked over to where Ikuto was standing beside Amu at the railing.

Though he knew that his words could have dire consequences, Ikuto knew there was only one thing for them to do to have a good chance at surviving. It probably wasn't the best plan because it could go horribly wrong, but it was the only thing they could do. "We keep going."

Amu fell silent as she looked out over the ocean. Her presence on board the ship was only going to make everything worse. They may not survive this adventure. For the first time since they left home to chase the others down, Amu was worried for their lives. "Then so be it."

.

Morg: I feel like this is a good place to end this chapter.

Ikuto: Not really.

Amu: You could just end the story with all of us dying.

Morg: Someone might die. I'm not adverse to killing characters.

Ikuto: Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't do it.

Amu: Whatever you want!

Morg: Just remember that you said that!