"I'm still amazed that we were able to set this whole thing up at the last minute."
"Just goes to show how far you'll go to make Eri happy, Izuku-kun~"
"S-Still, planning a trip to the aquarium is not easy."
The hero students were currently spending their Sunday visiting the Okuto Aquarium on Okuto Island. As to why they had all taken this trip…
Eri and Satsuki wanted to see a mermaid.
For the final movie yesterday, Izuku showed the girls The Little Mermaid and like any little girl, they loved it. The little ones then practically begged Izuku, Kyouka, and Tsuyu to take them somewhere to see a real mermaid, to which the teens had to gently explain that mermaids were only found in storybooks. This only made Eri and Satsuki pout. Izuku, not wanting to see Eri upset, then made the suggestion that would decide what everyone would be doing on Sunday. It helped that a majority of the other teens wanted to go and convinced Kyouka and Tsuyu to agree.
The first major step was to convince the teachers to allow them to go, so Izuku went to speak with the teachers, bringing Eri with him. All Might, Present Mic, Midnight, and Vlad King gladly agreed and even volunteered to be chaperones once they heard why they were going. Aizawa on the other hand was being his usual negative self and was about to deny Izuku's request, but this was the main reason Izuku brought Eri with him in the first place. Picking up and holding out the baby unicorn, Izuku didn't give Aizawa a choice as the insomniac had to stare into the big, innocent, confused eyes of the child that's supposed to be in his care.
"I should give you detention for this, Problem Child," was what the scowling Aizawa had said, trying his damnedest to resist Eri's weaponized cuteness. This only made Izuku bring the child in his arms closer to Aizawa, who eventually broke. "Alright! No detention and you hellions can go to the aquarium!"
Satisfied, Izuku brought Eri back into his arms and left for the dorms to tell the others of his success.
Next they had to tell their parents that they wouldn't be coming home on Sunday and why. This resulted in the Midoriya, Jirou, and Asui families joining in coming to the aquarium with them.
Right now, the large group had arrived at Okuto Island, where they were greeted by a familiar face.
"Kugo-jii!" squeaked out Eri upon seeing the Killer Whale Hero.
"Hey, boss," added Kyouka, giving a slight wave.
Gang Orca let out a few chuckles before he greeted his guests. "Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Okuto Aquarium!"
As some of the teens cheered, the little ones stepped forward to look up at Gang Orca.
"Kugo-jii, I brought Keiko-san with me!" chirped Eri, showing off her killer whale plushy that she brought with her.
"I'm happy that you're enjoying your gift, little one," said Orca, reaching down to pat the child on her head. He then looked over to the other child. "Hm? And who is this?"
"This is Satsuki-chan! She's my best friend!" explained Eri, grabbing and holding Satsuki's hand as the two beamed in happiness.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Satsuki," replied Orca, earning some giggles from the tadpole. "Anyway, I heard you two wanted to see a mermaid."
The chibis' eyes widened at the mention of mermaids before they nodded in excitement.
"But Neechan said mermaids aren't real, gero!" squeaked Satsuki.
"Hm, are you sure about that?" asked Orca with a knowing look.
The chibis' excitement grew as they and the group followed Gang Orca into the building. Upon entering, a majority of the group was impressed with the multitude of large tanks filled with hundreds and hundreds of fish and other aquatic life. Orca led them down a hallway that eventually led to one of the many outdoor pools the aquarium had.
"Mizutani! Get up here!" called out Orca.
Just as Orca called out to this Mizutani, everyone could see shadows from under the water coming closer to the surface before three figures jumped out of the water and into the air. Two of the figures turned out to be dolphins, but the last one was what got everyone's attention.
It was a beautiful looking woman with long, light blue hair and the tail of a fish in place of human legs.
"Mermaid!" exclaimed the little ones. They tried to run towards the mermaid, but were quickly lifted off the ground by Kyouka and Tsuyu before they could slip and fall.
The mermaid giggled at the children's cuteness before turning to Orca. "Hey, Sakamata-san! What's up?"
Orca cleared his throat before he explained. "Everyone, this is Mizutani Kasumi, the aquarium's dolphin trainer. Mizutani, Eri-chan and Satsuki-chan here wanted to meet you."
Kasumi gave the children a friendly smile as Kyouka and Tsuyu set them on the ground, after which the children made their way over to the aquatic woman.
"Are you really a mermaid?" asked Eri in awe.
Another giggle came from Kasumi. "Yup! My Quirk gives me all of the aspects and abilities of a mermaid, which makes training dolphins really easy! I can even transform my tail into a pair of legs so I can walk on land!"
The Mermaid Quirk user demonstrated this when her tail glowed with a bright light and the next thing everyone knew, she now had a pair of human legs. Luckily, she was wearing a leotard for decency.
The chibis' excitement returned in full force as they started to babble out question after question for Kasumi, much to her amusement. Off to the side, Izuku had his notebook out, writing down notes on Kasumi's Quirk.
With the introductions done and after the little ones kept asking Kasumi questions, the large group were given the go ahead from Orca to enjoy the aquarium. They split up into groups and went off to see the various marine life that lived here, agreeing to meet up for lunch later.
Seals, walruses, sea otters, narwhals, belugas, great white sharks, tuna, manta rays, jellyfish, starfish, moray eels, octopuses, spider crabs. You name it and the aquarium most likely had it and the large group made sure to see everything. They even took in a dolphin show, although Eri and Satsuki were more excited to see Kasumi perform instead.
Then came lunch.
"Sweetie, we talked about this yesterday," said Kyouka with a soft reprimand as she gently took the fork from Eri's hand.
The little unicorn puffed out her cheeks in a pout as the utensil was taken away from her. Satsuki was also pouting as Tsuyu had also taken away her fork.
"What happened yesterday?" asked Inko, her and the other parents confused as to why Eri and Satsuki weren't allowed to have forks.
Izuku and Kyouka glanced at each other, contemplating if they should admit to what happened, but Tsuyu took the decision out of their hands.
"In the movie, when the mermaid would discover items from the human world, she would use them differently than we would since she didn't know what they were, gero. In this case, she would use a fork to brush her hair, gero."
"…We may have had to give Eri and Satsuki a bath when they got food in their hair," added Kyouka with a slight grimace.
This of course earned giggles from Inko and Mika, while Beru lifted Satsuki onto her lap.
"Satsuki, you can't use a fork to brush your hair, gero," stated the froggy matriarch.
"Why not? The mermaid did, gero!"
"Yes, but the mermaid lived under the water, so she's always clean. People who live on the land would always be dirty if they brushed their hair with forks, gero," explained Beru.
Satsuki continued to pout, but relented and promised not to brush her hair with a fork anymore, much to her parents' relief.
Once lunch was finished, everyone went to see the rest of the exhibits until it was time to head home. Before they left though, Eri and Satsuki wanted to see Kasumi one more time.
"Aw, you two are just so sweet!" chirped Kasumi as the little ones came to say goodbye. She gave them both a hug and even offered to take a picture with them so they would have proof of meeting a real life mermaid.
On the boat ride back to the mainland, the day's excitement was finally winding down and the little ones were out like a light, both of them using Izuku as a pillow. The parents couldn't help but take pictures at the cute scene while most everyone else would tease the greenie, much to his chagrin.
And all the while, Eri and Satsuki would dream of underwater castles and singing sea life.
CHAPTER END
-:-
When I started this fic, my original plan was to update it weekly. That obviously didn't happen thanks to both burnout and depression taking a bat to my skull. As for this chapter, a LOT of editing had to be done. It was originally supposed to be longer, but I had to cut out some things that I couldn't fit in naturally. For example, Mitsuki, Masaru, Rei, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Selkie were all supposed to be in this chapter. I'm most disappointed in cutting out Selkie, because the idea I had was to have him meet Satsuki and then give her a plushie seal to match Eri's plushie orca. Satsuki would have named the plushie Lou and start calling Selkie "Selkie-jii". I might make a Satsuki meets Selkie one-shot in the future, but I don't know when exactly that'll happen.
Anyway, congrats to those who guessed The Little Mermaid. Next chapter will be based on another of my favorite Disney movies and no clue this time because this movie is also one of Disney's most popular ones, so it should be easy. When I can get the chapter out though, well, as I said I'm still dealing with burnout and depression so we'll see what happens. Also, I won't be able to reply to reviews on Fanfiction right away. For some reason the site disabled notifications for me, stating that my email keeps rejecting them and I have no idea of how to fix this myself. I'm hoping to get it fixed sometime this weekend.