estirose

Whoops. Real life really delayed this part. Hopefully my muses have returned and I’ll get out parts faster, though probably I won’t finish until December.

Notes: This part is a bit darker, due to some of the discussions in this chapter regarding the OCs’ backstory, due to some vaguely mentioned noncon.

The Unstuck Country
by Estirose

Chapter 4

The girl was looking at Taiga and Wataru with wide eyes. Taiga wished he had a clue on who she was and why she was there, and what importance she was to the Merman.

“And you are?” he asked, addressing her.

“Shinoda Aya,” she answered, looking like she knew about as much about what was going on as he did.

The name sounded a little familiar, but he couldn’t place it. “And how do you know… him?” he asked, motioning at Ramon-san.

“He… oh, no way am I going to say this. I’m getting out of here before anybody else tries to blow me up.” She got up shakily, looking around as if for an exit.

“Ramon-san, is this your daughter?” Wataru asked, motioning at the girl.

“This is Aya,” Ramon-san said proudly.

“Hello, Aya-san,” Wataru said, smiling at the girl. Taiga had to marvel at Wataru’s smile, despite everything that had happened.

“Hi,” the girl said back. She looked a little older than Wataru, probably younger than himself. If she was the Merman’s daughter, she could be any age, but he guessed that she was the age she seemed.

“Um, I can bring you some tea,” Wataru said, “Or maybe something to eat? I don’t think it’s safe to go out right now.”

“I knew I should have run when mom said so,” the girl muttered. “Tea is fine.”

Wataru went up to fetch more tea, and Taiga decided smiling at the girl was a good idea. “So, how did you end up… here?” Taiga asked, more to kill time than anything else.

The girl looked over at him, clearly tired. “Because he feels like the ocean,” she said. “And I… mom ran at the sight of him when he came to us, but I didn’t. Because he feels like the ocean.”

She was repeating herself, which Taiga recognized as something that wasn’t a good sign. But he didn’t know what to say about it, and he wasn’t even sure he wanted to deal with the whole thing.

“The ocean?” he asked.

She blinked. “Never mind.” She shook her head. “As soon as it’s safe to leave, I’m leaving.”

Ramon-san went over to sit by her, and she shrunk away from him. He pouted, and took her hand. “But I am your father.”

“You’re too young to be my father,” she said, keeping away from him as far as possible without leaving where she’d sat down.

“Yes, I am.”

“You can’t be,” she said, which would have been rational had Taiga not known better. “I’m going to miss my class. How am I going to explain that?”

“You’re in school?” Taiga asked, wanting to get her mind off of Ramon.

“I teach swimming,” she explained. “Even a medal couldn’t get me out of this….”

“It’s okay,” Taiga said, not sure why he was reassuring her, but he was. “We’ll get you out of here soon.” Mostly so that she was out of Wataru’s house, but he’d get her out of there.

“I wanna make sure she’s safe,” Ramon said. “There’s just me and her left….”

The girl started crying, shrinking in on herself.

“I used to sneak out of Castle Dran,” he said. “Just to sneak you away for a few minutes. You said your first word to me. It was $*%^$. Swim. Don’t you remember?”

Her only response was more crying.

Wataru chose that moment to come back with the tea, and tried handing it to her. “Please, take it,” he said gently.

She looked up at him, sniffling, but took the tea, sipping at it and resolutely staring at her legs.

Taiga remembered Wataru’s reaction to being told he was Fangire as well as human, and reflected that it could have been worse. Much worse, judging from her reaction. At least Wataru had only looked stunned and tried to have their mother deny it. Which she thankfully hadn’t.

Then again, their mother looked like an adult – even crone-like – and Ramon-san looked like he was just entering puberty, even if he wasn’t. Or even if he was entering the Merman version of puberty.

“So, Aya-san is a Mermaid?” Wataru asked Ramon-san.

“Well, not quite,” the Merman said. “There’s really no such thing, just human imagination.”

Taiga knew from what Bishop had told him, that the Merpeople were one species; they had true form and human form, just like the Fangire.

And they, from what he’d also picked up, had little tolerance for the half-breeds that occasionally happened, ignoring them and treating them like humans. Food. It was barbaric.

Except, apparently, when one was the last of his kind, and of course a half-human child was better than nothing.

“When can I leave?” the girl asked.

“But I don’t want you to leave,” Ramon-san said.

She didn’t reply, just sipping at her tea.

“Do you want more tea?” Wataru asked.

“Um. Yes. Please.” She held out her cup. “I’m sorry for rudely inconveniencing you.”

“It’s okay,” Wataru soothed. Taiga wondered how to shoo the Merman away from his daughter, especially since Ramon-san had apparently decided that hovering was going to make her like him.

Wataru got another cup of tea for the girl, which she drank in silence.

“So, what happened, Ramon-san?” Wataru asked the Merman, who was trying to wipe up Aya-san’s wounds. Taiga supposed that it was easier to get Ramon-san to talk than his daughter, who apparently wasn’t used to this sort of thing.

“I was talking to Aya about family, and then suddenly we were shot at,” Ramon-san explained, wide-eyed. “And then we ran here.”

“I knew I should have run,” Aya muttered.

“Would you like to borrow my shower?” Wataru asked the girl. “It’s right over there….”

“Um, I will, thanks.” She finished her tea and handed it back to Wataru, then quickly hurried into the bathroom, keeping an eye on Ramon-san all the way, as if not sure he’d try to follow her in.

After the door closed, Ramon-san pensively watching it, Wataru took the teacups back to the kitchen upstairs.

“She’ll feel better when she gets into water,” Ramon-san said, not really to Taiga but to the room. “We always do. She always loved the water more than the land, when she was little….”

Wataru came back downstairs. “I wonder if person who blew up Nii-san’s motorcycle is the same one shooting at Ramon-san and his daughter,” he said.

“There was a lot of fighting between the Merfolk and the Fangire, even before we decided to destroy them,” Taiga pointed out. “It could be unrelated.”

He hoped it was unrelated. Because that would mean someone was going after Wataru, which was not going to happen. He’d had problems with his little brother and his little brother’s stubbornness, but that was his duty as King; nobody else had the right to try to kill Wataru.

Going after him was one thing; it was, after all, an accepted practice to try to dethrone the King. Much as he didn’t like it, every Fangire had the right to try. But going after the King’s little brother? That wasn’t something that Taiga was going to let happen. Wataru wasn’t King, had never really been King, and was safe from those kinds of challenges.

He had to wonder if people were going after Wataru because they believed Wataru to be behind the idea of changing food sources. Which certainly was true, to a point. Wataru had been the one to persuade Taiga to do all of this. But at least presenting it as an alternative – even presented as direly as he had – was at least a softening up of those beliefs, allowing those Fangire who absolutely had to feed on humans the chance to do so, while allowing Wataru to feed on something else.

He wasn’t sure if Wataru would take the idea of the Fangire still feeding on other species as well as he thought his little brother would, but at least it was a step forward. A radical step forward, he had to admit. He wanted Wataru to accept the Fangire for what they were, even if his own idea was apparently a very sheltered one. He still knew that there would be people that wouldn’t accept doing anything other than feeding on humans – he’d been one of those who was really convinced that humans were food and nothing would change that – but some others apparently felt a bit differently.

He himself just wanted Wataru to accept his heritage. In a way, Dawn might help, giving Wataru an anchor to his Fangire heritage that he sorely needed, and she might give both of them an insight into making the rest of the Fangire cooperate with Wataru’s ideas. Besides, Fangire lived for centuries, and both of them had – admittedly – very little experience with this.

Taiga made a mental note to let Dawn have her chance – it made sense, after all, and might buy them some time to figure out how to convince older Fangire that the new plan was not a threat to Fangire culture and heritage. And it would make him feel better that Wataru fully understood what Fangire blood he had – after all, their bloodline had many Kings and Queens in it.

He pulled out his mobile phone, searching through the entries until he found Dawn’s number. “Dawn,” he said, as soon as she answered the phone.

“King, what can I do for you?” she asked, seemingly polite.

“I think Wataru does need those… lessons. Why don’t you stop by, tomorrow, and start teaching him about our heritage. I’ll teach him to hunt, of course, but Wataru holds you in high esteem and I think you could connect with him better than anybody else.”

When Dawn replied, she sounded surprised. “Of course, King. At your convenience – and Wataru-kun’s.”

“I’m sure Wataru would be more than pleased to spend time with you,” he said. “I think it would also do him a lot of good. I agree. He does need to understand.”

If understanding would buy them some time, so be it.

“I’ll give him a call and arrange something,” the woman said, clearly still surprised at the offer. “I know he has a business and I’d rather not be a disruption.”

“I’m sure you can work out something,” Taiga said politely. “Why don’t I give him your number and he can give you a call?”

“Right,” Dawn said, clearly distracted. “I’ll look forward to his call, then.” She hung up, and Taiga was left with her number on the display.

“What are you doing, Nii-san?” Wataru asked, clearly confused.

“I’m buying us some time – and figuring out what we can do about the older Fangire,” Taiga said. “They’re old, they’re canny, and I don’t want you killed over this. She likes you and she does seem to care – so I think we could at least get some insight. Here, give her a call.”

He handed Wataru his cell phone.

Wataru took it, hitting the “call” button. “Hello, Professor Isakawa. Nii-san said you were willing to teach me about Fangire. Um… I’m not sure about that. Let’s meet here. Tomorrow morning is fine, around nine, if it’s okay with you. I’ll see you then.”

Taiga saw Wataru hit the “end call” button before handing it back to him. “Professor Isakawa wanted to meet at her place,” Wataru said, “But I thought that wasn’t a good idea at this point.”

“No,” Taiga agreed. “Under no circumstances are you to go to her home.”

Aya-san emerged from the bathroom. “Thanks for letting me use it,” she told Wataru. She did look much cleaner than she did before.

“It’s no problem,” Wataru said graciously. “Would you like more tea.”

“Thanks, but I need to get out of here,” Aya-san said. “My mother’s going to be worried.”

A cellphone rang, and Taiga didn’t recognize the ringtone, but apparently Aya-san did. She plucked a cell phone out of her pocket. “Mom! I’m… not all right. But I’m in one piece. More or less. Um. I’d have you pick me up, but I’m not sure where I am….”

“I can give directions,” Wataru volunteered, holding out his hand.

Aya-san handed him the cellphone. “Hello, my name is Kurenai Wataru and she ended up at my house….” He proceeded to give the woman directions from a local landmark, and generally how to get to that landmark, and then hung up the phone, handing it back to Aya-san. “I hope your mother doesn’t get lost.”

“She’s good at directions,” Aya-san said absently. “Very good with them.”

Wataru fetched Aya-san another cup of tea, and Ramon-san watched his daughter protectively. The doorbell rang, and then shots rang out. Wataru hurried out his back door, rushing back in a minute or so later with a middle-aged woman and slamming the door behind him.

She almost ran out again upon seeing Ramon-san, but had the sense to grab her daughter first. Ramon-san sprang up, and she backed up towards the door as he got close. “No! I’m not going to give you to her!”

“She’s an adult,” Ramon-san said. “Of mateable age.” He pouted. “Besides, it’s too dangerous out there. For both of you.”

With that, the woman ran out, but Ramon-san ran after her, assuming his true form. Soon after, he was back in human form, dragging Aya-san back in, along with her unconscious mother.

“What are you doing? What in the hell are you?” Aya-san demanded, apparently reaching her breaking point in regards to herself and her mother.

Ramon-san lifted Aya-san’s mother up onto Wataru’s bed, which Wataru helped with. “I’m a Merman,” he said. “So are you. Your mother is too, a little bit.”

In other words, Aya-san’s mother had a little bit of Merfolk – Merman – blood herself.

“Maybe we should wait for Aya-san’s mother to wake up,” Wataru suggested.

“Kiyoe-chan,” Ramon-san corrected, indicating the unconscious woman.

“We should wait for Kiyoe-san to wake up,” Wataru corrected. “Um, can I get you more tea?”

“Yes, please,” Aya-san said. Wataru headed back up.

Having never been in Wataru’s bathroom, Taiga wondered if there was an actual toilet in there. At the rate Aya-san was drinking tea, she might need it sooner or later.

“How long will it take for her to wake up?” Taiga asked.

Ramon-san shrugged. “A few minutes.”

In the meantime, Aya was trying to stay as far away as possible. Taiga wondered if this was how it had been for Wataru, at least after he got home.

“It couldn’t hurt to wait,” he told Aya-san. “Then maybe we can talk.”

“But he’s a monster!” Aya-san exclaimed. “I saw him!”

Ramon-san looked hurt. “That’s what I look like,” he said to his daughter, who was definitely cringing. He sat down on the bed. “You’ve seen me like that before. You don’t remember?”

Aya-san shook her head wildly. “I would have remembered seeing a monster!”

“How old was Aya-san when you last saw her, Ramon-san?” Wataru asked, returning with the tea.

“Um… about one, then I couldn’t sneak out of Castle Dran anymore,” Ramon-san said sadly.

“Then maybe Aya-san doesn’t remember you?” Wataru asked astutely.

“I think I’d remember a monster,” Aya-san said, looking at Ramon-san and her mother and perhaps wondering how she could get him away.

“Not if you were a baby,” Taiga pointed out reasonably. He certainly didn’t remember his mother – it had taken pictures for him to recognize her at all.

She paused for a moment. “Maybe not, but I still can’t believe he’s my father, and I’m leaving as soon as I can. With my mom.”

“We can swim out to someplace safe,” Ramon-san said, interrupting their conversation. “Deep in the sea where the Fangire can’t get us.”

Taiga realized that this woman probably had no clue on what a Fangire was.

“I can’t breathe water,” Aya-san pointed out coldly. “I’m good at holding my breath, but I am not a fish!”

“Maybe we can take a boat,” Ramon-san said after a moment. “And your mother, and find an island. I can bring you both food. Maybe eventually you’ll have brothers and sisters too!”

“I’m not sure that will help, Ramon-san,” Wataru said. He was going to say more, but was interrupted by a scream from Aya’s mother, who was shrinking back in the little cubbyhole as much as possible.

“Maybe you should get up from the bed,” Taiga suggested to the Merman, who after a thought, did so. After a moment, the woman’s screams died off, but she was still huddled in the back, eyeing Aya-san like she was going to try to run off again. Which was probably a bad idea.

“So,” Aya-san said, “I’m listening. It’s better than going out there and getting shot at again.”

Or getting herself and her mother dragged back, as Ramon-san had proved that he’d do.

“Aya, are you sure?” her mother asked, still in the back of the cubby.

“Yes,” Aya-san said. “The rest of the people here are reasonable, and I bet the police will show up soon.”

The woman sighed. “If you’re not going anywhere, I’m not going anywhere. I have to protect you.”

“I’d protect her too,” Ramon-san pointed out.

“Um.” Wataru bowed at the woman. “Kurenai Wataru.”

“Pleased to meet you,” the woman said, observing the courtesy, tired and scared as she was. “Shinoda Kiyoe.”

“Ramon-san was going to explain some things,” Taiga said pointedly. Better the woman and her daughter have some idea as to what was going on. Besides, nobody would believe her if she told the truth anyway after she’d been told about Fangire and Merfolk.

“Like the fact that he’s a monster,” Aya-san said. She looked like she was ready to hop across the table and protect her mother from her father. “And why he hasn’t aged, apparently.”

“Well, I’m a Merman. And so is Aya, and so are you, kinda,” Ramon-san said simply. “Which is why I chose you.”

“He’s a fish monster,” Aya-san added. “That’s why he looks the same.”

“I’m over a hundred years old,” Ramon-san said proudly. “Aya will probably live a long time, too.”

Kiyoe-san rubbed her face with one hand. “I don’t believe this. Actually, it makes sense, given great-grandmother’s stories… but those can’t be real, can they?”

“Stories?” Aya-san asked. “What stories?”

“Well, of course I wouldn’t tell them to you, since you loved the sea so much… but when you were a little girl, your grandmother left us taped stories about her life, and also some thing she labeled ‘stories and fairy tales’. She talked a lot about Mermen, and some stories were about a woman who loved one….” She shook her head. “Those can’t be true….”

“Not really,” Ramon-san said. “No Merman would love a human. Maybe… maybe she was in the water and ready for mating! And he found her. And that’s how things happened.”

“And your great-grandmother, my grandmother, mysteriously disappeared one day, so it’s not something we really talked about,” Kiyoe-san told her daughter. “I don’t want you disappearing like she did. It’s bad enough that she addressed the fairy tales to me, ‘for comfort in my pregnancy’.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Mom,” Aya-san reassured her.

“Hey, I’d like to hear some of them,” Ramon-san said, looking beseechingly at Kiyoe-san.

“Why would I tell you fairy tales?” Kiyoe asked, huddling in the corner.

“Then don’t do it for him,” Taiga said. “Do it for us. Give yourself something else to focus on.” These were stories that he’d never heard, and he had to confess that he was curious.

Kiyoe sighed. “Very well. But get him out of my sight!”

“Ramon-san?” Wataru asked politely. Ramon-san pouted, but moved out of Kiyoe-san’s sight.

Once he was safely away, Kiyoe-san began her story. “There was once a woman who was walking on the shores, who encountered a fish-man. He was sitting there, sunning himself, and gave no notice of her approach. But as she skirted the rocks, he turned, as if he had heard her. He blew a bubble, and she was lucky, for it missed her, but she fell down anyway. ‘Please, don’t kill me,’ she begged, ‘For I have a husband and children to support.’”

“He got down, and she was amazed by his beauty. His scales were a polished green, and he wore a beautiful loincloth. His wide eyes, adapted to the sea, stared at her relentlessly. ‘Tell me something of your life,’ he said, and the terrified woman, pulling herself to a sitting position, thought about what to tell him.

“So, she told him of her home life, of how she worked to support her fisherman husband, the chores she did, and the burdens of her life. He asked her questions, and she answered as best she could. Finally, the fish-man said, ‘Promise to come here the day of every new moon, just as you have, and I will spare your life. If you do not, I will hunt you down and kill you.’

“Terrified, she promised to do so, and she held true to that promise. Moon after moon, she came to that place and talked about her life, and each time he let her go, with the same threat. But over time, it didn’t matter; she found her life easier once she had someone to share it with. She told him of her children, their misbehaviors, how the people of her village acted, how life was for her, and that made things easier. Finally, one new moon, he was waiting for her, to tell her she was released from her promise. He was going to war, and he didn’t know if he’d come back.

“Devastated, she begged him to come back to her afterwards, so he could continue to hear her stories. But he could never promise that. He disappeared into the water after one last exchange, and she went home, hoping he’d come back, but eventually losing hope. But she remembered, and whispered the tale of the Fish-man to her sweet little daughter, born after he left, because she needed someone to share things with.

“Her daughter never remembered the tales, but she did. She went to the sea every year she was alive, hoping against hope that he’d come back, and died eventually of a broken heart. And so goes the story of the fisherman’s wife and the Fish-man.”

“He must have been bored, and she was interesting to him,” Ramon-san said, from off to one side. “And he wasn’t hungry the first time.”

“As long as he wasn’t my great-grandfather,” Kiyoe-san said pointedly.

Ramon-san shrugged. “Accidents happen. Maybe he was into mating with humans as well.”

Wataru’s doorbell rang, and Wataru got up to answer it. Taiga hoped it was the police, so they could get that part over with.

“In any case, the supernatural, as you know it, does exist,” Taiga told Kiyoe-san. “And I suspect you and your daughter have gotten mixed up in it, so if you’d not talk about Fish-men and conspiracies while the police are here….”

“I have no desire to be put in an insane asylum,” Kiyoe-san agreed. “I… can’t believe I said that.” She shuddered. “It was bad enough when I was pregnant with Aya. My parents were very upset at me, and of course I was a no-good person, so I had to go through it and have the child. Great-grandmother was the only one who supported me, and she died before Aya was born….”

Wataru was leading two police officers downstairs. “I don’t know why somebody’s doing this,” he was telling the officers, “But here’s the lady that was shot at….”

Taiga hoped they meant Kiyoe-san and not Aya-san. He got up to allow them easier access to Kiyoe-san.

Kiyoe-san, for her part, managed to sit on the edge of the bed. The police officers’ presence seemed to reassure her.

“Hello, I’m Detective Matsui,” he said, “and this is my partner, Detective Nishioka,” the first policeman – officer – said. “I understand you were shot at? Please tell me what happened.”

“I… my daughter and this… boy had gotten lost, and apparently he’s a friend of the owner of the house. I agreed to pick her up, and when I arrived and got out, somebody shot at me….”

“And I was shot at too,” Aya-san volunteered, “Except it was a few blocks away.”

“Fortunately, the young man here – Kurenai-san, I believe his name is – took me to safety,” Kiyoe-san finished.

Detective Nishioka was writing in his notebook. “Have you got any enemies?” he asked.

Kiyoe-san shook her head. “Not that I know of. I mean, sports rivalry is always tough – Aya was always good at competition – but she hasn’t competed in years, so why would someone go after me?”

Detective Matsui smiled. “I thought I recognized her. Shinoda Aya, the swimmer, right? I heard you were at the Olympic trials.”

“Yes, but then I decided that it was much better for my health to teach swimming instead of compete,” Aya-san said modestly.

“I want to speak to your mom, and Detective Nishioka will take your statement.” He urged Kiyoe-san away so he could talk to her, while Detective Nishioka turned to Aya-san.

“So, tell me about what happened,” he said.

“Well, my mom and I were out shopping when we ran across this boy,” Aya-san said, indicating Ramon-san, “And mom freaked out because apparently he reminded her of somebody she met long ago. She ran off, and I got stuck talking to him, and we were walking, and then somebody shot at us.”

Taiga couldn’t help but admire the run-on sentence.

“Were either of you hurt?” the Detective asked.

Aya-san shook her head. “No, just terrified. I’ve had a lot of adventures when I was trying to become an Olympic swimmer, but I’ve never been shot at before. It might not have been the brightest idea, but the guy who lives here is very nice and fed me tea while I calmed down and called mom. I didn’t think to call the police, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Detective Nishioka said. “Do you know who could have done this?”

“I have no idea,” Aya-san admitted. “I don’t know if it was aimed at me, or him, or someone else. I just… I don’t want to live through that, ever again.”

“Do you remember where you were shot at?” the Detective asked gently, making more notes.

“Yes, I think so,” Aya-san said. “Do… do you want me to show you?”

“In a little bit,” Detective Nishioka said. “Tell me more about the shooting.”

So Aya-san tried her best to, though she couldn’t explain very much, having no clue as to why. Taiga would have liked to have known why, but it seemed destined to remain a mystery to all of them.

Kiyoe-san was in the other corner, speaking perhaps louder than she should, but Taiga was gratified to know she wasn’t mentioning any monsters, just that Ramon-san resembled a young man that she’d filed a crime report against twenty-two years ago, but it was just an unfortunate resemblance given that the young man in question was in his thirties by now.

After the police officers interviewed Kiyoe-san, Aya-san and then Ramon-san – who gave them the human name of “Ohara Ramon”, a name Taiga was sure he’d made up on the spot – they turned to Wataru and Taiga.

“So, this is the second time something’s happened at your house in the last twenty-four hours,” Matsui said, looking at Wataru.

“Yes, and I don’t know why. First Nii-san’s motorcycle, then Aya-san’s mother, and Aya-san being shot at….” Wataru somehow gave them the impression that he hadn’t known about Aya-san being shot at before she’d said something to the police. “Ramon-san is a friend of mine, but I’d never met Aya-san or her mother before today.”

“So, someone might be targeting you for some reason,” Matsui said, looking at his notebook. “Or this could be completely coincidental.”

“But who would want to go after me?” Wataru asked.

“We’re not sure, but please, if you find out anything, please give us a call.” Detective Matsui gave Wataru a business card. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to take the younger Shinoda-san out for more information.”

Wataru nodded. “I understand,” he said. “I’m sorry to cause this much trouble. I don’t know what’s going on….”

At least Wataru’s angelic looks would get him off the hook, or maybe both of them. The policemen excused themselves, taking Ramon-san, Aya-san, and Kiyoe-san – who looked less than pleased to be anywhere near Ramon-san – out of there.

And at least the humans did have a police force. Fangire didn’t, and no enforcers other than King and Queen, with some help from Bishop and Rook. Which left him, the King, in charge of an investigation to find out who was so eager to kill Wataru, if that’s what they were doing, and hoping that his invitation to Dawn would give both of them some time.

He almost hoped that the attack on Ramon-san, his daughter, and his daughter’s mother were a complete coincidence; that would just mean that someone was trying to kill the last remnants of the Merfolk. That would make his life so much easier. But he doubted it; Ramon-san was Wataru’s ally, and it was no coincidence that his attackers had struck so close to home.

Somehow, things had become a lot more complicated.

Crossposted from Ramblings Yet Once More here.