Chapter Text
Daichi was not prepared for today.
In fact, he wasn't sure that one could even remotely prepare themselves for a day with Shouyou Hinata and Yuu Nishinoya. Maybe with some emergency shots of five-hour energy and some earplugs... Neither of which he had.
It was a Saturday morning, pretty early, the kind of morning that, if not on a weekend, Daichi would usually spend sleeping in then going on a jog. Behind him, he could hear the sound of shutters being lifted, no doubt the beachside stores opening for the day. They were colourful, like jewels on the coast, selling ice creams and information on the island. Saturdays were often packed full of clucking tourists, trying and failing to speak in the local dialect and crowding every building on the coast. But, as the weather chilled, less people saw the appeal in sunbathing and exploring on the beach. At this time of the year, it was only the locals around. It was nice, everyone knew everyone and their families, everyone had grown up together. Daichi knew many of the shop owners - had gone to high school and surfing classes with a few - and they'd all managed to stay sane and on the island at the same time. Briefly, on that note, he wondered whether Ukai maybe stocked caffeine pills... But that thought was quickly squashed by the recollection that he didn't even sell functional beach balls, so fat chance of that.
Keishin Ukai's little beachside store was not something Daichi would describe as excellent. Functional, certainly, even with only him working there. It was dusty and old-fashioned, the bamboo and wood it was constructed out of has faded in colour over the many years it had been standing there. He sold anything he felt he could sell, flip-flops, ice cream, soda, volleyballs and beach balls, its shelves had something different every week. Its name, Sakanoshita, meant 'at the bottom of a hill', which was just infuriatingly uncreative. It wasn't strictly incorrect, there was a mountain nearby, in the middle of the island, and there was the cliff a few miles away, but most people ignored the name and just called it Ukai's store.
The wind was light and stung his cheeks with its slight chill, but it was nothing too unbearable. Nothing too disruptive either. Surfing with high winds was never a good idea on this bay, but a little couldn't hurt anyone. The sun was out, for now, but even just watching for a few seconds he could see the clouds moving towards it ominously, threatening to smother its light. To his right, sand spread out as far as the eye could see, waves crashing almost therapeutically into it, and to his left, rocks began to gather on the shore, getting bigger and bigger until, finally, there was a rocky headland, sprinkled with a few old, white cottages. It was a good bay for surfing. A good morning for it, too.
If Hinata and Nishinoya were ever on-time for anything, they would have been there by now, boards in hand, teeth grit in determination to tame the rough waves. But no, Daichi was always left waiting, standing alone in his black hoodie, keeping him from freezing to death with only his black and orange wetsuit beneath it. His board sat motionless beside him, tail buried in the sand to keep it from falling over. The slight wind caused it to sway, but it never fell. He had owned this board for years; he had won more contests on it than he can count. It was worn, considerably so, with scratches along the bottom from collisons with rocks and dents where he had fallen on it maybe a little too hard.
Daichi had been surfing since he was a kid, it was something almost everyone locally had tried at least once. Not many stayed with it like Daichi had, they just tried it out on days at the beach for something to do. But no, Daichi was serious about it, he couldn't count how many competitions he'd entered, how many he'd won. Not much time for competitions these days, though. His days were spent doing his online university course, working at his part-time job and teaching Short and Shorter.
Speak of the devil, he heard car doors slamming behind him. Their excited chattering could be heard from all the way on the promenade, no doubt where Nishinoya had parked his car.
"Hey!" Daichi turned, waving his hand to them to get their attention. Hinata, the fluff of ginger hair he was, waved his entire arm at Daichi, beaming.
"Hey, Daichi!" He started to run, down the stairs from the promenade, his board secured under his arm. The green, red and white mix of colours printed on it were eye-catching, but only brought the Italian flag to mind, a comparison which Hinata didn't appreciate. He didn't realise when buying it, it just caught his eye, and it was the perfect length for him, so he bought it on the spot.
"Morning!" Nishinoya was left to stroll over, stretching one arm in the air. "Sorry we're late, Shouyou couldn't find his wetsuit!" Despite knowing it'd be ruined by the saltwater, Nishinoya always spiked up his hair with gel before lessons. Daichi had given up trying to convince him not to bother.
"It's alright, it's your time you're wasting, not mine."
"Blegh, you sound like a teacher." Hinata dug the tail of his board into the sand when he stopped in front of Daichi, Nishinoya just behind.
"From 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. every Saturday, I am a teacher." He replied, crossing his arms. "Of you two idiots. Have you warmed up yet?"
Nishinoya nodded, displaying his stretched muscles by reaching down to touch his hands flat on the sand. "Yeah, before we left."
"Last one in the water's a rotten egg!" The youngest cheered, going to seize his board from its standing position, but the front of the hoodie covering his wetsuit was grabbed by Daichi before he had the chance.
"Ah-ah, Hinata. Not yet. Did both of you eat this morning?"
"Yes." They both groaned in unison. This was a routine they went through ever Saturday, Daichi interrogating them on how well they were taking care of themselves and how fit they were to be surfing. Unneeded in their opinion, but Daichi always insisted. It's important, he always said, I don't want either of you passing out while on the water.
"Something energy-rich?"
"Sugary cereal, so... I guess?"
With a roll of his eyes and a laugh, Daichi jabbed his thumb behind him, towards the crashing water. "Alright. Go ahead."
They seized their boards from their standing position in the sand, then dashed to the water. They didn't flinch when stepping over the line of rocks and shells, their feet had long grown used to such surfaces. Daichi followed behind them, at a walk instead of a run, stopping briefly to strap the leg rope around his ankle.
He'd been teaching Nishinoya for over six months now, as a favour to a certain gentle giant friend of his. Yes, he should probably charge money for his excellent teaching and years of experience, but he was doing it from the kindness in his heart. Not for money. And besides, the best way to learn and get better is to teach. He’d only taught Hinata for two or three months, and already he was just as good as Nishinoya. He picked things up quickly, sure he always had his own way of doing them (why did he close his eyes when doing a tail slide?), but he was good nonetheless. Nishinoya was at the point of creating his own moves, such as his own version of a roundhouse cutback with a snap, which he called ‘Rolling Thunder’. Yes, his little apprentices were ridiculous, but they were good. In Daichi’s own opinion, they could go pro just like him in a matter of months. They’d probably insist on sooner, in fact. Crawling out onto the water on his board, Daichi watched Hinata fiercely pushing and paddling himself through the water, speeding ahead of a complaining Nishinoya. The waves were good, not too high and not too infrequent, but with this high-winds and cloudy weather, it could change on a dime. He’d have to watch out for that, he knew the two younger wouldn’t. “Daichi! Shouyou!” Noya yelled over the crash of the waves and the wind in their ears. “Watch!” He pushed himself up on his board, from lying on his stomach, to crouching, to standing semi-steadily on his orange, black-striped board.
Daichi knew what he was doing before he exclaimed it loudly and proudly.
“Roooolling...” It was a low growl in Noya’s throat, determined and excited. Hinata beamed in excitement, unable to contain it in his small body, quickly scrambling to his feet on his board. He was careful to keep his distance as Nishinoya rode along to catch an approaching wave. He picked up speed at the same rate as the wave did, and it got bigger and bigger as he got closer and closer. “THUNDEEEER!” He whipped his board around, picking up speed on the curl, then turning again to do a snap (and splashing up a spray of water that Daichi had to duck to avoid), as a result doing a figure-of-8 as he rode along the wave. Hinata cheered, waving his arms in the air, managing to somehow keep his balance on his teetering board.
“Noyaaaa!” He screamed. “You gotta teach me that, please, please! It’s so cool!”
“I dunno, it’s a pretty advanced move.” Was his reply, even thought Daichi knew for a fact that it wasn’t. A roundhouse cutback was one of the easier moves in fact, and making it end with a snap (thus making it Nishinoya’s own unique move) didn’t increase the difficulty all that much. But, he let Nishinoya bask in Hinata’s excited praise. “You’ve just mastered the snap and the tail slide, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, but a roundhouse is just a snap but twice.” Hinata crouched down to paddle himself closer to an oncoming wave, waiting for it to break.
“Exactly! So, you just gotta—“ Daichi cut him off. Noya was good, but he definitely wasn’t the best teacher.
“Hinata, maybe it’s not the best idea to start with that.” Daichi said, trying to soothe his excitement. He was keenly aware of the wind picking up, making it hard to hear each other, and though he didn’t notice it, it was pushing their boards towards the nearby headland. “I was thinking we’d start with some tail slides, I’d have to see what the weather’s like afterwards, but if it’s okay—“
“Daichi, I’ll be fine!”
Famous last words, he thought grimly, as Hinata lined his board up to catch the next wave. Both Daichi and Nishinoya allowed the water to push them back and to the side with each bump in the water, so they were well out of his way.
He knew there was no way to chill Hinata out when he was challenged. Especially if it was a difficult or bordering-on-dangerous one. It only riled him up more. Daichi couldn’t even refuse him without the risk of him trying it on his own, which would only end in disaster, in the form of a broken bone or a broken board.
“Alright,” Daichi said slowly, but loudly, so the ginger would hear him. “To do Noya’s move,” He refused to call it the Rolling Thunder, “First it’s a roundhouse. You do a figure-of-8 before the wave breaks, you gotta build up some speed to do it. Whip around quickly so you don’t end up sailing backwards. You already know how to do a snap, just turn quickly, leaning heavily on your left foot, got that?”
“So I gotta do a WHOOSH, and then a WHOOM, a SWISH, then a POW and a SPLASH, right?!”
Daichi paused, then just sighed. “Sure.”
The wave picked up speed as it approached Hinata, and he stood back up on his board, his paddling helping him speed towards it.
The wave got higher, and higher, as he sped across it, but performing the manoeuvre with relative ease. He didn’t manage the snap at the end, but that was to be expected for a first try. Noya yelled with glee, applauding, but Daichi was busy watching the water.
The wave hadn’t broken yet, only getting higher, almost as tall as him (and he was standing on his freakin’ board), and faster.
“Hinata!” He yelled, managing to get a few quick words out. “Watch out, you’re gonna—“
The wave broke with a crash, pushing Hinata off of his board and directly into Daichi’s chest. He squealed, and Daichi grabbed his arm before the wave swallowed them whole, pushing them violently below the water, and knocking the breath right out of their bodies.
It had happened to Daichi before, but never while teaching. He’d probably fallen off of a board more than he’d surfed waves.
Hinata struggled in his protective hold, fighting for air that had been knocked out of him when they both collided. Somewhere above water, they could hear Nishinoya yelling, and the splashing sound of him jumping off the board and into the cold, salty water.
Daichi felt Hinata being pulled up and out of his grip. Noya’s got him, he thought vaguely. Noya’s got him.
The ginger was small, but damn, a wave-fuelled collide made him feel like he’d been hit in the chest with six bowling balls. He couldn’t take a breath in the water, but his throat was in agony, he had to breathe. Another wave crashed above him, only pushing him further into the water despite his desperate yet uncoordinated struggle upwards. His head throbbed, then his chest, then his lungs, making everything ten times worse.
The screaming of his two protégées got weaker and weaker as another wave pushed him under, keeping him from any hope of oxygen. He couldn’t feel the board tether around his ankle anymore... Shit. Well, it was worn, it must have snapped...
Everything was dark blue now, he wasn’t sure if he was so far underwater that he could no longer see the sun or if he was facing the depths. Either way, his arms could no longer move, so there was no chance of swimming anywhere.
No chance at all.
Before his eyes closed, a quick flash of a cloud of silver passed his vision. He didn’t even have time to process what the hell it could have been.
—
Breathing a sudden gasp, Daichi’s eyes shot open, and he felt a damp hand leave his chest and his cheek.
“Oh—“ An unfamiliar voice gasped, and in the corner of his vision, he saw someone backing off from his aching body. “Breathing.”
He tried to reply, with what he wasn’t quite sure, but instead was forced to turn sideways and cough up a mouthful of salt water that made his tongue burn.
“Fuck—“ He choked out, his eyes stinging with sudden tears. Sitting up, something hard dug into his thigh, and briefly he realised that he was sitting on the black rocks of the headland near the beach. Not far from where he fell off his board, and they—
He looked at the stranger, his eyes wide.
It wasn’t either Hinata or Nishinoya sitting beside him, no, it was a silver-haired stranger with wide brown eyes and a graze on his cheek.
“What..?” He didn’t have the coherent thoughts at that moment to ask the right questions. “Where.. Where’s Hinata and Nishinoya?” He asked. “The ginger and the— the small guy. They were with me.”
The stranger blinked, just shaking his head, wordless.
He leaned close to Daichi, opening his mouth to finally speak, but it took him a moment. “Loud boys?” He asked.
“Um— Yeah.” Daichi’s eyes flicked to every detail of the man’s face. Apart from the graze and a beauty mark below one eye, his skin was completely perfect. His hair was wet, sticking to his forehead, so maybe he’d gone into the water to drag Daichi out. His eyes travelled lower. He was shirtless, for a start. Maybe a surfer too? Or just a swimmer? He looked down to see if he was wearing either wetsuit pants or trunks, but—
Oh.
“Ah.” The man nodded, uncaring of Daichi’s sudden choke of shock. “On the— the shore. Running over on the rocks, see?”
His massive, golden-orange tail pointed to the distant beach, where the two young surfers were sprinting across the sand, their boards left behind.
But Daichi didn’t even look. Didn’t care, when there was an apparent merman before him, just sitting right there, like it was completely normal to have a glittering tail with scales and— and— were those gills on his neck?
The merman stared at him, glimmers of curiosity but also concern and a little bit of annoyance in his dark eyes. He seized something by his side, Daichi’s board he realised after a moment, and practically threw it at him with surprising ease. The point hit his temple, and in an instant, he was feeling twice as lightheaded than he already did.
“Next time, be more careful!” The silver and orange angel said strictly. His voice sounded like it could be soft and kind. He looked soft and kind. He was slender and strong-looking and—
Yup, that was about as much as Daichi could take.
His eyes fluttered closed and in an instant, he passed out, his head making a worrying ‘crack’ against the rock.
—
“Is he dead?”
“No, he’s not dead. You’ve asked a million times already! He’s not dead.”
“Looks dead to me.”
“Yeah, well he isn’t.”
“... Are you sure?”
“Yes! He has a pulse and he’s breathing.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, dumbass! Get outta my way!”
Even with his aching and sleep-clogged mind, Daichi could recognise the high tones of Hinata’s voice, with a worried edge.
He tried to raise his head, to tell Hinata he was sorry he was so careless, or he was sorry he cut their lesson short, but a firm hand pressed down on his forehead.
“Relax, keep your head down.”
“Is he awake?!”
“Shut up! Dumbass, what did you say his name was?”
“It’s Sawamura Daichi! And I’ve already told you, my name isn’t dumbass, it’s Hinata Shouyou!”
“Shut up! I’m busy.”
The other man’s voice was unfamiliar and harsh, but his hand on Daichi’s forehead was warm.
His eyes opened slowly but surely, scanning the ceiling above him for any clue as to where he was. Old, worn bamboo held up the roof tiles and palm leaves above him. The smell of smoke hit his nostrils and made his head swim, but he knew immediately where he was.
“Ukai...?”
Daichi looked into unfamiliar dark blue eyes suddenly above him. “Mmm, no, I’m not Ukai. He ran with the other short guy to go get… Takara or something.”
“Takeda.” Hinata corrected, as he rushed to Daichi’s side. He was laying on the shop counter, he could feel the register pressing into his side and see the magazine rack in the corner of his eye. “Daichi, do you feel okay? What the
heck happened?!”
He sat up, and this time the blue eyed man allowed him. The back of his head throbbed with pain, and without even checking, he knew there’d be a bump there. He took a deep breath, pushing himself so his legs to hang off of the counter. His vision was still slightly fuzzy, but he could make the things around him out; Hinata looked like he was about to start crying, and the blue-eyed man was looking at Hinata like he was insane.
“I… Feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.” He answered honestly, his voice cracking. His mouth still tasted of salt.
As he processed the next question, it all came flooding back to him at once, and he was surprised that he didn’t suddenly pass out yet again.
Did he really see a merman? Was that real, or an oxygen deprivation-induced hallucination of his dream man? Except, with a fish tail and gills.
“I don’t… Know.” He wasn’t exactly lying. He didn’t really know what happened; if the silver and orange merman wasn’t real, then how the hell did he make it? How was he alive?
“Well, we found you on the rocks.” Hinata started, stumbling closer to him. The yellow hoodie he wore was partly soaked through, from his wetsuit underneath. “Noya was yelling the whole way over, both of us kinda were. We panicked— We thought you’d be dead or something! But we found you next to your board—“
“Next to my board?”
That was impossible. No way.
“Yeah! You must’ve washed up with it or something! So anyways, we put you on top of it and carried you to the beach, then Ukai saw what happened and ran off with Noya to get Takeda.” Hinata jabbed his thumb in the blue-eyed guy’s direction, a look of distaste on his face. “Then I was stuck with this nasty guy to give you first aid.”
“No, I was stuck with you.” He hissed. “And my name is Kageyama!”
“Okay, Bakageyama—“
“Shut up!” Kageyama yelled, pushing Hinata out of the way, so he could get to Daichi. He was brandishing a cooling pad and bandages in his hands. “Here. I’m not really sure what to do with these, Ukai just told me to give ‘em to you.”
“Uhhh… Thank you.” Daichi said, taking them from him. The cooling pad soothed his hand, so he pressed it to a sore spot on his forehead, and breathed a sigh of both relief and pain. “So… Who exactly are you?”
Kageyama just shrugged, ignoring that even Hinata looked interested to hear his answer. “I just moved here a week ago. There was a poster in the ferry port about a job going here, so I applied. I think I was the only applicant.”
“So you’re new to the island?” Hinata asked, getting up close to him, staring him in the eyes, like a curious puppy. He jumped up and down, so that he was eye level with Kageyama at least some of the time. “I’m Hinata Shouyou—“
“— Yeah, you said that already, idiot—“
“— I’m a surfer and I’m gonna be the surfing champion of the island one day!”
“Surfing?” Kageyama smirked with a snort of laughter. “Uh, alright. Dumbass.”
The bell above the shop door sounded, shrill and high, it made Daichi’s head hurt again. At the sound of Takeda’s concerned rambling, he sighed.
Takeda was a paramedic, stationed across the other side of the bay. Usually he only had to work during peak tourism seasons, when kids would be choking on food or teenagers would dive into shallow areas of the bay, but he always insisted on sticking around in the colder months, “just in case”. Daichi supposed that was extremely lucky, now.
“Daichi!” He exclaimed, weaving around the wooden shelves in the small shop, to where the injured man was sitting on the counter. “How do you feel? Is your vision alright?”
“Mmhm. I’m fine.”
Behind Takeda was a casual-looking Ukai, a freshly lit cigarette in his mouth, and a panting Nishinoya, who’d evidently been running back and forth all across the bay in a panic. His cheeks were flushed and, like Hinata, his hoodie was soaked through by his wetsuit.
“You’re alive!” He gasped, and Ukai burst into laughter.
“You thought he was dead?”
“We both did!” Nishinoya breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, thank the ocean gods.”
Takeda placed down a white first aid kit beside Daichi, rummaging around in it. “Can you tell me where you are?”
“Uhh, Ukai’s store.”
“Yeah. And what’s your name?”
“S-Sawamura Daichi.”
“Okay.” His answers seemed to satisfy the medic, and he waited patiently as he wrapped a bandage around his head, to cover any grazes on his forehead and the bump on the back of his head. It throbbed, and he had to grit his teeth to stop himself crying out in pain. “I can’t believe you, of all people, were so careless…”
“I know,” He sighed, “It was totally my fault, I was too focused on the water, instead of Hinata…”
Takeda finally retracted his hands after a minute of fixing bandages and manoeuvring wet hair. “There. That should help a little.”
“Thank you.”
“How are you feeling?”
That was a good question. How was he feeling?
Confused, certainly.
“Uh, Takeda— I think I hallucinated something while I was out on the water.”
“Hallucinated?” He raised an eyebrow behind his thick-rimmed glasses. Daichi decided he didn’t like the look of concern on his face. He wasn’t crazy.
Ukai perked up, blowing a short cloud of smoke out through his mouth. It even grabbed Hinata and Kageyama’s attention, and they stopped in their loud bickering to look over at Daichi.
“Yeah, uh, I saw a… Guy.”
“A guy?”
“Yeah. Silver hair, beauty mark under his eye… Orange fish tail…”
“You saw a merman?”
“I guess…”
Takeda nodded, slowly exhaling through his nose. He stared at Daichi for a moment. “Alright. I’m sure it was nothing, just your brain’s lack of oxygen… I’ll get you some pain meds for through the week.” His expression turned stern. “And no surfing for a week.”
“What?!” Nishinoya burst out in shock, pushing past Ukai to get to Takeda. “Not fair! Don’t ban him just because we were reckless!”
“What the hell?!” Hinata was upset too, both of them much more than Daichi was.
“You heard me! No surfing. For. A. Week.”
“Fine,” Daichi sighed, groaning as he pushed himself off of the counter to stand up. His legs ached from the sudden pressure. “If that’s what you think, fine.” In normal circumstances, he’d object just as much as Hinata and Nishinoya. But for now, he was unbelievably tired. He could barely put one foot in front of the other, could barely lift his arms. He just wanted to go home.
—
By the next day, Daichi was itching to take on the ocean again.
He thought he’d hold out longer than a day, to be completely honest, but despite the pain in his head, arms and legs when he woke up from a 10-hour nap, and despite the fact that on his pain medication it said he shouldn’t push himself too hard, he needed to go back to the beach.
If not to surf, to prove to himself he hadn’t been seeing things.
Before he’d gone to bed, after a long and almost scaldingly hot bath, all he’d thought about was his saviour from that day, the merman that had pulled him and his board from the water.
It haunted the dreams of his 10-hour nap. He could see his silver hair stand out against the blue background of the sea and sky, even his scolding voice made it into his dreams, repeating that he had to be more careful.
He had no doubt that what he saw was real. There was a man that saved him, and he had a tail, damn it! It wasn’t a fancy towel or a weird shade of spray tan on his legs; that was a tail.
And he’d prove it to himself.
The quest to leave his apartment was a challenging one. Even just dragging himself out of bed made his head ache. After a quick breakfast of natto and white rice, he took two painkiller pills, which actually helped the ache at the back of his eyes as he got dressed. His usual ensemble of sweatpants and a hoodie would probably do, but he found himself reaching for a dark blue shirt and trousers instead.
Locking the door behind him, he left his little apartment. He lived beside a woman in her 80s, their houses were conjoined and both only had one floor, but he had always felt at home there.
The path was made of uneven and cracked slabs, if he had a penny for every time he’d tripped on them, he’d have enough cash to fix the damn things.
A walk to the beach was only 8 minutes at most, 5 on a day when he wasn’t aching from head-to-toe. It was handy for his practise on weekends and most evenings, and for his part-time job at the library by the bay.
Yes, the library. It was a little out of character, but it was the only local job available at the time, and with friends working there, it was an obvious choice.
The people he passed on his way to the promenade all waved and smiled to him, and he waved and smiled back. A few asked how he was injured, or why he had bandages on his head, and he tried to keep his answers as vague as possible out of embarrassment. From his flushed cheeks and nervous laughter, most could guess what had really happened.
The path was cobbled and practically spotless, no litter or gum in sight. The beachside town was a haven, the whole island was, and everyone living there tried their best to keep it that way. The shops on the coast, like jewels by the sea, added plenty of colour, and the people added personality and warmth. Daichi wouldn’t wish to live anywhere else.
The beach was almost completely empty except for a few families and dog walkers, nobody that would report Daichi to Takeda or Ukai for being back by the sea so soon. He strategically avoided passing by the front of Ukai’s store too, just in case that Kageyama guy turned out to be an eagle-eyed snitch. He didn’t know him well enough yet.
The wind was cold but light, and it made the strands of hair sticking out of his bandages stand up on end with every gust. As he looked out, the sea was a lot wilder than yesterday, and he was glad to see that nobody was surfing in it. In all honesty, he wouldn’t have been surprised to see Hinata there, but maybe Daichi’s injury had finally taught him a thing or two about limits.
He stepped down onto the sand, slipping his sandals off as he walked. The black rocks were solid and slippery beneath his feet, and each tiny misstep made his stomach lurch in fear. He didn’t fancy hitting his head again, thanks very much. If he didn’t die from it this time, Takeda would certainly kill him. Then, Hinata and Nishinoya would revive him and kill him again.
As he got closer to the familiar spot where he’d woken up the day before, his eyes wandered to the water, and further onto the rocks, at the headland. Apparently, he’d been dragged pretty far inland… A few meters away from where the water crashed against the rocks.
There were no signs of any mermaid being there, then or ever before. Would there even be signs of such a thing? Like… A loose scale? No, nothing glittering or orange stood out against the black rock… There was truly nothing left behind.
Daichi turned his back to the water’s edge, peering into a nearby cave in the side of the headland. Nothing there either, besides a scary level of darkness…—
Something hard hit his back and landed on the rocks with a CRACK, not even remotely drowned out by the sound of the waves crashing into the rocks. He hissed in pain, jumping forward and spinning to look at the water, but nothing was there. At his feet, though… Was an orange clump of coral.
Slowly, he leant down to pick it up. It was damp and cold to the touch, but looked like it was freshly broken from where it had grown from, it had sharp edges and was still brightly coloured.
Without any warning, another chunk of coral hit him, in the chest this time, right in the spot where Hinata had been thrown into him the day before. He wheezed in pain, doubling over. “Oh, for shit’s sake— Can you stop?!” He groaned.
“Oh— Sorry.” That soft voice was familiar.
Daichi’s head snapped up, only to see a pair of brown eyes staring right back at him, wide and curious.
The merman had his arms folded on the black rock of the coast, his lower body still in the water while his head rested on his arms. He looked oddly casual for someone that had just lobbed sold chunks of coral at an already-injured man.
“What part of ‘be more careful’ did you not understand?”
Oh, there was that scolding tone again.