ningyo 人魚 blue eye samurai

Chapter Ten: Still Healing

Sogo's eyes widened in immediate recognition, as she gasped, and Mizu thought nothing of it.

Immediately, Sogo dropped the corpse, his head hitting the floor with a slam! and she went to all the others, ripping over their shirts and finding the same tattoos.

"What is it?" Mizu asked.

Sogo paced, adrenaline fueling her body as she realized, "They're not regular pirates."

"What does that mean?" Mizu's face followed her as she walked back and forth.

Lost in her thoughts, the ningyo didn't answer her. When she crossed Mizu again, Mizu grabbed her shoulders and stopped her.

"Hey, hey. What does it mean?"

"Pirates of Ryujin... are wanted for raiding European trade ships. A hefty bounty is offered for each pirate delivered to the Dutch authorities in Formosa. Dead or alive."

Sogo's eyes widened in mortification as she realized —

"And we just threw two overboard."

She ran to the edge of the boat and peered her head overboard, scanning the water for their bulky bodies.

Mizu reached her side, putting her hand out between Sogo and the edge. "You're not thinking of getting them."

Sogo smiled, kicking off her sandals. She pulled her kimono off her shoulders, and Mizu's eyes widened as her blue eyes dropped to her naked body.

"It's okay. The sea isn't violent today, so the gods must be pleased with us. And it's so warm today, isn't it..?"

"S—"

The woman already dove into the water in perfect form. Mizu reached her hand out, as if being able to grab her in the last second, but was far too late.

She peered her head over, frantically finding Sogo in the water. The mystical water sparkled under the sunlight like a mirror. How beautiful and vast it looked with an uncountable number of corpses.

"Sogo!" she yelled.

She saw a head of raven hair bob up near the bowsprit, and she immediately ran to that side of the ship. Sogo was up for some air momentarily, and then immersed her head below the water, swimming in another direction.

"Please, please, please," out of breath, Mizu was begging, her heart pounding in her chest in anxiety.

On the other side of the boat, she heard gasping for air. She turned her head in confusion and saw that Sogo had reappeared again, but all the way by the opposite end of the boat in extraordinary speed.

She's fast.

It was incredible, and Mizu ran to her location. Under her arm, the nude swimmer victoriously had the body of one pirate, grinning and waving her free arm up at Mizu. The other corpse was lost to sea, and likely forever, but one extra was consolation enough.

Mizu had thrown her net and yanked Sogo and the corpse back up to the boat. As her bare feet hit the deck, she caught her breath, hands on her knees, and started laughing giddily.