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CHAPTER THREE: SAVIOR
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Eyes like the brightest feathers of a bluebird.
Mizu turned away. Her eyes fell calmly from the woman's face and then closed. Her head followed suit.
The woman began stammering, perhaps she offended by staring too long, but no voice came out. It was like hollow air blown into a broken flute.
The woman's eyes dropped to her body, and her arms immediately enveloped her breasts. Dazed and confused, she noticed much too late she was naked.
Sensing her panic, Mizu stood up and clicked off the clutch of her samurai cloak. From behind her, she placed the cloak around her shoulders. The woman's bright red cheeks contrasted sharply with the navy blue of the cloak.
Looking down at the woman from behind her, Mizu caught the fleeting glimpse of a long, scale-like organ, twitching beneath the fish. Doing a double-take, what she thought was a mermaid tail were mere human legs. The woman's ankles were ridden with what looked like rope burn, and bruises trailed up and down her shaking thighs.
My brain is playing tricks on me, Mizu thought, blanketing her in her samurai cloak.
She shivered as the chattering of her teeth tried to thank Mizu wordlessly. To gather warmth on her naked body, she brought her knees up to her chest and cocooned herself under the warm cloak. It smelled incredibly like her savior, as if Mizu herself was on top of her.
The samurai walked around the woman and towards the port of the deck. Two wooden crates lay side by side. The woman watched closely, and she realized in dismay that Mizu was a man.
Not my savior.
Captor.
She stared in dread as he opened the chest by the port. What was he going to pull out? Rope? Make me into his plaything?
On the contrary, Mizu pulled out a thick wool coat. On freezing nights when she had to steer through tempestuous storms, she stored extra coats ready for her.
"Put this on," Mizu said, curtly.
The woman's eyes fell on the garment. The wool was luxurious and from a different fabric than she was used to seeing. Exported, then.
...For me?
Her eyes then went up to Mizu's face, devoid of expression yet abundantly patient with her.
She hastily accepted the coat, bowing her head, and finding an ounce of her voice. "Th-thank-"
Mizu cut her off, walking back towards the ship. "Follow me."
She stared at the back of Mizu's ponytail as she disappeared into the ship.
A freezing gust of wind roamed her body. She hurriedly put the wool coat on, feeling how soft and gentle it was on her swollen skin. She jumped up in the air to catch up, trekking her wobbly legs behind Mizu.
Her weak knees gave out, and the slippery soles of her feet caused her to crash even louder. She fell with a comical thud.
With an arched brow, Mizu turned around, appearing from the darkness inside. She saw the woman holding herself up with her wrists, gasping for air like a floundering fish. The wool coat fell from her shoulders, and Mizu's samurai cloak around her body barely hung on. She could see the white goosebumps up her arms, legs, stomach, and the hardening of her nipples from the freezing cold.
She looked... ridiculously helpless.
Mizu sighed. She forgot how to be around people. How to help.
The woman lifted her face. By then, Mizu was gone from her spot. She looked to her right, but no one, and then her left — Mizu was now beside her, faces inches apart and tightening the cloak around her. She carefully tied a knot below the woman's neck to keep the cloak in place.
The woman stared at her peculiar, blue-bird-like eyes. When Mizu raised them, she quickly tore hers away, learning that staring was incredibly offensive to her captor.
The samurai grabbed the wool coat next and placed it around her shoulders. The arms of the coat hung lifelessly by her body.
"Th-thank—"
She wasn't done. Mizu squatted down to her level, whisked her legs off the ground with one swift movement, and carried her bridal style. The woman panicked, grabbing the garments in place to keep her breasts shielded.
"I—I can walk!" she squeaked out, her voice ripping in half with every syllable.
Mizu looked down at her, unconvinced. Those icy blue eyes seemed to know it all.
Yes. She speaks Japanese, but her accent is odd. Mizu noted.
Red in the face, the woman looked away in embarrassment as she allowed Mizu to carry her into the ship — for what she did not entirely know, but could only guess. The men in this world, she learned, were to be feared.
Below the deck, she took her to the spare room by the captain's quarters, her own. She opened the door with the hand below the woman's knees, was careful to walk through the narrow doorway so she wouldn't hit her head, and then laid her down carefully on the bed. As her back felt the futon, she protectively crossed her arms in an X over the samurai cloak, pinning it closely to her chest.
There were no candles in the spare lodging. The only beam of sunlight came from the small, glass window in the corner. With shut eyes, she braced herself, desiring badly to be on the other side of the window, even though it meant drowning again.
This is the part... where he's going to make me pay up for saving me. Where he's going to force himself on—
"I'll leave a dry kimono by the door. Sleep."
Sogo stared wide-eyed as Mizu leaned by the door. The light of the dimly lit hallway outlined her body, and her blue eyes looked like they glowed in the dark.
They looked like gems. Exquisite. Allured by them, she forgot herself and let her defenses lower.
"...Sogo," she croaked out. "My name... You are?"
Mizu closed the door, not saying a word nor caring about her name, and she walked back up to the deck to continue her work.
It took Sogo a solid three seconds to react to the obvious snub.
Insulted by his blatant rudeness, she kicked her feet and threw her hands in the air, cursing about men being the source of all problems in the world.
Son of a bitch!
*
Mizu deboned the fish she caught in the cooking quarters. After removing the head and fins, she opened its flesh side-down on the chopping board. It was a sight and scent that could've made most people sick, but coming from a fishing village, this was standard.
As she prepared dinner, her mind analyzed all the facts and created trails to solutions. There was someone else here. Fowler's here too. Fowler screams every night like a crazy banshee. She'll hear him.
Will that be a problem?
Her technique of gutting the fish became more impatient as the recurring question demanded to know: what are you doing, Mizu?
If this Sogo becomes a problem around Fowler... what then? She could drop her off at the nearest port, wherever that was. Or throw her back into the water if it came to that.
But what if she can help you? The subconscious voice of budding hope returned to Mizu's head like an unwelcomed, pushy visitor.
Help me with what? Fuck off.
She couldn't forget how helpless Sogo looked earlier, lying there like a freezing animal in the cold. Could she survive in a foreign country alone? They were no longer near Japan at this point in the sea. Well beyond that.
Mizu suddenly stopped deboning the fish as the thought occurred to her.
...We are no longer near Japan, yet she speaks fluent Japanese.
Just who was this Sogo?
*
Mizu didn't realize the timing when it happened. It wasn't until days after recovering this woman from the sea did it occur to her, that Fowler mysteriously stopped screaming.
His agony ceased, and no longer did his bellows haunt the ship at night. He even showed signs of improving, of regaining mental clarity and healing from the terrible episode of sea insanity.
Fate, destiny, or perhaps misfortune delivered her from the teeth of the waves.
Once prepared with dinner, Mizu went down to the brigs to check on him with boiled fish, rice, and purified water. Enough food to keep him alive, like a pet in a cage. She left the plate of food on the floor where he'd eat through the steel bars, and his wide, large wrists always bruised from maneuvering through them.
As she turned to leave, she heard it:
She's beautiful, isn't she?
Taken aback, she whipped her head to Fowler. He was still asleep on the flimsy wooden frame held together by rope and leather.
Talking in his sleep, Mizu decided. And firmly so. She was so certain that the thought wasn't her own that she never considered it again.
As a human, she made the grave mistake of falling victim to desire. Now as an onryō, it had no place in her psyche.
人魚 。