The journey to the surface was long and tiring for Aiko, she had run out of food halfway through her journey and had to hunt. She had decided that instead of going to the land closest to her home, which she had just found was a country called Korea, she was going to go back to her birth waters, Japan.
She decided to go back to Japan, as one time when Aiko was only a little pup her mother had told her a story of when a mer wanted to go on land, if they turned human in their birth waters or on land that was connected to their birth waters. The gods would bless the mer with common knowledge of the human world and would turn with what humans called clothes on, so no one knew what they were.
Aiko figured since she was half mer she would hopefully have the blessing of the gods.
After many days of travelling Aiko finally made it back to her birth waters. It was a welcomed sight, as from what she could remember when she left this place it was unlivable. Now it was just as good as her old home.
She swam into the new yet old waters and sniffed around. She had to be careful as she had no idea if these waters were claimed to anyone. After sniffing around for a little bit, she could not smell any trace of claim, so she advanced further into the area.
She looked around for a bit, reminiscing in old smells mixed with the new smells. It felt like home. She made her way over to a small cliff side where a bunch of caves were. Swimming inside a random one she looked around. It was about medium sized, smaller than her den in Korea, but had enough space for two Sirens or Mers to live comfortably. To one side of the den was a small ledge, and she placed her bag down. Pulling out the letter again and reading one line over and over again "For your safety I recommend you turn into a human and live on land to be safe" She had to go on land, but the ocean was her home. After a few moments of re-reading the line over and over again an idea popped into Aiko's mind.
"I can still live in the water, but I need to spend a majority of my time on land. Yeah, yeah that's work, father never said I had to be on land he 'recommended' I live on land" She drawled to herself outloud. Yeah that works, she's not completely going against her fathers fishes and she gets to stay in the ocean from time to time.
With her problem solved she left the den to go find some kelp to make a nest out of. Swimming around she finally found a small area or kelp growth and started to pluck the kelp out. Looking around every few seconds to make sure other mers or sirens were approaching her. After collecting enough kelp to make her nest she made her way back to her den to start making it.
Once she had made her nest she immediately flopped down onto it. Wiggling around to find a comfortable position. Once comfortable she turned her head towards the ceiling, her new life had only just begun, and tomorrow she was going to see if she was blessed by the gods.
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Aiko woke to the sun creeping in from the entrance of her den. She slowly opened her eyes, rubbing at them to remove the sleep that formed as she slept. She stretched her arms above her head, yawning while she did so. She got up off her nest and made her way towards the entrance of her den, she had to find some food. What she would eat, well she had been eating lots of meat for the past few days so it was probably about time she ate something like seaweed. She swam out of her den and headed in a different direction to when she went looking for kelp yesterday.
She swam for a little bit and eventually found some seaweed. She picked out a few pieces and ate them as she kept swimming around, picking out the best pieces to eat. After eating she swam back to her den and grabbed the letter her father left her behind, reading the letter over and over again.
Eventually she put the letter back down and swam out of her den, swimming towards the surface, where she would take her first steps into the human world.
Breaching the surface, Aiko looked around, she had to find an area where no one would see her. Swimming towards what seemed to be a cove that had no human activity from what Aiko could see from the water. Inside the cove was beautiful, the ocean waves lapping up against the beach in a gentle pattern, the almost pristine white sand, and the many lush trees and bushes that lined the rocks at the back of the cove. All in all it was a beautiful cove, and now this cove had a purpose, to shield humans from Aiko's transformation, well that's if she was blessed.
That thought ran in Aiko's mind. What if she could not become a human? What would she do if she could not become a human? Would she have to live alone in the ocean? Would she have to go find her father? No, no she couldn't, it would go against her fathers wishes. Swimming towards the beach she pulled herself onto the sand, the sand was warm, sticking to her wet webbed hands. It wasn't necessarily a nice feeling on her hands, but it was one that aiko would prefer to experience.
How did she become a human? Did she have to become completely dry to transform or did she have to will it for it to happen. Taking a deep breath, and closing her eyes tight, she thought of being a human, having legs and feet and toes. She kept thinking about having legs, when she started to get a tingling sensation in her tail, it was faint at first but it slowly became more noticeable as she kept thinking. The feeling kept getting stronger until it suddenly went away. Aiko opened her eyes, looking down to where her tail was. But there was no tail, instead there was a pair of human legs in its place.
She had done it. She had actually done it! She was blessed by gods. Wait? If she was a human now did she no longer have webbing between her fingers? Aiko picked up her hands and brought them up to her face for inspection. She did in fact still have webbing between her fingers but it was faint, a more see-through purple compared to her more normal vibrant purple.
After staring at her hands for a while a sudden headache made its presence. Information Aiko had never known of the human world barging into her brain. She placed a hand to her head, squeezing her eyes shut. The pain really hurt, information about human social norms, like wearing clothes and how to walk, over riding her hybrid instincts. Then just as suddenly as it came, it disappeared.
Aiko sat on the sand for what felt like an eternity before she realised she had to walk. There was no way she was going to try and stand up without having something to support herself, if she was to fall over. Even though she suddenly now knew how to walk, it didn't mean she was going to be great at it.
Looking around the cove, she spotted a rock, it looked big enough, but not too big that Aiko would not be able to hold herself up. She crawled over to the rock, it looked smaller up close, but still big enough for Aiko to use to stand up.
Aiko placed her hands on the rock and pulled herself up, it was a weird feeling, it was like she was pulling herself up onto a rock as a mer, except for the fact that she could now stand up. As she slowly rose from the ground, she plated her feet so they were flat on the sand. It was an old feeling having sand between her toes. As she was rising to her feet her legs started to shake, Aiko pushed through tho, she had to stand up. Once she fully rose to her feet she let out a whoop. She had stood up and the next task was trying to walk. Placing one shaky foot in front of the other she slowly started to walk, she did have one hand on the rock at all times.
After walking around the rock, and gaining confidence, she walked around the cove looking for an exit, she just had to explore the human world now that she could. She wandered around the cove for a little bit, checking the walls for any sign of an exit. After a few minutes she finally found an exit to the cove, it was a small cave that led to who knows where. She walked through the cave and eventually came to a beach. The sunlight beaming down on her, She had to squint her eyes as the ocean reflected the sun. Looking around she saw many people, kids and adults playing in the water, kids building sand up in some odd shapes and adults chatting away sitting on something that was not sand. She walked down the beach when she suddenly got another headache, Aiko clutched her head. This headache was bad, worse than the one she had in the cove. Blackspots danced across her field of vision.
She was going to pass out.
Black filled her vision as she felt herself fall, the last thing she remembered was not her hitting the sand, but warm arms wrapped around her as she succumbed to unconsciousness.
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Aiko woke up to a blinding white room, the fluorescent lights casting the room in a light glow. She rubbed her eyes against the blinding lights and whiteness of the room. She sat up in her bed, wait, when did she get in a bed? Also when did she end up in this room? The last thing she remembered was passing out on the beach and being caught by some stranger before she slipped into unconsciousness. What was this room she was in?
She looked around the room, it was a small room, plain white walls, a small chair in the far corner of the room. A small window with its curtains drawn back on the wall next to her. Looking to her right, there was a door that must be how she was put in this room and another bed. Surprisingly the bed was not empty, under the covers was a person. He had dark brown hair, and a sharp jaw line. One hand was out of the blanket, at first glance it looked like any normal hand, but upon closer inspection, Aiko could make out a slight orange colour between the fingers.
Aiko brought one hand up to her face, taking a look at it. The person's hand had the same thing. She put her hand back back down. And looked back at the man. 'Was this person just like her? Did they also work for her father? Wait if they did then wh-'
"Got a fucking starting problem?" the person (if they really were a person) said in a groggy voice. Aiko blinked. What the… What was this person's problem? Was staring rude in the human world. In the mer world staring was a sign of protection. Staring must be rude in the human world, judging by this person's reaction.
"Sorry," Aiko mumbles as she turns away, staring out the window. She could not see the beach from where she was. How would she make it back to the beach? She has no idea how to navigate a place such as this. Wait, where was she anyways?
She pondered that thought for a while before she realized the person beside her had not made any noise. She turned her head back towards the person, they still seemed to be facing the other way, contemplating something as they stared at the wall.
Aiko took this moment to take in the person's features once more, looking towards the hand that was once under the covers. The hands fingers were more spread out, so Aiko took the opportunity to look closer at the inbetween of his fingers. It had the slight orange webbing as well. Taking in the new information she looked up back towards the back of the person's head. As she did so the person in question turned around with a scowl on his face, it was an unpleasant facial expression to witness on such a person.
'Jesus crist, seriously. You have a fucking staring problem," The person mumbled, cocking his head to the side in annocance.
"I'm sorry," Aiko said, looking down in shame, lacing her hands together to fiddle with. The person let out a huff, and Aiko looked up. The scowl was still prominent on his face but it didn't convey the same annoyance that it had before. Was now the right time to ask this person if they were just like her? There was no harm in asking right now was there?
"Are you a siren?"
The person visibly paled at her question, then promptly passed out right back onto the bed. That was not a normal reaction to such a simple question, asking someone that in the mer world was as simple as saying 'hi' to someone as you swam past. So maybe there was harm in asking such a question.