The Fine Thread

6

"Hey Hinata?" Suga asks, staring off past the rockline.

"Yes Suga?" Hinata responds, swimming up to Suga.

"Did that ship ever come back..?" Suga asks, still staring off past the rockline.

"I don't remember.. Hey, did you guys remember that ship coming back?" Hinata calls down to everyone in the soft sand.

"No I don't think so." Daichi calls back. Hinata looks over to where Suga is looking, and sees the bottom of the ship, sinking slowly down into the rough sea. Hinata's eyes widen, as he sees the bottom of the ship explode, making it sink faster.

"Asahi! Rockline now!" Hinata orders, swimming off quickly. Asahi nods, swimming off towards the rockline along with Suga, leaving the human boys confused, until they look over to see the sinking ship with their fathers on it. The boys try swimming towards the ship, but are stopped by a yelling Suga.

"No, don't! The waters are dangerous, we don't wanna have to save more people than necessary." Suga orders, swimming backwards.

"What are you guys gonna do?!" Daichi yells.

"Bring them to the surface to breathe!" Hinata shouts back, crossing the rockline and getting hit with a strong current. All 3 mermen swim towards the shipwreck, almost getting swept away by the strong currents while trying to save the humans. All 3 of them can bring up 2 people at once, placing them on floating pieces of the ship or rocks poking up from the water. They try to save as many men as possible without any of them passing out, but 2 men sink to the sandy floor.

"Hinata!" Asahi shouts, gesturing to the sinking men.

"Got it!" Hinata shouts, diving down quickly, just to see a man who looks very similar to Tsukishima, sinking to the bottom of the sea. Hinata swims faster, trying to grab the 2 men who are struggling to keep their eyes open and their mouths closed. Hinata finally grabs the blond man by the scruff of his shirt, grabbing the other sailor as he floats past. The ginger starts swimming up with all his might, trying to get the 2 men air before it's too late. Hinata breaks the surface of the water, dragging the men's heads up, breaking the water.

"Are they the last ones?!" Asahi yells, taking the men from the floating objects to rocks.

"I didn't see anymore!" Hinata shouts back, dragging the 2 men with him to a rock.

"I just swam around the wreck and inside it a bit, no more!" Suga yells, helping Asahi take the sailors from floating pieces of wood, to rocks they can sit on. Hinata finally gets the 2 men he was dragging up onto rocks, laying back as comfortably as they can.

"How many fainted?!" Suga yells, dragging one fainted man off of the last piece of wood and to a rock.

"I have 2 over here!" Hinata yells back, looking at the men that had almost floated to the bottom of the sea.

"None over here! All just dazed!" Asahi reports, checking on the 6 men he had over on his rocks.

"How big was the crew?!" Hinata asks, looking at the 4 men on the rocks he had helped save.

"Seems like a crew of 15!" Suga responds, hoisting himself onto the rocks to check over the men.

"That's quite big for such a small ship." Asahi says, checking over the people he saved.

"It was a Siren hunter ship, and you know they go crazy with how many people they bring." Hinata says, looking at the harpoons and nets sinking slowly.

"How're we gonna get all these people back?!" Suga yells, looking at the 5 men piled up on his rock.

"I have an idea." Asahi responds, diving down towards the sinking ship. Suga and Hinata look at each other strangely, before diving down with Asahi, just to see him dragging a wooden rescue boat from the wreck.

"If we can get the water out of some of these, we can drag them back easily!" Asahi shouts, pointing at the other small boats at the bottom of the sand.

"Great idea Asahi!" Suga shouts, swimming down towards the boats, Hinata close in tow.

Soon, 3 boats have been cleared of water and are floating violently in the rough waters. The mermen try loading on as many men as possible, but the boats keep floating away, making it difficult to push back.

"Didn't they have fishing nets?" Hinata asks, looking down at the murky waters.

"I think.. Oh I see what you're doing." Suga says, diving down to find the net. Hinata holds onto Suga's boat while he looks for the fishing net, coming back up with a large net.

"Oh I see, we're gonna attach it to all the boats and drag it back together?" Asahi asks, pushing the boat he found over to Hinata.

"That was my idea." Hinata says, Suga starts weaving the net onto the keel of the boats, giving the mermen something to drag through the rough sea.

"Ok Asahi can you hold the boat's while me and Hinata load in the men?" Suga asks, swimming over to the rocks.

"Got it." Asahi says, taking the net from Hinata and following Suga. After a long hour, the mermen finally have all of the sailors in boats and are gripping onto the fishing net.

"1..2..3!!" Hinata counts, starting to tug on the net with Asahi and Suga, leading the boats to the calm waters.

"God our dads were on that ship!" Noya panics looking over at the sinking ship with the 3 mermen swimming around it.

"We have to trust that Hinata Suga and Asahi will save them! Calm down Noya!" Daichi shouts, grabbing Noya's shoulders.

"Wait.. There's people sinking!" Tsukishima shouts, seeing 2 men sinking to the bottom of the sea.

"But Hinata's going to get them, see!" Daichi points out, pointing to the flash of orange, swimming down quickly. Once the boys see none of the men sinking, they take a sigh of relief. They watch as Suga, Asahi and Hinata swim around, trying to get the men home. The 3 boys watch as the mermen struggle to pull the boats back using just a fishing net.

"Should we help them?" Noya asks, wanting to help the mermen.

"No we'd just cause trouble for them, they said the waters we're really rough.." Daichi mumbles, watching as the mermen struggle.

"We can't just sit here and not help. I feel so useless." Tsukishima says, staring out at the mermen.

"Maybe we can find some rope or something? Then they can tie it to the net and we can help pull it?" Noya suggests. Starting to swim off to where Asahi said the mermen kept their things.

"Maybe.." Daichi says, helping Noya look around.