A tail for an eye - Eren x Levi

Chapter 6

'Radio'

Morning dawned upon them at last, Levi felt rough from little sleep but refused to show it. For once, no birds chirped above their heads as Levi made his way outside. Perhaps they had more sense than him.

"Captain, are you okay?" Jean met Levi after he left his office.

"Of course."

"You seemed off last night," Jean pointed out.

"It was an off day, I'm fine now," Levi answered him, "you should be resting, your shift is a few hours away."

"Can't sleep," Jean told him before walking off. Levi didn't need to ask a reason to that, judging by the dejected faces of the crew, it appeared most hadn't slept well. 

Looking up to the sky, Levi realised the sky held more clouds than usual. It casted a cooler temperature over the boat, but nothing too severe to hinder their tasks for the day. Within seconds of stepping out from the cabin, the task to clean the deck had been set, but this was expected due to droplets of water having splashed onto deck last night. At first the pirates used to be judgemental or irritated from the constant cleaning but by now it felt second nature to hear the word "cleaning".

Levi made his way to the steering wheel, telling the person there to move and taking his place. He glanced to a compass which was glued to the top of the wheel to check their direction. The same direction as first told, they should be on trail to wherever this little hideout of the mer-people was. And there was no plan to leave empty handed.

"How'd you sleep, Captain?" A far too cheerful voice sounded, "I slept pretty well, but I was thinking about the kra-"

"Zoe, would you care to shut your stupidity up?"

Zoe bit her lips after an abrupt silence before speaking much more hushed, "Oops ... anyways I was thinking, there's a high possibility of the kraken existing in this sea, because of how deep it is so it should've evolved to adapt to that which would explain why very few people have seen it. I assume it would only come up to surface if a lot of boats passed by and irritated it, and also the temperature is overall warm but can be cooler in winter which, if it is similar to an octopus, may be perfect environment for it. Not to mention all the prey it has to eat, it might even eat mer-people!"

"You make good points," Levi admitted to her. It sounded common sense when spoken out loud but would require a fair bit of thinking. Usually when people encountered something like that, the last thing they would be thinking is the reason it might be there and more questioning existence itself, "and I slept fine."

"You're a liar, you've got bags the size of oranges under your eyes." Zoe almost touched his face when saying this, but knew better, "well, eye."

He gave her a rather stern glare after that statement.

She sensed the anger from him, "Anyways, I'll go supervise your office whilst it's been cleaned, shall I? I know you don't trust many people with that task."

"No,' he stopped her as she began turning away. He let go of the steering wheel and motioned for her to come closer, "get someone to take over the wheel. I'll watch them."

"Of course, Captain!"

Levi made his way down to the main deck and turned to his office room, where three cleaners were ready to enter. That amount of people felt a little excessive, even to him, yet perhaps it would mean they'd be done with it quicker. He nodded for them to go in without expression before following after. He leaned against the wall by the open door as one began dusting the old photos, one began sweeping and the other wiped down the bookshelf. Levi sighed, watching them with a keen eye as though a mistake could be made any moment, he kept a special eye on the boy cleaning the photos. They were old, fragile. Likely something to be broken on accident through a single flick. It had happened in the past, in fact, his pirates seemed to be the most clumsy idiots he'd ever met, hence his need to have them be watched over by himself or Zoe - the only other trusted person in his opinion. 

They cleaned for a few minutes in silence before a static sound came from the radio. The others paused their activity as Levi walked towards the radio and listened. It continued to sound out static as it began fading into tones and pitches.

"It sounds like a person," he heard a pirate gently say. He wasn't sure if that was meant for him to be heard or not, yet he ignored it.

Levi messed with the radio a moment before words began to be heard,

"... do- ... close ... out- ... they ... stra- ...it ... men ..."

As it began turning to pure static again, Levi rushed to bring back the channel and level it back out. But it was no use, it wasn't his radio that was malfunctioning, it was whoever was on the other side's one. It turned into simple crackling and then silence. His only guess was it must be one of the previous boats that came out to sea, it would come through much clearer from land. It meant that whoever they were, they were further out than them. But it also meant that they were still alive. Or at least one was.  

"Was it a distress call?" A pirate asked.

"Whoever they are, we don't know where they are. They didn't give coordinates," Levi answered, his back still turned to the other three, "I don't remember telling you to stop cleaning."

This shook up the other three and they went straight back into action, perhaps a little too vigorously as though making up for pausing. To Levi, it didn't. Levi took a moment to stand by the door and call out to the lookout above in the tower, "Look out for and S.O.S signal, or broken ship parts floating. There's someone alive out there."

"Yes, Captain!"

"Another boat is out there?" Someone asked.

"We received a radio call from someone, but couldn't hear them," he answered. He turned back on his feet to supervise the cleaners again until the lookout called out, 

"Merman! Merman at the starboard side of the boat!"

Levi widened his eyes and rushed out to the side of the boat, seeing a merman racing the boat and attempting to overtake it. 

"Grab the guns and prepare the lifeboats, get the net ready!" Levi commanded. It seemed the merman had heard this remark, because Levi found himself suddenly staring into beautiful teal eyes. Matching single dorsal fins over the top of his elbows and a matching tail shimmering in the dim light of the sun. The boat itself wasn't exactly the largest, it was built to be fairly close down to the sea in order to catch their prey.

Levi tuned out the affirmations from his pirates and rattling as people were given gunpowder from the boys running up and down from below deck and loading their guns. He also ignored the slight scraping as the two smaller boats on board where untied from their stations and brought out. Instead, he stared into the eyes of this merman. He appeared rather cocky from his little smirk and glistering look within his eyes. Levi, however, returned a blank look with slightly raging eyes. 

"Captain, we're waiting for your mark!"

Levi blinked and looked to this crewmen, five lined up with guns, all aiming and ready. Three people held a larger black net and wrapping it over the wood to lower into the water at the start of the boat, far ahead from the merman. The merman seemed to realise the danger of the situation and look away, putting his tail to good use against the waves and wind, beginning to travel down into the water. 

"Fire!"

Booming sounds left the ship at once, disrupting the water and shaking their bones from the shock of it. Each gunshot let out could be felt in their chests and caused an enormous splash into the water. Unfortunately for the merman, Levi could still see his tail shining in the water and moving forward. 

"Prepare to fire again!" He called out before running to the front of the boat, he then slightly more hushed to the three with the net, "lower it as fast as you can."

The gunpowder boys quickly brought more to the guns and loaded up, pointed it but waited to shoot. Once the net was just above water, Levi told them to fire and lower the net more. More booming sounded into the water, hurting their ears and causing a horrible ringing. By now the net was in the water and Levi's plan was working. The merman looked shaken from the gunshots and rushed ahead without a second glance, straight into the net.

Wasting no time, the net was pulled directly out of the water with a creaking from the wood and loud water droplets falling back into the sea. 

Levi couldn't believe it, they'd caught the merman.