The Sky's Eternal Sunset

Just Be You And Me

In this world,
We're all alone,
You know I love my island home,
Make things right, find our way,
Through this mystery!

I just wanna be,
Swimming in the sea,
Now it's just you and me,
Forever, ever, ever.

Mako Mermaids - I just wanna be

(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)(⁠◠⁠‿⁠◕⁠)

The trip back to the recovery tanks is a race against the clock.

This mer that they've found, this Sora lookalike, is in the worst shape the team has ever seen a mer in. What's worse is that he's not conscious, which makes it impossible to get him to switch to using his lungs out of water. He gets weaker and weaker with each passing second as he tries to rasp for oxygen from the open air. Kairi does what she can with a water bottle and the bucket of sea water, sucking the brine up into the bottle and squeezing it down the mer's throat to pass through and over his gills so he can breathe.

The air is quiet and tense, confused questions bouncing through their heads as they hurry to the facility. Once there, they rush the mer on a stretcher through the halls to their largest recovery tank. They hook it into lift, raise him up and over the tank wall, lower the mysterious mer into the tank, and stare with silent expectation as he sinks to the bottom.

When he appears to be breathing easier, they all let out a collective breath of relief, but that calm lasts all of two seconds.

♓What the FUCK is going on?!♓ Kairi asks, whirling on her family and coworkers to look them incredulously in the eyes. She points at the tank behind her at the injured mer inside. ♓Is that Sora?!♓

♏I...I don't know,♏ Riku says, just as uncertain as he looks again.

♋It sure looks like him,♋ Cid admits then turns to his son. ♋Did he say anything? Before we got there?♋

♈No,♈ Remus shakes his head. ♈He was completely out when some late night walkers found him beached in the shallows.♈

They all go silent and turn to the tank glass again. Each of them tries to find a defining feature that guarantees or denies that this mer laying face down at the bottom of the tank is Sora, but all they can see are merfolk traits.

No legs, just a fluke of silvered light blue skin with a blue sheen without a scale in sight. His fingers are webbed and there's ridged fins on his forearms. That tall dorsal fin travels from his back all the way down to the base of his fluke. He has those tell-tale gills at his neck too.

None of those is uncommon for an Angelfish mer. It's his skin, ears, and teeth that look out of place.

Deep sea mer are pale, and most mer have those aesthetic fins at the side of their faces. That or just the little holes for ears, like the Dolphinians. Not this one. He's tan and has human ears which has been unheard of since the sea lion types went extinct. No sharp canines within his mouth either. Lastly, his hair is wet right now, and while it appears to be the same length and cut as Sora's, they all have to wonder if this is really possible?

Is it really Sora?

♈He's scraped to hell and back,♈ Remus comments. ♈Like the worst case of reef rash I've ever seen.♈

♓One of his wrists is definitely broken, look at it,♓ Kairi grimaces through clenched teeth.

♏Are those bruises on his wrists?♏ Riku asks.

They look like rope burns, but no one wants to say it. No one comments on the wretched looking cut in his side either. No one wants to think about how the poachers said they killed Sora. Because then they have to admit that something impossible has happened, that somehow Sora became like this and they have no idea how to explain that scientifically.