The Road Marked by the Waves (JJBA Steel Ball Run AU)

Chapter 3 - The Truth About Gyro

Johnny went into shock upon seeing Gyro's full body. His brain didn't take anything of what Gyro had just confessed a moment ago. He found it hard to breathe, as if the air around him had become heavier and denser. He could hear a faint buzzing in his ears, and so many things were rushing through his mind that he couldn't think clearly.

Trying to calm his thoughts and analyze what was in front of him, Johnny, overwhelmed by his own confusion, shouted the first thing that came to his mind, without hesitation.

"N-no way! Is a shark eating you!?"

Gyro laughed nervously, expecting the worst.

"Didn't you hear me? This is who I am. This is my body. I'm a merman."

Johnny caught the message on the second try, and remained silently, contorting his face as he processed the information he had just received. What do you mean Gyro is a merman? This was nowhere near any of the things Johnny had imagined the day before about what Gyro might be hiding from him. The most far-fetched theory he had come up with was that Gyro was actually an alien on the run from the FBI, and even then, he quickly dismissed it because it seemed way too crazy to be real.

Gyro crawled down the rocks to reach the sand and get closer to Johnny, who stared at him without blinking, frozen in place, still in shock.

"You're... what?" -Johnny asked, slowly, as if the answer might change this time.

"I'm a merman." -Gyro repeated, once again, trying to explain in more detail- "Mermen are hybrids. I don't know if you're familiar with the term, but hybrids are the cross between two different species. As you can see, my upper half looks human, but my lower half resembles a fish. I have no idea where we come from, but I have my theories. Internally, I have both lungs and gills, and I switch between the two automatically, depending on whether I'm at sea or on land. I don't even have to think about it, which is pretty cool. If you have more questions about my internal anatomy, honestly, I don't know enough to explain it in detail. And... what else... well, in my case, as you can see, my subspecies is shark, but there are also orcas, whales, dolphins... both mermen and mermaids. One thing I can tell you, though, is we don't get along with dolphins. They're too arrogant."

Johnny was a bit overwhelmed by all the information Gyro had just dumped on him. Johnny looked him up and down several times, then burst out laughing.

"This is a joke! This has to be a joke! Mermen don't exist! This is some kind of hidden camera prank, for sure! Or maybe you're one of those people who love dressing up and are really good at it, and you wanted to use your skills to fool and scare me. Yes, that's it! You're one of those cosplayers, and this is just a really well-made costume."

Gyro didn't flinch at such accusations, mostly because he had no idea what Johnny was accusing him of. He simply shook his head and pointed to himself.

"This isn't a joke, I'm not lying to you, and of course I exist! You just have to look at me. As strange as it seems, I'm real. Look at the gills on my sides, or look at my teeth!"

Gyro moved a little closer to Johnny, opened his mouth, and even though it had the appearance of a normal human mouth on the outside, his teeth were anything but ordinary. He also seemed capable of opening his mouth wider than a human could, which was a bit unsettling. He had a couple of rows of sharp, pointed teeth, very similar to a shark's, though somewhat smaller. He also had fins on his arms and gills on the sides of his torso. At first glance, the gills looked like large open cuts in his skin. No, that was definitely not a cosplay.

After seeing him up close and confirming he was real, Johnny felt like he was about to faint. Suddenly, the pieces began to fall into place, and everything started to make sense: why Gyro had been hiding, his fear of being exposed as a freak, his reference to crawling...