~Seashells~

Mermaids?

Rantaro chased after the man, but couldn't catch up. His head emerged once more. This time way further then before. Rantaro slowly walked toward him, "Hey, I'm sorry I hurt you.. I didnt mean to." He said as he continued to walk. The man stayed put, but he was still scared. Rantaro decided not to go to close to him. He stopped about 4 feet away from the man.
"My name is Rantaro, sorry again about hurting you.." the man came up a bit. His lower half of his face was covered by a large seashell. "Ritar o?" He said. "No, Rantaro." He corrected him. "Ront ao??" He said. "Taro." He said again. "Taro! Taro!" He seemed excited to say half of his name correctly. "Sure, you can call me Taro." He sighed. "What's your name?" The man thought for a second. "Kekyo, Kok..yo.." he struggled, "K-kiyo!" He said happily. "Kiyo?" Rantaro asked, he nodded. "That's your full name?" Kiyo shook his head, "n-ni nam.." Kiyo struggled "nickname?" Kiyo nodded quickly and swam a bit closer to Rantaro.
They were now about a foot and a half away from eachother. "Taro?" Kiyo asked, tapping Rantaro's chest. "Yes, Kiyo?" "Taro goo huma?" He asked tilting his head. "What? Uh.." Rantaro thought, 'goo huma? Good human?' "Good human?" Kiyo nodded. "Oh! Yes, I'm not mean! I promise. I didn't mean to hurt you Kiyo, I'm sorry." Kiyo nodded, and wrapped his scale covered arms around Rantaro's leg. Rantaro chuckled and knelt down as much as he could without getting his shorts wet. He pat Kiyo's head. Kiyo let out a happy chirp and nuzzled against the human's leg.
"Kiyo, it's getting late." Rantaro said, trying to release his leg from Kiyo's grip. "I need to go back home." Kiyo chirped sadly and slowly let go of the leg. "I'll be back here tomorrow after school, okay?" Rantaro pat Kiyo's head once more and started walking to shore. He turned back to see a fish tail splash in the water, and a round of 3 chirps to follow. 'Was that Kiyo?' He thought. Rantaro shook his head, 'no no that can't be possible..'
Rantaro walked through the door to his home seeing 4 of his 12 sisters in the living room watching TV. "Hey big bro!" One of them said, Rantaro waved to them and shuffled to his room upstairs. Rantaro turned on his laptop after drying his damp legs and looked up 'man with fish tail'.. "Mermaids, oh my atua I'm a dumbass." He facepalmed for not remembering the word.
He clicked on the images, only drawings, photoshopped photos, and other fake claims of seeing mermaids. "I've heard of sightings but I never thought they were real.." he whispered to himself. He's especially heard of sightings on his trip to the Caribbean. Rantaro slowly fell asleep, continuing reading about mermaids and mermen. The oldest sister walked in and settled Rantaro into his bed for the night.