Another world Chapter 6
Title: Another world
Author: Masuhisa
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: Ninomiya Kazunari, son of a famous business man, was caught in a storm and was tossed out of his ship. He was saved by an unknown person and Nino has made up his mind to sail the seven seas to look for that person.
Disclaimer: Don’t own.
[Prologue] [Chapt 1] [Chapt 2] [Chapt 3] [Chapt 4] [Chapt 5]
Chapter 6:
Aiba stood right at the edge of the shore, not caring if his shirt was getting wet by the sea spray. He had been coming to the same spot for five days consecutively, but still no sign of Nino. He hoped Nino found his way to the mermaid city, found that merman and come up before the time limit was up.
Shivering as a strong sea breeze blew his way, Aiba stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying not to feel bad for making everything worse. The moment he suggested that Nino had been kidnapped and sent a ransom note, Mr Ninomiya had gone nuts. He went around trying to pool that amount of money, and seeing Mr Ninomiya panic for nothing, Aiba felt pretty terrible.
He watched the sea again, hoping to see a head pop up from the surface. Sadly, nothing happened. If only Nino would return quickly, then he could prevent his father from going on the expedition to look for the long lost treasure that had sunk to the bottom of the sea when the ship carrying it hit a rock. Mr Ninomiya was determined to get his son back and had started planning the trip.
Aiba knew there was no way they could reach the bottom of the sea in that submarine that Mr Ninomiya’s company built. It would crumble to pieces before it even reach a thousand feet below water. Mr Ninomiya was risking a whole crew, and it was all his fault for staring the whole ‘Nino had been kidnapped’ thing.
Aiba turned away, planning to return to the mansion and stop Mr Ninomiya from sending the submarine down into the sea, when he heard a faint voice calling for help. Like a curious cat, Aiba turned around until his sense of hearing located the source of the cries. Being Aiba, he thought that some poor person was in danger and wanted to help it, so he speeded of in that direction.
Aiba came to a small cottage by the sea which everybody knows belonged to Professor Imai Tsubasa and his assistant Takizawa Hideaki. But what they didn’t know, but Aiba did, was that they had a super secret lab under the house where they carry out experiments on different kinds of marine life.
Suddenly, another cry echoed through the air, making Aiba shiver at how pitiful the cry sounded. Sneaking to the back door, Aiba wrestled it open and somehow managed to get in. It was pitch black inside and Aiba felt his way around. He came across all sorts of normal furniture, nothing that seemed like a doorway to the secret lab.
But, Aiba wasn’t a miracle boy for nothing. The moment he thought of giving up, a trap door opened and out came the professor and his assistant, both talking in hush whispered about their ‘latest find’, and how it would bring them fame and fortune.
The pair exited the house, but not before closing the trap door. The moment they were gone, Aiba flew over to the trap door and opened it. It was so dark that all Aiba could see were some steps leading downwards. Wanting to know what those two had found out, Aiba went down the stairs as fast as he could without tripping.
At the bottom of the stairs, Aiba saw a metallic door. Seeing that the door was the only thing there, Aiba went over and opened it. Hi eyes widened and his jaws dropped at what he saw behind the door. The whole place looked like a mad scientist’s lab! There were test-tubes filled with all sorts of different coloured liquids, and tanks after tanks filled with rare, but not so mythical, fishes.
Aiba crept along, wondering what so extraordinary Professor Imai could have found. But Aiba needn’t think any longer when he saw a huge fish tank at the back of the room.
Unable to believe his eyes, Aiba hurried over to the tank, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. But no, they weren’t. Right there in the tank was a live merman! A merman with a pale blue tail and was huddled in the corner, looking terribly frightened. Aiba looked at it some more and noticed that there were cuts and bruises all over the poor merman and there were scary looking equipments by the edge of the tank.
The merman must have noticed Aiba’s presences as it shrank further back into the corner.
“My name’s Aiba, I come in peace!” said Aiba, raising both hands to show that he didn’t have any weapons with him.
The merman didn’t seem to believe him and continued looking at Aiba with large doubtful eyes, as his arms tightened around himself.
Aiba approached the tank slowly, wanting to get a good look at the merman.
“You!” cried Aiba upon realisation, “You’re Ohno Satoshi, aren’t you?! The prince of Atlantis!”
Ohno’s eyes widen in shock.
“How did you get caught? No, save that for later, we’ve got to get you back into the sea before Imai and Tackey return,”
Out of nowhere, Aiba whipped out a golden staff and muttered some words. In the blink of an eye, Ohno found himself back in the sea by the shore, completely injury free.
“How did you do that?” asked Ohno, completely bewildered.
“You still haven’t told me how you got caught,” said Aiba.
“I guess I was too blur to notice,” admitted Ohno, “but I have to return to Atlantis, my people are in grave danger!”
Aiba nodded, “wait for me, I have to go fetch Nino,”
Ohno wanted to ask who Nino was, but Aiba had already ran off, saying something about getting a potion. If Aiba hadn’t rescued him, Ohno would have swam home and told his people that the wall was going to crumble anytime soon. Leaning against a rock, Ohno waited not so patiently for the honey-haired man to return.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Groggily, Nino opened his eyes and tried to take in his surroundings. He remembered reaching the city, but was so tired and probably fell asleep in the middle of the streets. He sat up.
Looking around, Nino found himself in some room. That was strange, he didn’t recall finding a room to sleep in.
“You’re awake,” came a voice as the door shut close.
Nino blinked and saw a mermaid swimming in with a tray of food, “You must be hungry,” she said, placing the food on the table, “Here, have some breakfast,”
Nino nodded and added wearily, “I don’t have any money or anything,”
“We’ll work something out,”
She left the room, leaving Nino and the tray of food. His stomach growled, making him swim up to the food in curiosity. There was a seashell bowl filled with something that looked like cereal and a side plate of rice wrapped with seaweed. Even though Nino had a bagful of food, he wanted to try the local food. Picking up the thing which Nino thinks is a spoon and begun digging in.
By the end of his meal, Nino’s mouth was watering for more. He wasn’t really a big fan of food, but the one he just ate was so good, he just had to have some more. Nino planned to ask that mermaid for a second helping, but decided against it since he was a foreigner and had no idea how the mermaids lived.
Picking up his bag, Nino swam out. He found the staircase and descended. Swimming up to the same mermaid who was behind the counter, he thanked her, “I don’t have any money on me, but I hope you’d accept this,” Nino placed a few coin like things on the counter.
“How did you get these?!” cried the mermaid in disbelief as she saw the coins on her counter, “these are the ancient coins that aren’t used anymore, they are really valuable!”
Nino nodded and swam out as quickly as he could, hoping that those five coins were able to pay for his accommodation. Once he was far enough from that hotel, Nino slowed down slightly. He wondered how Aiba managed to get his hands on those things the lady called ‘ancient coins’. In the end, he decided that the colourful coins caught his friend’s eyes and he bought it.
Taking a glance at the watch Aiba had made him, Nino yelped as he noticed it was already day 5! Time had passed so fast! He hadn’t even seen that merman! At this rate, he would have to return, now.
Swimming to the same fountain he remembered seeing the night before, Nino tried to navigate his way around. Unfortunately, the day had just begun, and all sorts of mer-people were out and about with their daily activities, making Nino feel extremely out of place.
With hundreds of mer-people swimming around him, Nino started to feel nauseous and dizzy, the same kind of feeling he had when he was sea-sick. Did Aiba’s potion have a time limit for its sea-sickness curing effect? Nino certain thought so. As the underwater currents continued hitting him, Nino felt like throwing up.
“Are you alright?” asked a voice as something gripped his hands.
Nino was so tempted to yell ‘of course I’m not’, but his spinning head made him unable to voice out anything.
“Do you need me to get a doctor?” the voice asked again.
“I’m fine,” Nino managed to choke out, “it’s just my sea-sickness,” he added out of habit.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The minute Aiba got into the Ninomiya mansion, he headed straight for his room and pulled out another bottle of potion. He would have ran straight for the beach, but something stopped him in his tracks.
“I look forward to working with you two,” he heard Mr Ninomiya say.
“It’s a pleasure,” said another voice which Aiba recognised as Professor Imai’s, “feel free to come see the merman we have captured. The preparations will be done by tomorrow morning, we can set sail then,”
That was enough to get Aiba running. Professor Imai had teamed up with Mr Ninomiya? That could only mean that they were going to look for the mermaid civilisation. There was no way Aiba was going to let them to that!
As fast as he could, Aiba dashed back to the beach where had left Ohno. Thankfully, the merman had waited for him, so pulling out his staff again, Aiba mumbled some words. Before Ohno noticed it, Aiba was in the water with him, his legs replaced with a vibrant green tail.
“Let’s go,” cried Aiba, diving downwards. Ohno didn’t need to be told twice.
“Who are you really?” asked Ohno as they swam deeper and deeper into the sea, “How do you know who I am?”
Aiba looked at Ohno as if he was talking gibberish, “It’s only been ten years and you completely forgot about me?” pouted Aiba.
Ten years? Ohno thought hard. Then, everything fitted. The golden staff, the magic words, the potion, Aiba had to be…
“You’re the great wizard, aren’t you?” asked Ohno, so stunned that he was in the presence of such a powerful being.
“That’s right!” cried Aiba joyfully, “What kind of danger is Atlantis in? Why didn’t you call me sooner? I gave you that piece of paper, didn’t I?”
Ohno frowned, “What was ‘High bar’ and ‘Mars is key’ supposed to mean?”
Aiba pouted again, “It’s ‘AIBA MASAKI’!! Ai-Ba-Ma-Sa-ki!! Ohno-kun, you really need to work on your ancient language,”