Chapter 1: 1: Beneath the Sky
Chapter Text
The sea always whispered to Shota but lately it begun to speak.
It started the night the storm broke his boat.
He hadn’t meant to go far- just beyond the reef, where the fish still gathered in the warm shallows- but the wind had turned violent, the sky split open with thunder. By the time he realized the sail was torn and the rudder cracked, the shore was a memory swallowed by mist. Now, adrift and alone, he floated beneath a sky too wide and a sea too deep.
The first night the voice came softly. It wasn’t the wind. It wasn’t the creak of the boat or the groan of the tide. It was something else- low, melodic, like a lullaby hummed through water. The words were indistinct, but the tone was unmistakable: coaxing, gentle, almost kind.
Shota sat up, heart thudding as he peered into the dark, but saw nothing. Only the moonlight glinting off the waves and the endless black beneath. He didn’t sleep.
The second night the voice returned. This time it came in broken phrases like someone learning to speak through a dream.
“You’re tired… I can help… Come closer…”
Shota gripped the edge of the boat, leaning over the side. The water shimmered, calm and glassy. He squinted into the depths searching for the source of the voice. Then he saw them: thin, sharp spines breaking the surface like reeds. They swayed gently, golden and maroon, too symmetrical to be seaweed, too big to be fish.
His breath caught.
He pulled back sharply stumbling to the far end of the boat. The voice fell silent, the sea once again empty.
He didn’t sleep that night either.
By the third night the hunger had set in. His lips were cracked, his limbs heavy. The sun had burned his skin and salt had dried white lines across his clothes. He was too tired to be afraid. So, when the voice returned, he didn’t flinch. This time it was cleaner, closer.
“You look beautiful bathed in moonlight, you know.” It said with a lilt of amusement. “It highlights your tired features.”
Shota turned his head slowly as the water beside the boat rippled, from the waves rose a figure- half submerged, haloed in moonlight. It was… stunning. Hair like golden threads drifted around its face, adorned with corals and strands of seaweed. Its skin shimmered with faint scales and its eyes- emerald, unblinking- watched Shota with something between curiosity and hunger. Barbs lined its back, rising like a crown from the water. Its smile was too sharp. Shota didn’t speak and the creature tilted its head.
“You’ve been listening,” it said, voice like velvet soaked in salt, “but not answering, that’s- Strange…”
Shota’s throat was dry when he asked “What are you?”
The creature’s smile widened as it said “Just a lonely soul like you.”
Then, without another word, it sank beneath the waves leaving only ripples and silence behind. Shota stared at the water long after the creature was gone.
He didn’t sleep.
Chapter 2: Beneath the Surface
Chapter Text
The reef shimmered in twilight but Hizashi’s world had dimmed.
Hiroaki laid curled against his chest, his small body feverish and limp as Hizashi brushed strands of soft blonde hair from his little brow, humming a lullaby that once made him giggle but now barely stirred him.
He didn’t know what was wrong.
The fingerling had stopped eating, fever wrecked his body, his scales had dulled and his tail barely flicked. Hizashi had tried everything: crushed shell, fermented kelp, even the bitter trenches’ roots but nothing helped. The warmth of the reef, the songs, the comfort of his voice- none of it reached his little star anymore. And so...
Hizashi turned to the surface.
The fisherman’s boat drifted above the reef like a wound in the water. The siren watched from the shadows, his barbs low, his body hidden beneath a curtain of seaweed. He sang- not to lure yet, just to test.
A whisper, a hum, a thread of promises woven into the wind. He felt the man stir, heard the creak of the wood. Hizashi’s heart clenched as he didn’t want to do this but, Hiroaki had whimpered in his sleep and he remembered the last time he had been this helpless: sick, feverish, weak, unable to keep food down during the final weeks of his pregnancy.
His mate had brought him strange meat, rich and warm. He hadn’t questioned it then, only eaten desperate to keep his guppy alive inside of him.
He hadn’t realized what it was until much later and by then… He was already better. The thought made him sick but it also gave him hope.
He sang again, softer this time, and when the fisherman didn’t leap into the sea Hizashi retreated. Guilt gnawing at him like barnacles on bones.
Hiroaki didn’t eat the following day.
Hizashi held him close, brushing golden strands from his feverish forehead, whispering promises he wasn’t sure he could keep.
“I’ll fix this,” he said. “I’ll find a way.”
That night he rose closer to the surface. The fisherman leaned on the edge, searching the water and noticing the barbs Hizashi let break the surface, just enough to be seen. A warning. Another test. The man recoiled. Hizashi sank quickly, shame burning through his scales. He hadn’t meant to frighten him but he needed him to be afraid.
Fear made people reckless.
Fear made them fall.
He returned to Hiroaki who stirred weakly in his sleep and Hizashi curled around him protectively singing until the fry’s breathing slowed and sleep welcomed him. He remembered the warmth that had returned to his own body after the meat. The clarity. The strength. He hadn’t wanted to believe it had helped but now, with Hiroaki fading, he couldn’t afford not to.
Desperation had teeth.
Hizashi combed his hair with his fingers, weaving coral and algae into it with practiced grace. He painted his face with crushed shell, masked the worry in his eyes with a smile too sharp to be kind. He rose from the depths like a dream. The fisherman was weaker now: sunburned, dehydrated, hollow-eyed. Hizashi saw the grief in him, the same that lived in his chest. A void where the heart is. It made him hesitate. But Hiroaki had cried that morning, a sound so small and pained it had made Hizashi weep.
So, he made himself beautiful.
So, he flirted.
“You look beautiful bathed in moonlight, you know.” He said, voice light, teasing. “It highlights your tired features.”
He saw the man flinch, saw the calculation in his storm-grey eyes. So similar to his guppy’s ones and Hizashi smiled widened, barbs rising just slightly. A threat wrapped in silk. He didn’t mention Hiroaki. He couldn’t bear to speak of his child like a bargaining chip.
Instead, he flirted and sank beneath the waves again, heart aching and guilt blooming like poison in his chest.
Chapter 3: The Taste of Desperation
Notes:
Small chapter today
Chapter Text
The reef was quiet save for the soft, wet sound of Hizashi crushing shellfish between his claws.
He had gathered everything Hiroaki used to love: sweet urchin roe, soft kelp milk, the tender meat of reef crabs. He arranged them carefully in a bed of sea moss, humming as he worked, trying to keep his hands from trembling. Hiroaki floated nearby curled in a nest of anemone fronds, his golden tail limp, his gills fluttering too fast. His eyes were half-lidded, unfocused.
“Sweetling,” Hizashi whispered, drifting close. “I brought your favorites.”
The fry stirred faintly, blinking up at him. Hizashi smiled, soft and aching, and offered a piece of roe between his claws. Hiroaki sniffed it, then turned his head away. Hizashi tried again- this time with the milk, gently coaxing it to his lips. The fingerling took a sip, then gagged, coughing weakly. A thin stream of white drifted from his mouth, lost in the current.
“No- No, no, no…” Hizashi cradled him quickly pressing his forehead to Hiroaki’s. “It’s okay. Try again. Please, my star, please…”
But Hiroaki only whimpered, curling tighter into himself and his mama’s arms. Hizashi held him close rocking gently, his song faltering into silence.
His chest ached.
His barbs trembled.
He remembered the warmth that had returned to his own body after that strange meat. How the nausea had faded. How his strength had returned.
He hadn’t known what it was then; only later, when he found the bones hidden in the trench where his mate had hunted.
He had screamed. Fought. Killed.
For a man he didn’t even know.
Cried for a family he didn’t even know existed.
But the truth remained: it had worked.
And now Hiroaki was dying.
Hizashi looked up, toward the surface. The fisherman’s boat still drifted there, a dark silhouette against the moonlit water. He had tried to be gentle. To lure. To charm. But his little fry was fading and Hizashi was out of time. His barbs rose, rigid and gleaming. His claws flexed. His voice, when it came, was no longer a song but a whisper of resolve.
“Forgive me.” He murmured to his little star with a kiss to his burning forehead, laying him down on the soft anemone bed.
With a flick of his tail he surged upward.
Chapter 4: Surface Break
Chapter Text
The sea was too quiet.
Shota sat hunched in his boat, skin cracked from sun and salt, eyes hollow from sleepless nights. The water around him shimmered with moonlight but the silence felt wrong- like a breath before a scream.
Then the surface broke.
A ripple. A flash of gold. Barbs slicing through the water like knives. The siren rose slowly circling the boat like a shark. Its smile was wide and its eyes gleamed with something feral.
“You’re lonely,” it purred, voice thick with honey and venom. “I can help you with that.”
Shota didn’t move.
“You want warmth.” the creature continued drifting closer. “Affection. A body to hold. A voice to sing you to sleep.”
It rounded the boat again, tail flicking just beneath the surface, barbs trailing like the spines of a predator against the sides of the boat, scratching the already worn-down wood. Not getting the reaction it was waiting for, its tone grew sharper. More urgent.
“What is you’re searching for; I can give you. Happiness. Peace- The truth you’ve been dying to know!”
Shota’s breath caught, his tired eyes wide. Oboro.
The siren’s voice twisted, desperate now.
“You want to know what happened to him, don’t you? I know! I saw! I can tell you everything!”
Shota’s fingers tightened around the edge of the boat, retreating only when noticing the barbs of the siren drawing closer.
His heart pounded.
The creature’s words slithered into his mind, tempting, poisonous. But something was wrong. The siren’s smile didn’t reach the eyes. Its beauty was cracked, strained. The flirting and the promises were a mask- behind them Shota saw hunger.
Rage.
Desperation.
He hesitated and the siren stopped circling the boat, its focus on the human in front of him.
Shota shook his head. “No.”
The siren froze. Shota’s voice was hoarse but firm.
“I don’t believe you.”
For a moment the sea held its breath.
Then the siren screamed. A sound of fury and heartbreak, a cry that split the air and made the boat shudder.
Hizashi vanished beneath the waves leaving behind only foam and silence. Shota leaned over the edge, searching the water, heart racing. Then something struck the hull from below. Wood splintered. The boat lurched violently groaning and the man stumbled catching himself on what remained of the mast as the siren burst from the sea like a spear of rage and desperation. Its claws sank into the wood, barbs flaring, sharp teeth bared in a snarl. Its eyes- those emerald, ringed eyes- were wild with something deeper than hunger.
“I need you!” it screamed, voice raw and cracking. “I don’t have time!”
Shota scrambled back, heart hammering in his chest.
Hizashi clawed at the boat trying to pull himself aboard, his tail thrashing and sending sprays of seawater into the cold, night air.
“I can’t lose him!” the siren cried. “You don’t understand- he’s dying! Without you, he’ll die!”
Shota grabbed the broken oar and swung it hard. The wood cracked against the monster’s shoulder but it didn’t let go.
“You don’t have to bleed. You don’t have to hurt.” it hissed with a trembling, pleading voice and a twisted smile on its face. Its eyes wide looking straight into grey ones. “Just come with me. I’ll make it gentle. I’ll make it warm. I’ll make it pleasurable.”
Another swing. This time Shota struck the scaled arm, forcing the beast to release one clawed hand from the edge. He was careful, so careful, not to touch the barbs, not to let those venomous spines near his skin.
“I won’t.” Shota growled. “I won’t be your cure.”
Hizashi’s face twisted, his constructed smile fell and in its place: anguish. Rage. A growl resonated from his chest.
“Then you’ll be his grave.”
As the siren gained momentum to attack, Shota drove the oar with a final shove onto his chest pushing with all his strength. The monster screamed and fell back into the sea.
For a moment the water was still.
Then the boat lurched again, harder this time. Hizashi was beneath it, hurt but ramming it from below with all his might, trying to tip it.
Sink it.
Drag it down.
Shota clung to the sides, knuckles white, breath ragged. Hours seemed to pass before it stopped.
The sea had stopped whispering.
Now it roared.
Chapter Text
The boat groaned like a dying animal, the hull’s wood splintered and cracked with the signs of a legend with claws and spikes.
He could still hear the siren’s screams through the ringing in his ears.
“I need you!”
He didn’t know how long he had until the next strike. With trembling hands, he grabbed the emergency kit from beneath the bench: rope, nails, a rusted hammer.
He worked by moonlight, patching the worst of the damage with driftwood and spite. Every creak of the sea made him flinch. Every shadow beneath the waves made his heart stutter.
He didn’t sleep; he didn’t dare.
By dawn, the boat was still afloat- barely. The mast destroyed, sail torn and limp, rudder cracked beyond use. He was adrift, alone and hunted. But he was alive.
He spent the morning bailing water from the boat, patching the worst of the damage with rope and old, consumed wood. The oars still held, barely.
He rowed slowly, filled to the brink with exhaustion and even if the sun was high, the cold from the night still clung to his skin.
“You want to know what happened to him, don’t you? I know!”
The words echoed in his mind, louder than the waves.
Oboro…
Shota had buried that name beneath layers of silence but the siren had unearthed it with ease. How could the monster know? Was it a lie- just another lure? Or had he truly seen something? He remembered his husband’s last days: the fear in his eyes, the way he observed the water as possessed, the way he whispered at night about voices in the deep. Shota thought it was sleeping deprivation. Madness.
But what if it wasn’t?
What if something had taken him?
What if it had been it?
Shota’s grip on the oar tightened. He didn’t want to believe it but couldn’t ignore it anymore.
He had to know.
Chapter 6: Heavy Heart
Chapter Text
Oboro had stopped sleeping.
Shota remembered the way his husband would sit at the edge of the pier long after midnight, staring into the black water as if it whispered secrets only he could hear. His eyes, once warm and full of mischief, had grown distant.
Hollow.
“There’s something out there,” Oboro had said one night, voice barely above a breath. “It sings to me…”
Shota had tried to reason with him for hours. They argued- Shota pleading, Oboro insisting.
Speaking of voices in the tide, of dreams that weren’t his, of a presence just beneath the waves that called his name with a lover’s voice.
“You’re tired.” Shota had said. “You’re exhausted, you need rest.”
But Oboro had only smiled, sad and far away, as he said “I’m not crazy, Sho. I know it’s the truth.”
The next morning his boat was gone. They found it two days later, drifting near the reef.
Empty.
No blood, no signs of struggle.
Just silence.
Shota searched for weeks, scouring the coastline, diving near the reef, calling his husband’s name until his voice broke. But the sea gave nothing back, nor an answer, nor a body.
When he returned to the village they were waiting. They didn’t say it outright- not at first. But the looks, the whispers, the way they crossed themselves when he passed- it was enough.
He drove him to madness and into the waves.
He let him go.
He's cursed.
The words were venom and they sank deep. So, Shota stopped speaking. Stopped trying to defend himself. Stopped living. But he never stopped searching.
And then, the storm.
The voice.
The siren.
Chapter 7: Deep Hurt and Determination
Chapter Text
Hizashi drifted in the cold dark, hand wrapped around the new wounds.
He had sunk far below the reef, where the light no longer reached and the water pressed in like grief. His barbs lay flat against his spine. His claws trembled.
He had failed.
He had screamed, begged, fought and still, the fisherman had refused him.
Thrown him back like a cursed thing.
Hizashi had tried to sink the boat, to end it quickly, but even that had failed. He had seen the fear in the man’s eyes. The disgust.
And now… His Hiroaki was still dying. He bandaged his hurt arm with soft algae and returned to his nest in silence, the anemone fronds swayed gently while cradling the fingerling’s small form. Hizashi curled around the limp feverish body, pressing his forehead to the guppy’s.
His voice cracked as he sang, melody broken by sobs.
“I tried,” he whispered. “I tried everything, my sweetheart…”
He didn’t know if Hiroaki could hear him and he didn’t know if he had the strength to try again but he knew one thing:
He had to try again.
For him.
For the fry sleeping against his chest, his breathing shallow, scales dull.
Hizashi pressed a kiss to his forehead, his voice becoming hoarse from sleepless days and songs falling on deaf ears.
“I should have done it sooner,” he whispered. “I’m sorry, my coral…”
He had tried to be gentle and pleading, to convince the fisherman to follow him. He would have made it painless like finally falling asleep after countless dreamless nights, but the man refused him. Rejected him. And now, there was no time left.
He rose from the reef, barbs rigid and eyes burning with resolve.
He would not ask again.
He would not wait anymore.
He would take what he needed.
For Hiroaki.
Even if it meant becoming the monster he always feared to become.
Chapter 8: The Storm and the Siren
Chapter Text
The wind picked up just after the sun started to set under the horizon.
Shota felt it in his bones before he saw it: how the air thickened, the sea darkened. The clouds, low and heavy, started crying their first drops of rain striking the patched wood of his boat like warnings. He gripped the oar tighter, knowing the siren would return.
And it did.
The sea split with a roar as Hizashi surged from the depths shouldering the boat’s damaged flank, barbs flared, eyes wild, razor-sharp teeth displayed in a snarl. Rain slicked his golden hair to his face, elegant and graceful features distorted by rage and something else.
“You know nothing, human!” he screamed, voice laced and cracking with fury. “He left you! He abandoned you without a second thought! That’s the truth you’re so desperate to know!”
Shota stood; legs braced against the rocking boat. “You don’t know anything about him!” He said.
“I do!” Hizashi circled the boat like a predator, tail lashing between the waves, sharp claws tearing the pieces of wood Shota used for reparations. “He heard the call. He was so desperate to leave you, he followed my voice like a fish to a lantern. He was already mine before the sea took him!”
Shota’s heart pounded. “Liar!”
“I can give you what he never could!” Hizashi cried with another hit to the already damaged hull. “Warmth. Peace. A place to belong!”
The boat rocked violently as the monster kept slamming against it. Shota stumbled, catching himself just before his hand grazed a venomous spike.
“Tell me the truth!” he shouted, swinging the oar to keep the siren at bay. “Did you lure him with empty promises? Did you drag him down like you tried with me? What lie did you feed his mind, monster!”
The creature froze mid-lunge and for a moment the storm seemed to follow it. Its expression cracked revealing something broken and raw. Its barbs lowered and claws trembled.
“I didn’t know,” it cried. “I didn’t know what it was- I didn’t know what he’d done! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t want to!”
Shota’s breath caught. He started shouting over the tempest, stepping forward despite the danger. “What are you talking about? Tell me what you mean! Tell me what happened to Oboro! Tell me what happened to my husband!”
But the siren only screamed, a sound of grief and anguish that had Shota crouching in pain and covering his ringing ears.
The golden nightmare dove beneath the waves.
The boat rocked violently from the movement.
Then, something struck it from below.
Chapter 9: Drowning Truth
Chapter Text
The boat tipped.
A final strike from below and the world turned sideways. Shota hit the water hard, the cold stealing the breath from his lungs. He kicked upward breaking the surface with a gasp and tried to reach the shattered remains of his boat bobbing in the waves.
Then the siren was on him. Its claws wrapped around his arm dragging him down. The fisherman fought, kicked, twisted still trying to avoid the other’s body dangers.
“You don’t understand!” Hizashi wailed. “I need you!”
Shota struggled, bubbles escaping his mouth as they sank deeper.
Hizashi’s grip tightened. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t know what it was! But it helped- It helped so much! Please, don't make it hard, don't make it more painful than it is!”
Then- A sound.
Soft. Fragile. A whimper.
Hiroaki.
Even muffled by the sea, the guppy’s pained cry pierced through the chaos.
Hizashi froze. “Hiro-”
Its grip loosened and Shota seized the moment to twist free and strike the siren with a broken plank, sending it reeling. He kicked upward; lungs burning and broke the surface with a gasp. Rain lashed at his face. The sea churned around him as the creature rose again- slowly this time. Its barbs were lowered, its eyes red with tears, its body decorated by bloody cuts and blue bruises.
“Please,” he whispered. “Please, help me.”
Shota treaded water, panting, searching for something to latch on to stay afloat. “Tell me the truth- All of it. Then I’ll decide.”
Hizashi’s voice trembled as he recounted. “When I was pregnant, I fell sick. Weak, in pain, I couldn’t hunt. I couldn’t even sing; breathing was so hard…” He looked away, shame twisting his features. “My mate… He started disappearing. Going toward the human town. I didn’t ask- I didn’t care. I just wanted the pain to stop.” And his voice cracked. “He brought me meat. Strange and rich. I didn’t question it, just ate and- got better. Stronger. The pain faded.”
Shota’s stomach turned; his eyes widened at the realization.
“After Hiroaki- my young- was born, I found the bones near his hunting territory. Human bones.” Hizashi met his eyes.
“You-”
“I understood. In that moment I realized. And I asked as he laughed, saying it was the only way. That I should have been grateful.” His claws trembled, the storm howled around them. “I killed him. Took my young and fled. Swore I’d never- never again… But now he’s sick. He won’t eat or wake up. He reminds me so much of me that time- I remember how strong I felt after that meat. How alive.” He sobbed. “Everything’s been better. And worse. And I don’t know what to do. Please, I don’t want to hurt you but I can’t lose him.”
Chapter 10: The Weight of Knowing
Chapter Text
The storm seemed to stop but the sea remained restless as to mirror Shota’s turmoil.
He floated in the water, chest heaving, eyes locked on the siren in front of him. Hizashi’s tears and blood mingled with the rain. The truth hung between them like a wound and Shota’s jaw clenched.
“You were part of it.” He said, voice low. “You ate him.”
Hizashi flinched. “I didn’t know.”
“You should have known! You ate my husband!”
“I was sick!” The siren insisted. “I couldn’t think, I- I just survived! I just wanted to keep my young alive!”
Shota’s fist tightened.
The image of Oboro’s empty boat, the villagers’ whispers, an empty grave with nobody to mourn- it all surged back like a tide.
He had known. Somewhere deep down, he had always known the sea had taken him. But hearing it spoken aloud, seeing the creature who had unknowingly consumed him- it was too much. And yet…
He looked at the beast- The siren.
At the way its shoulders shook, at the desperation in its voice.
“You said he’s not eating,” Shota said. “That he’s weak.”
Hizashi nodded, voice cracking. “He won’t take anything. Not roe. Not trench root. Not even milk. It’s the only solution, just like it was for me.”
Shota’s eyes narrowed. “But he’s not you.”
“I know.” Hizashi whispered. “But I don’t have anything else! My guppy can’t even drink milk! I need you to save him-!”
Shota’s voice rose, sharp and furious. “How will it save him if he can’t even eat it!”
Silence, only the sound of waves and rain. Then Hizashi broke.
He sobbed, loud and raw, his claws covering his face. “I’ll lose him!” he cried. “I’ll lose him and it’ll be my fault! I’m a terrible mother. I almost did what he did. I didn’t even consider that his throat is so swollen he can’t even swallow! His gills so inflamed- I- I’ll lose him!” His voice cracked into a scream, then collapsed in broken whimpers and hiccups.
Shota stared, stunned.
The creature in front of him- this venomous, beautiful, terrifying thing- was unraveling.
Not a monster. Not a predator.
A parent.
A desperate, grieving parent.
Shota’s voice was quieter now. “Let me see him.”
Hizashi looked up, eyes wide and wet.
“I want to see your- Your young.” Shota said. “Bring him to me.”
Gamergal989 on Chapter 1 Wed 01 Oct 2025 08:31PM UTC
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