Credits: Thank you so much to Breather, ObscuraDemon, & virtualApocalypse for beta reading; also thanking my councilor, ryukoishida

Disclaimer: None of Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club or its elements is mine

Warnings:

- folklorish quasi-AU involving magical creatures

- plenty of OCs as minor characters and antagonists

- requited as well as unrequited loves among canon characters, that is to say, I doubt MakoHaru, SouRin, and SeiGou fans can read this fic without getting miffed

- reversible yaoi smut BUT if you aren't into bestiality, a vomit bag may be a good companion while reading (or you can just skip sections 20 & 21 altogether)

Author's Note: Enjoy your present, Idkwhattoname!

This is a rewritten and extended version (over 38 K words longer) of my older fic, Wounded Pride. It's the sequel for Courting: Dorky Style, which is a ReiGisa fic but contains the part how Rin realized his non-Platonic feelings for Haru.

Cultural Notes:

Ani-ue = the upper-class version of "onii-san" (honorific for an elder brother), typically used by royalties and aristocrats

Chichi-ue = the upper-class version of "otou-san" (honorific for a father), typically used by royalties and aristocrats

Haha-ue = the upper-class version of "okaa-san" (honorific for a mother), typically used by royalties and aristocrats

Heika = Your/His/Her Majesty or Your/His/Her Majesty (honorific for a king/queen)

Denka = Your/His/Her Highness or Your/His/Her Royal Highness (honorific for a prince/princess or crown prince/princess)

A Mizuchi's Royal Consort

一

1

Beneath the Samezuka High School's placard of "Third Year, Class Five," the new teacher slid the door closed. As he made his way into the classroom, every stride was followed by curious stares from the thirty-seven students.

"Is he Matsushita-sensei's substitute?" a boy whispered to his neighbor as he adjusted his glasses; the Japanese Literature teacher was rumored to start her maternity leave any day now.

"Ssh!" the class representative—a lanky girl with a ponytail—brusquely hushed her classmates before issuing the first of the standard greetings for a teacher's arrival:"Rise!"

All chatter died down, replaced by the cacophony of scraping chair legs as the class stood up.

"Bow!" the class representative ordered.

All heads were down, all bodies bowed, and all arms hanging at the students' sides. All except one.

'Meat.'

One boy remained standing, his eyes fixated on the succulent nape rising daintily above the sailor uniform collar before him. His tongue lapped up the saliva that had begun to drip from the corners of his lips, stomach contracting with hunger. There was nothing more appetizing than the scent of human flesh. Live human flesh, with deliciously beating hearts. The shoulder-length hair above it was parted into two, each tied with a fuchsia elastic band, exposing the girl's slender cream-colored skin as defenselessly as a lamb for slaughter.

"Sit!"

All the students began to seat themselves, but without preamble, a shriek fell from a girl's mouth.

'Meat. Fresh, warm, living flesh.'

Blood streaked down the side of her neck, suffusing her white cravat with carmine. Some rancid odor soon pervaded the air, through which a choir of screams rang sharply as the other students realized what they had begun to witness. At the victim's nape, a gruesome cavity swelled to reveal torn nerves and flesh. Emerging from the slope of her shoulder was the unkempt, redwood hair of Matsuoka Rin.

Color drained from her face, a neighboring girl cried, "Matsuoka-kun, what are you doing?!"

Rin offered no explanation, his eyes dilated with the unholy desire for more fresh meat. A narrow strip of the girl's skin dangled between his incisors, stained by the blood pooling in his mouth and trickling down his chin.

"Keep your teeth off her, Matsuoka!" Two boys rushed to the bleeding girl's aid.

'Why are these puny humans interrupting my meal?'

But before the two boys managed to haul Rin by the arms, a condescendingly calm voice halted them. "You two, get away from him."

Mouths agape, the students stared at the speaker, who appeared to be none other than the rumored substitute. Nobody had seen him approaching, and yet here he was, standing in their midst like a rabbit popping out of a silk hat.

Before Rin could see more, a rectangular piece of yellow paper suddenly blocked his view. The "teacher" had just attached an ofuda to his forehead, and the talisman set him aflame.

"Naumaku sanmanda bazara dan kan!"

"Damn you, exorcist!" Rin heard himself curse in the middle of his classmates' screams.

Those words were the last spoken by his humanoid shell as it crumbled to ashes, revealing the true form of a giant salamander-like creature with fins, webbed limbs, and nacreous viridian scales. The entire class watched in horror. Those whose seats were nearest to him scurried away, shrieking. Some even stormed out of the classroom, though the more daring ones took out their cellphones to snap his pictures or record the kahaku's action.

Compelled by the expulsion's authority, the kahaku was forcefully returned to where he belonged: the river—the deep, sunless region where water was coldest, where the layers of the soil sediment and the lushness of fanwort, water-milfoil and pondweed concealed his folk's existence from humans' prying eyes.

###

Rin woke up to the strangest sensation of his heart wildly leaping about in his throat. Still breathing in short bursts, he shot a quick glimpse toward the clock on the wall; it showed twenty past four. Through the small gap between the partially drawn curtains, the slate-gray pre-dawn sky was visible. Yet, in the wake of such a nightmare, sleep could no longer reclaim him.

He trailed his tongue across his row of pointy teeth. While it was true that he, like all other kahaku, could consume humans, he did not welcome the prospect, as their bodies were essentially humanoid. Because of a small fraction in kahaku's ancestry's bluff when they had been pestered by naughty human boys, rumors had spread that they took delight in drinking humans' blood, eating their livers, or gaining power by taking their soul. There had also been occurrences in which humans tried to appease kahaku with agricultural products, and because the involved kahaku had eaten them, the humans had then assumed these water creatures adored their vegetables, most especially cucumbers. In truth, kahakufolk were omnivorous like humans.

Just as humans were born with the capacity of walking, kahaku were bestowed with the gift of swimming. It would not do for a prince among kahakufolk to be bested in a swimming competition by one of those land dwellers seven years prior. The memory of that shameful defeat was etched deeply into Rin's mind hitherto.

ニ

2

One blustery day, Rin stormed to the surface, fuming because no one wanted to hang around with him. Like other ten-year-old children, he had fought with one of his usual playmates, and the other kahaku kids conspired not to play with him unless he apologized first. In their determination not to spoil children of royal blood, his parents had made it perfectly clear that other kahaku should not give him special treatment just because he was the third in line for the throne, after his father and elder brother. Still, this did not justify his friends ganging up against him when he was not the one in the wrong (according to his point of view).

As Rin cautiously emerged and scrambled onto land, he bore in mind his grandmother's words about laboratorial experiments and other dangers humans could pose upon an encounter with what they called "mythical beings." He transformed his appearance into a human one, an ability that every kahaku possessed to avoid drawing unnecessary attention.

The river of Rin's choosing was so clear even standing by the bank, the smooth river rocks that coated the bed were distinctly visible. Three human boys were splashing about in the shallowest part of the stream, where the water, shimmering in the sunlight, reached above their waists. They probably frequented the river during summer; despite their youthful smoothness, the skin above the waistlines of their tight black swimming trunks was tanned.

"Mako-chan, Haru-chan, look, look! An Amur goby! Doesn't it look like a swimming turd? Hahaha…" Excitement sparked in the cerise eyes of one boy as he pointed toward a small brown fish, completely unperturbed by the breeze ruffling his golden hair.

The boy with olive green hair, the tallest of the three, treaded through water to get a closer look. A smile passing across his face, his droopy green eyes followed the fish with genuine interest as it swam past his leg.

The other boy, however, had spared no more than the briefest glance toward the fish before turning his attention back to the river. He stared silently at the water that was as blue as his eyes, as though it was the most beautiful thing in waking life. The next second, he remarked with a blank expression, "Let's swim."

"Sheesh, Haru-chan, you can't see pooling water without swimming in it, can you?" the shortest boy jokingly pouted.

The droopy-eyed one smiled and acquiesced, "Can't be helped. Let's do it."

The boy who had requested the swim expressed neither gratitude nor discontent; he seemed to be accustomed to taking others' kindness for granted. More strangely still, his friends took no offense, apparently equally accustomed to his behavior.

Without further delay, the three boys aligned themselves into a straight line, adopting their positions.

The tallest boy, whom Rin guessed would be the fastest of the three, fell into a swimming stroke that was performed on the back with the arms lifted alternately out of the water in a backward circular motion and the legs extended and kicking. His muscles bunched and his face was tense with effort as he cut a rough but dynamic stroke that seemed capable of leaving everyone behind. Yet, although Rin did not know that humans called this swimming style "backstroke," his aquatic nature enabled him to recognize the imperfection in the human's movements. Firstly, the human boy's chin was tucked in towards his chest, resulting in his lead lifting high out of the water, creating resistance as he swam. This, in turn, forced his feet to sink below the surface, fulfilling their natural urge to be in alignment with the rest of the body.

'Too bad Lanky doesn't relax his neck a bit more,' Rin thought before he turned his attention to the second human.

The cheerful boy swam on his front in the likeness of a frog. Face submerged, he pushed his arms forward from under his chest and then swept them back in a circular motion, while he tucked his legs in towards his torso and whip kicked them out again. So captivating were his movements that he created the illusion that his arms extended as he swam. Midway, however, his stomach dipped too deep and his previously brilliant form started to break. Although he had honed his timing so that his pull and kick did not happen simultaneously, he did not always succeed in controlling his arms and elbows from going too far back, passing the shoulders—a waste of movement that only slowed his swim time.

Still watching from behind a large rock, Rin scoffed inwardly, 'Humans and their pathetic swimming styles!' And yet, as his gaze focused upon the third boy, a crack appeared in his assured disdain for human swimming abilities.

The nonchalant boy kept his head down in the water and alternately reached forward with his arms while propelling his body with efficient flutter kicks. He wasted no stamina by flailing his legs or overcompensating his kicks, and he breathed bilaterally every third stroke, creating perfect symmetry. Had he breathed only on one side, it could have caused his stroke to become lopsided and inhibited his ability to maintain a straight line. If he had lifted his head fully, it would have slowed down his timing as well as ruining his form. While underwater, he emptied his lungs through his nose allowing himself to achieve optimal levels of oxygen intake with each timed breath.

No matter where Rin's eyes followed the dark-haired boy's movements, his form remained without flaw. Shoulders, torso and hips all rolled together as one, the human kept his body floating to the top of the water's surface to give him even more balance and speed. This human boy was something else—his swimming was beautiful. More than simply being fast and efficient, he inspired within Rin the same awe that he would have felt before a divine being, together with the ague that a small crayfish would conceive in the presence of a predatory eel.

Rin forgot to breathe; his world revolved around the perfect swimming style before him. He bit his lip in spite at having thrown away the chance he might have had of doing something besides staring at the smiting fluidity of the human's movements, but it was no use. From that time on, he could not take his eyes off the swimmer, staring after the boy as he advanced through the water, and felt the stirring of unknown desires and curiosities.

'No.' Rin shook his head to force down his astonishment. 'I'll race with him and prove I'm quicker,' he promised himself as the boy completed the circuit much faster than his peers.

"You're incredible, Haru-chan!" the upbeat boy congratulated him, totally unashamed of his own defeat, as though any different outcome would have been unnatural. The taller boy, too, patted this so-called Haru on the shoulder.

'How can these humans be so spineless?'

Just then, the flaxen-haired boy made an abrupt turn at Rin's direction, making the young kahaku's breath hitch. The human boy strode through the water, closer and closer toward him.

Rin dived posthaste, praying that the rock in front of him was large enough to conceal his body. The last time his heart had thumped so loudly was when he was caught red-handed in his attempt to hide his father's royal scepter as a joke. He got away with scoldings, butt smacks, and a grounding back then, but would the humans let him go?

The boy stopped by a rock, three meters away from where Rin was. Retrieving a green spherical object connected to the rock by means of a rope, he said, "I think the watermelon is cool enough now! I'll get a knife."

"I'm coming with you, Nagisa; gonna put these fish in a tank," the lazy-eyed boy chirped, a pail in hand as he ran along behind the shorter boy toward the lone house on a nearby hillside—residential houses were sparse since the river was located in the far in countryside.

Before the two boys strolled completely out of earshot, Rin heard the distant conversation, "We should come here again next summer holiday; I'm sure grandpa will be glad to have us."

The one named Haru went back to swimming along the current of the smooth stream. Among the ripples, he glided down into the cool, full space of the water. He opened his arms to meet the embrace of the glittering blue expanse of the river, pulsing with his own invasive motion. A nirvana, soothingly secluded, he had all to himself.

Rin thought that now was the best moment to present himself, when the human boy was slipping into a watery hypnosis, swirling into a vortex of internal calm. This way, Haru would probably be preoccupied enough not to ask him too many questions.

"Hey," Rin called, appearing from behind a large rock, "You like swimming?"

Haru stopped, regained his footing, and turned to face Rin. He did not speak; he merely gave a single blink perhaps translated as: "I didn't see you arriving; where did you come from?"

"Race with me. We'll go to the opposite bank and back again," Rin challenged.

There was a pause that made Rin briefly wonder if Haru was going to decline, but when the human spoke at last, his monotonous words were of a different nature, "Why are you naked?"

'Because kahaku can't conjure clothes out of thin air—that's why!' Rin nearly blurted, but there was no way he would confess the truth. He gritted his teeth and thought. If the water current had been stronger than it was, he could have lied and said that his pants had been washed away. Unfortunately, he could not think of a believable reason and was forced to resort to a yell, "What's the big deal? We're both boys! More importantly, are you going to race with me or not?"

"To me, speed isn't important."

"Oh, yeah? Then why did you ask your friends to start at the same time as you, if you didn't need to compare your speed with theirs?"

In spite of Rin's accusatory tone, the pitch in Haru's voice was as flat as ever, "Swimming together is nice."

"Tch! Fine, just … swim with me, will you?" Balling his fists, Rin strode to the edge of the river and prepared himself to swim. To both his annoyance and relief, Haru followed him.

Thus, the two boys swam. Their bodies, of exactly the same length, stretched across the water in the spangled shade of the leaves from an overhanging dogwood tree. Bubbles from the rippling surface stirred up specks of dark leaves that swirled and danced around their legs in the current.

Cleaving through the water surface, Rin raced forward as fast as his limbs allowed. It was a simple matter for a water creature to imitate a human's swim style. Even so, now that he had taken human form, it was necessary to breathe through his mouth and nose; a kahaku would normally breathe with their gills underwater and with their skin on land. Much to his dismay, he could not overtake Haru no matter how hard he struggled. That human boy did not even break his perfect form, moving as effortlessly and gracefully as before, but he came out faster still.

It was a close margin. A mere gap of less than two seconds was all it took to shatter Rin's pride. He, who lived in the water, had been bested by a human. Breath leaving his lungs in loud puffs, he punched the surface with angry fists, bursts water erupting around him. Water streaked down his body into the guiltless river, but no eye failed to recognize that among those droplets were tears of shame.

三

3

The fact that no triumphant gloat left the human's mouth brought no consolation to the young kahaku. After that inexcusable defeat, Rin decided to train in the human world.

His grandmother asked, "Why not the deep sea? While we, kahaku, are the fastest of all freshwater creatures, merfolk are even faster."

"It was a human who defeated me. It only makes sense that I'd have to learn the human way to beat him. It's a serious sport for humans, rather than natural the way it is for us, so they train really hard to get good at it. I'm looking into the country-continent Australia, which has some of the best training methods and facilities."

"Will you manage the language?" his mother asked, a crease of worry between her eyebrows.

"I'll learn." Rin grinned with what he hoped to be an assuring expression.

His mother fussed, "And the food?"

"Tch, it's not like human food is poisonous or anything. I'll be fine."

His mother, who had objected to his decision initially, reluctantly let him go after his father deemed it would be a good experience for him to taste defeat and gain strength from it. His little sister clung to him with blobs of tears in her eyes the day he departed. His big brother wished him luck with a melancholic smile upon his face.

###

Two years later, Rin tracked Haru down and challenged him again. This time, he created a fake identity as a deceased fisherman's son who, in his aspiration to become an Olympic swimmer, had studied in Sydney International Aquatic Centre. He found Haru standing on the other side of a railroad line, and he could not immediately answer when Haru asked why he had never contacted any of his friends.

'Tch, he thinks I'm his real friend! Why does brainwashing humans get troublesome at times like this?' Rin managed to get away the corny line, "It would have been embarrassing." It wasn't a lie, considering the truly embarrassing fuss that he had made just to swim with Haru again.

After having his memory modified, Sasabe Gorou—one of the coaches in the swimming club where Haru belonged—let them use the pool when the facility was vacant. The stench of chlorine was thick in the air of their combat area. It was the first time Rin had ever worn swimming goggles, and in his excitement, he pulled the goggles' elastic band and let it hit the back of his head with a pronounced flick. He liked the feeling, and he would repeat this ritual each time a pair of swimming goggles settled around his head for many years to come.

The two adolescents swam together, this time with no rocks, aquatic plants and animals, or earth sediment to hinder them. Instead, they were surrounded by transparent water that exposed their every movement, every stroke, every detail of their honed skills. Rin darted forward with the vehemence of a shark whereas Haru, with the vivacity of a dolphin.

Yet, in the end, Haru triumphed over Rin again. Did those two years of hardship hold no meaning? With tears streaming down his face, he ran from Haru's sight and returned to the river. The desire to forsake his struggle with this "competitive swimming" took him as he fled. What had he been so worked up for anyway? Swimming was every kahaku's natural talent and speed was never a measurement to determine the quality of a kahaku.

Rin sulked in his room for days, refusing meals and causing his family and the palatial retainers to worry about him. It was not until Jun, his elder brother, came to him and explained that every creature must face challenge instead of turning tail from it did Rin become ready to set out for the land again, where he trained for three more years.

This time, Rin took his grandmother's advice into consideration: he resided in the human world, but went to the open sea for additional training sessions every weekend.

The sea people treated Rin as an outcast. Mermaids gossiped behind his back that he was an illegitimate child or that he had committed some sin grave enough to exile him from the river, while the merboys constantly bullied him with everything from simply calling him names to throwing empty shells whenever he passed them by. The younger ones did not even hesitate to pull his hair and bite him. Worst of all, although his gills could survive the salinity, the briny water irritated his skin. Nevertheless, he endured for the sake of becoming a faster, better swimmer.

四

4

The years passed and Rin's swimming slowly refined itself, until he felt prepared to face Haru a third time. Wanting to see his family once more before he set out to challenge Haru, the seventeen-year-old Rin returned home. Once he found himself within the palace gates, he discovered that much had changed during his three years of absence: the old sentinels had been replaced by a younger generation, some of his mother's ladies-in-waiting had wedded, and the electric eel that was his brother's pet had bred a multitude of younglings.

Nevertheless, the biggest change of all was in his little sister. No longer was Gou the demure, obedient child whom he had once known, but an angry teenager confronting her parents in the throne room—and in the presence of the council of elders, no less.

"It's my life and I want to live it with him!" he heard her yell.

Surreptitiously Rin crept toward Jun, who was staring anxiously at Gou—all eyes in the room were too focused on the headstrong princess to notice Rin's presence, allowing the second prince to slip in unnoticed.

"Ani-ue," he called in a hushed voice, "What happened here?"

"Rin!" Jun let out a startled gasp before his surprised face melded into a warm smile and he patted his little brother on the shoulder. "Welcome back! When did you get home? And why are you speaking in a commoner's tongue?"

"Just now. That aside, why is Gou getting so worked up?"

Jun opened his mouth to answer Rin's question, but his whisper was drowned out by his father's furious roar, "Are you too blind to see that there can be no union between kahaku and humans, young lady?!"

Rin's eyes widened in disbelief. Beneath Gou's high-pitched retort about how obsolete traditions should not be imposed on the contemporary generation, he asked Jun, dread welling within him at the implication of a broken taboo, "Don't tell me she has fallen for a human…"

'How dare a lowly ape hoodwink her! Just wait 'til I cut his dick off…'

Jun heaved a sigh, the look in his eyes reflecting his conflicted feelings: the desire to aid his sister's happiness and the guilt for deviating from decorum. "Apparently, the boy saved her from a fisherman's hook. His swimming skills are beyond doubt, to be able to navigate the raging river during such a storm, but—"

"Wait," Rin interrupted, "Storm? Why'd Gou want to swim on a stormy day in the first place?"

"She missed you to such a great extent that she secretly left for the sea. Disastrously, her inexperience prevented her from noticing the whimsical change of nature, albeit the storm had started to arise before she left this river. Still, she would have been safe had she remained in the deep waters. Halfway through her journey, when she reached the estuary, she was engulfed by schools of fish in their attempt to escape from a fisherman—who presumably considered capturing certain fish that normally surface only on roiling water as an achievement. At any rate, by the time she realized the hook was caught on her hair, it was already too late. The fisherman was rolling his reel to pull her up. She managed to shift into a human's shape, but was still unable to disentangle herself."

Jun cast another worried glimpse at Gou, who was now claiming that she would rather be disinherited than accept her father's orders, before he continued his account.

"Although the fisherman was unlikely to kill a fellow human for his meal, there was no guarantee that the lone man would not dishonor her, especially since no clothes covered her bareness. It was then that the human boy came to her rescue; he was challenging the turbulent water as a practice for a so-called tournament. Not only did he remove the hook from her, but he also covered her with his towel after they swam ashore."

"How can you not realize how this unscrupulousness of yours has tarnished your upbringing?" One of the elders in the council now rebuked Gou, scowling heavily at the young princess. There were mutters of agreement behind him.

His fists balled, Rin bellowed, "WILL YOU ALL STOP GANGING UP AGAINST GOU?!"

All eyes immediately turned to Rin, but the second prince was more concerned with the look his sister cast at him. The Gou he used to know would undoubtedly have dashed forward to hug him and cry against his chest. This Gou stiffened; she seemed to be judging whether his arrival had brought her an ally or new foe.

'She sure has come a long way,' Rin told himself as a wave of emotion washed over him. On the one hand, he was proud of his sister; on the other hand, he was rather lonely that his sister no longer needed his protection.

Jun stepped forward. With a much more composed tone, the crown prince spoke, "Chichi-ue, haha-ue, distinguished elders, my sister may be at fault, yet even a criminal deserves a chance to explain and an ally to defend her in the face of a prosecutor, judge, and jury."

The wizened kahaku, skin mottled with age, stubbornly insisted, "What is there to defend? She admits to the infringement of our law!"

The king raised his hand, and everyone in the throne room fell silent. Brow furrowing still, he proclaimed, "Let us hear your opinion, Jun."

The eldest prince answered with calculated composure, "As we are all aware, any child born from the union of a kahaku and a human will not possess gills to survive underwater, and will warrant the expulsion of its kahaku parent from the river. Gou still desires to reside on dry land despite knowing this. With her awareness in mind, it is only proper that we, her brethren, give her our blessing—so long as we are certain that the human will do everything within his capacity to make her happy. I therefore propose that Gou is given a trial period to live as a human until her eighteenth birthday, the age legalized for marriage amongst humans in this land."

"Preposterous!" a different elder shouted.

In lieu of raising his hand again, the king rose from his throne. His webbed foot shook the ground as angry veins sprouted around his eyes. "SILENCE!"

The elder who interrupted Jun's explanation looked both abashed and livid at the king's defense of his eldest son.

"Continue, Jun," the king spoke in a quieter voice, although specks of anger still resided in the timbre of his voice.

"To test the authenticity of their love, both my sister and the human boy must have their memories modified so that they can no longer remember one another. She will live on land without remembering about us or any of her past; instead, she will have false memories about her human relatives and friends. If my sister and the human boy who once saved her, as two strangers, still fall in love with each other, it would prove that Gou's feelings for him are not caused by gratitude and he does not love her out of pity."

Gou's pupils dilated and she looked like she was about to squeak, but hastily covered her mouth with both hands.

"If they happen to fall in love again even after starting over from scratch, Gou may continue to live as a human and, in time, marry the man. Otherwise, she must return here and live the rest of her life as a kahaku."

Fiercer than a starving alligator, the queen interjected, "You propose we send my sixteen-year-old daughter into unfamiliar lands unchaperoned? I shall not allow this!"

"Then I'll watch over her," Rin volunteered, stepping forward determinedly. "In fact, I'm going to watch over that human boy, too. There's no way I'm going to leave my sister in the hands of a complete stranger, and a human, to boot. If she's going to marry him one day, I've got to at least make sure he's worthy of her first."

"So, now I'm going to lose not one child, but two?!" the queen cried in disbelief, but every kahaku in the kingdom knew from where Rin's predisposition towards dramatic flair had originated.

"I'm going to reclaim my honor from that human. That's not against our law, and it's not like I'm never coming back!" Rin shouted.

"If you forbid me to go, I'm going to starve myself to death," Gou added viciously, "You'll still lose one child, either way!"

"Enough, both of you!" The king was beyond irate, and the palace grounds shook with the strength of his voice.

The throne room fell into silence once again, save the sniffles of the weeping queen.

Shortly, the king's aged mother put her arms about the overwrought queen's shoulders. "Children come through, not from parents; they are the sons and daughters of Life itself. You may shower them with your love but you may not dominate their lives."

The king had to massage the bridge of his nose before he spoke at a rather quiet volume, "Like any other subjects who abide in my dominion, Gou deserves a chance."

The princess' face brightened at once.

Her father decreed, "Yet, that does not mean I shall serve her before him as a chef who lays down a meal before a glutton."

Gou winced. She looked as if she was about to squawk her retort, but managed to keep her temper at bay and conceded, "I shall gratefully accept the opportunity. Thank you, chichi-ue."

"Rin, you will attend the same school as the human to study his character and background. Gou, you shall go to another school."

It was Rin's turn to cringe. He nearly blurted, 'What the hell?! I want to swim together with Haru at Iwatobi High!' However, his family and the council of elders were unlikely to be so generous. Besides, compared to Gou's circumstances, weren't his far better? Rin turned to his younger sister, wondering what made her so confident that she could win her lover back while encumbered with such disadvantage. Compared to her, how could he shrink from the prospect of not being able to swim with his rival? While attending a different school meant that he could not swim with Haru on a daily basis, he could at least compete with him in formal tournaments.

Unfalteringly, Rin affirmed, "I'll take that chance, too, chichi-ue."

That was how Gou came to Iwatobi High School, while Rin, to Samezuka.

五

5

A year had elapsed since Rin enrolled in Samezuka High School as a second-year transfer student from Australia. Despite numerous competitions with his rival throughout his stay in the surface world, the score between them still lingered with an unfinished air. In his stubborn determination to settle things satisfactorily, he had decided to follow Haru to the next level of human swimming competition: the Olympics. His diligent underclassman and previous roommate, Nitori Aiichirou, had grown more reliable with each passing day and captained the swim team as his successor after the national tournament ended.

'Speaking of succession, what's Gou going to do about Samezuka swim team's previous captain?' Rin presently thought. Mikoshiba Seijuurou had graduated a year ago and although there was still a year left before Gou's eighteenth birthday, no romance seemed to bloom between them. Gou could not recall who had saved her, even though she vaguely remembered that her prince charming had a sinewy build. Her strong affinity for beefcakes developed into a new interest while she dwelled in the human world, and she read the Monthly Muscle Magazine—the same material that Seijuurou read regularly. Even so, he merely saw her as a cute female idol and was quick to give up on her once he discovered that his younger brother was trying to capture her heart.

'But even if their relationship worked, what would he think of her once he knew her true identity anyway?' The question flitted across Rin's mind as he gazed at the crescent-shaped railing of his bunk bed.

Presently, an alarming notion caused Rin to bolt upright. How would Haru feel if he knew about their species difference? Betrayed? Repulsed? Terrified? What if the love of his life would never want to see him again?

The very thought sent writhing snakes of nausea coiling through his gut. Viciously tearing his mind away from contemplating life without Haru, Rin closed his eyes, consoling himself with a happy memory of the last time he swam with Haru in the previous week. His swim goggles had slipped off somewhere in the pool, and Haru had helped him search for them. At one point, they had stood so close to each other. The water of Samezuka's pool was heated, but Rin still shivered each time a drop of water fell from Haru's dark hair landed on his shoulders.

Now, thinking back, there had not been anything special happening that day, but whenever Rin was with Haru, happiness just swelled inside him for no apparent reason. It was said that once love slipped into thoughts, it would infiltrate soul, taking its victim by surprise, and then seize full control. Love would not let go, once it had possessed, regardless how much the victim struggled. Rin visualized Haru once more and supposed that old sayings were not untrue.

Still, Rin knew he'd better take a concrete action rather than reminisce in the past. He took a deep a breath and concentrated hard to invoke the powers within him. Magic power was another birthright for kahaku; how it was honed, on the other hand, depended on each individual. Some combined it with science and created inventions unimaginable to mere humans; others fortified it with the deftness of hands and created crafts unparalleled among other species.

Unlike greed-invested humans who aspired to conquer dominions not rightfully theirs, kahakufolk would rather keep to their own territories. For this reason, magic became necessary not as a vanquishing weapon, but as a defense instrument, such as the modification of human memories to maintain the secrecy of their existence.

Mapping out Iwatobi Town in his mind, Rin renewed the effects of the memory modification spell that he had cast upon the humans years prior: official documents such as student ID and a birth certificate, neighbors and relatives, his schoolmates at Samezuka, the members of Iwatobi Swimming Club and the fake memories about them going to elementary school together with him as well as adding a picture of himself into the photographs they owned.

The effect of the original spell was meant to last a lifetime, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Although the spell itself was quite simple, it exhausted Rin owing to its wide scope of targets. Spells chanted by less gifted kahaku could barely cover a street block or two.

Rin crept out of his bed, taking extra care to make sure his movements made no rustle. As his feet landed soundlessly on his slippers, he glanced at the figure sleeping peacefully in the upper bunk. While Yamazaki Sousuke was a fellow kahaku, there was no way Rin could talk to his current roommate about anything pertaining to Haru.

Although the memory modification spell made the humans think that Sousuke was a swimming athlete with a broken dream due to his shoulder injury, Rin knew better than to overlook the fact that his former playmate had come to Samezuka for him. No matter how sophisticated Sousuke rephrased his words to make them sound as if he had trained to improve himself, it was Rin to whom he truly wanted to show his achievements. As a consequence, the future kahaku king of the Honshuu Region would bear a permanently wrecked shoulder.

Thankfully, the blanket-wrapped Sousuke did not stir from his sleep as the door shut with a soft click.

Clad in his tracksuit and sneakers, Rin jogged along the perimeter of Samezuka Academy. He should have stayed in bed. Fatigue weighed down his every step, as the spell from earlier had taken a toll on his body. Yet, running was the only way to clear his mind.

The sun had painted the sky with blinding white light by the time Rin returned to his bedroom to get a fresh towel and head toward the showers. Breakfast in the dining hall passed uneventfully and lesson after lesson came and went until the school bell chimed to announce the beginning of lunch break.

Having fallen asleep until the middle of said break, Rin's choice of meal was now limited to the various breads when he reached the cafeteria—there would not be enough time to eat a full rice course. To his dismay, most of the breads had already been sold out, leaving only two lonely packages on the shelves: melon bread and yakisoba bread.

Rin sighed. He had eaten melon bread the previous day, so he didn't want a repeat today. While he had nothing against yakisoba, he hated it when served together with bread. How could there be so many humans who enjoyed such an atrocious combination?

He was still mentally groaning when a voice called from behind him. "If you aren't going to buy those, I will."

Rin walked away to let the student purchase the last two breads, and settled with three different energy drinks from the vending machine. The first drop of rain hit his face as he unscrewed the cap of the second bottle.

"There you are, Rin-oujisama!"

The remark nearly made Rin choke on his drink. It was the blessing of fortune that nobody else was within earshot, so that those words were not overheard. In spite of the speaker's human guise, Rin recognized him to be a junior official from his father's palace.

"Emergency, my prince…" the official gasped, still out of breath from running, his pistachio-green hair slick with sweat and rainwater that thickened by the second. "Ryuujin-sama's kanju were stolen."

"The sea god's tide-ebbing jewels?" Rin asked in disbelief. "Those are powerful enough to manipulate floods and only a few have actually seen them. How could anyone break through his sea temple's security to steal them? That place is a fortress!"

"This is the month of Kannazuki and all deities gather at Izumo Shrine. In Ryuujin-sama's absence, the fiend impertinently—I mean … His Majesty will hold the answer to your question, Rin-oujisama. However, please return to the underwater palace at once, for this place is no longer safe; the downpour will soon engulf the land. Another messenger is fetching Gou-oujosama as we speak."

If such inundation were to submerge the land, what would happen to everyone who lived on the surface? Rin's heart clenched with fear as his mind jumped to the one person he could never live without.

'Haru!'

Regardless of the desperate calls from his father's messenger, Rin ran toward the station. When the messenger tried to chase him, he dismissed him, saying, "You go back first."

"With all respects, my prince, His Majesty's order is—"

"I know." Rin reiterated his point, his volume contesting in a fierce rivalry with the lashing rain. "I'll be there as soon as I take care of some unfinished business. Now go!"

Rin ran all the way down to the station with one belief haunting his mind: even if the humanity race were to be exterminated, he must save at least Haru. The minutes dragged by during the entire journey to Iwatobi, and the 190 kilometers per hour train's speed was nowhere near fast enough. Rin dashed out as soon as the vehicle door opened, nearly knocking off an elderly woman's umbrella on the station stairs. Rain pelted against the pavement harder and harder, hammering against the ground in a torrent of roaring drops, but even the slippery streets and the high risk of tripping did not discourage Rin from forging onwards.

He ran past a group of elementary school boys, who were complaining, "Dang! Why is it raining so hard? The weather forecast even said it'd be sunny today. Now we gotta cancel our baseball practice!"

六

6

Haru, however, was not where Rin had expected him to be. Beneath the sky roiling with gray clouds, he was standing by a street gutter, not far from the Iwatobi High School. An iridescent scale hovered an inch away from his hand. Rin squinted; there was more to than met the eye about that scale. Rin could see it since he was a non-human being, but the scale itself was invisible to the human eye, unless said human possessed exceptional spiritual power.

Stupefied, Rin halted two steps away from Haru. He watched how the rainwater splashed in its brilliance against the pavement around Haru's shoes. No other pedestrian wandered on that street, as they had haphazardly sought shelter as soon as sheets of rain had started to pour in torrents and thickening mists gradually hid the landscape from view.

It felt surreal that Haru, who had always been apathetic to anything other than swimming, and who should have been the remotest possibility to anything pertaining to magic, was doing something inhumanly feasible like this. Why hadn't he detected Haru's aberrance before? Did this mean Haru possessed a magic even more powerful than Rin's? How long had this last? A vortex of questions swirled inside Rin's head.

However, Haru interrupted Rin as the latter opened his mouth. Unlike his usual flat tone, a hint of urgency was laced in his voice, "We must hurry; the tide-ebbing jewels have already been set in motion and your elder brother is in even greater danger than the rest of us."

"How did you … never mind! What do you mean, my brother's in danger?"

"The demon who stole the jewels used Jun as a hostage by possessing his body. Most riverfolk are not aware of this fact and accuse him of treason."

The furrow of Rin's brow deepened. "Let's go to my father's palace for now. My family may be able to come up with a solution to this crisis."

Haru nodded. "It'll be faster if we swim in our true forms."

"Wait a minute! You aren't going to jump into that gutter, are you?" Rin crinkled his nose, appalled by the prospect of immersing himself in such dirty water. Then, to make him sound less squeamish, he added, "Besides, it's too small for our bodies."

"Don't worry, just make sure a part of your body touches the water—a foot or a finger will do—and I'll do the rest." With that, Haru plunged himself into the water, still fully clothed. The moment he came into contact with the water, the gutter's concrete base was replaced by unfathomable depths of clear water full of river ecosystem. A thin, invisible barrier separated the purity of the spirit world from the impurities of the human world. Haru himself dispersed into a million scales that rearranged themselves into a long, serpentine form. Except that serpents did not have horns. Nor whiskers. Nor manes.

"You're a mizuchi!" Rin gaped in disbelief. Of course! Torii gates—the typical portal to Shinto shrines—even stood en route to Haru's house. It made sense now why Haru had known about the theft of Ryuujin's tide-ebbing jewels: he left his scales scattered throughout the waters of Japan, keeping him informed of important occurrences. This way, the river deity could enjoy the life as a human being without neglecting his duties.

But then, this also meant that Haru could overwrite his memory modification spell if so he chose. He also knew that Rin had pretended to be a human to befriend him. How mortifying!

Rin's mind screamed a hundred protestations, but he held back his tongue; every second counted before the inundation begun. He touched the gutter water with a fingertip and let himself be pulled into Haru's dominion.

Even as Rin assumed his kahaku form, viridian scutes and webbed feet advancing through the water, he could not help but be amazed. Haru's water was different from the river where Rin had been raised. It was an environment so unadulterated that it gave him a sense of peace even in the dark hour of the impending flood.

He spared a glance backward. From this position, the invisible barrier to the human world above reminded him of tiered jelly, in which one layer would not mingle with another. When he was about to mention this to Haru, Rin noticed how smoothly the mizuchi glided through the water.

Haru's opalescent dragon scales glimmered with every subtle twist of his movements and his dark manes swept backward. No aquamarine on earth could be blue enough to rival the color of Haru's eyes, which gleamed with the euphoria of being underwater. And the dragon's scent … there was something about it that made Rin feel as though he had inhaled the fragrance of an alien perfume amalgamated with every breath of the native water, as he swam onward, musing with ingenuous delirium on Haru's new, enigmatic form. While no part of Haru's human form was unattractive, to call his dragon state "gorgeous" would be an understatement.

Although kahaku—like fish and reptiles—did not flush with emotion as mammals did, Rin's jitter betrayed his fascination. Formerly, even with their human forms, everywhere Rin turned, it was Haru that he saw in his mind's eye. Now, in their aquatic creature forms, how could he possibly take his eyes off the river dragon?

'Now isn't the time for this!' Rin rebuked himself inwardly for focusing on a personal matter during such an exigency. To hide his awkwardness, Rin fumed as he caught up with Haru. "All these years I thought I was beaten by a human but you're a water creature after all! You could have told me, dammit!"

"You didn't ask."

"If I'd known it wasn't a human who beat me in that swimming contest, I wouldn't—argh! I get that you didn't use your divine power, but still…!"

"What difference would it have made?" Haru inquired.

His tone rising, Rin rejoined, "A lot! For a start, I wouldn't have been so upset. And there's no way I'd have even bothered to train in the human world."

"Then I'm glad you didn't know."

"Wh—you!" Rin did not know what else to reply. There was something in Haru's timbre that sounded too effusive for his usual cool-headed self. In fact, if Rin had not known Haru better, he would say that the tone of this statement somewhat reminded him of girls' confession on Valentine's Day.

He then considered the possibility that Haru wanted to be treated with respect. He was royalty, but Haru was a god—one of the many minor deities, but still…

No. This was Haru. His friend.

As they wove their way across water, Rin asked, "Hey, Haru, aren't you supposed to be at the Izumo Shrine?"

"My parents and siblings are there."

"Shouldn't all deities gather there during the month of Kannazuki?"

"I was banished from that place when I was little because I swam in the shrine's pond instead of listening to Amaterasu's speech," Haru stated unfazed.

"You! Just how huge is your frigging love for water? Sheesh!"

Haru turned to Rin, his dark eyes filled with such weight that Rin tensed with wariness. Had he overstepped some boundary that should never have been crossed? When Haru spoke, however, it was not at all what Rin had in mind.

"Hold on to me."

"Huh?"

"We're going to leap across the different planes of existence to reach your father's dominion, so you need to be attached to a part of my body so you aren't stranded in a different dimension," Haru explained, completely unabashed in the face of Rin's accusatory stare.

"Oh." Only then did Rin swim closer. He held his breath, anticipating his first spatial hopping.

It was probably his own fault for possessing such a melodramatic flair, but Rin felt a tad cheated. There was no big bang. No sparkles of light. No vertigo. Nothing. He barely felt anything more than a transient unfocused mind, and when he blinked his eyes, his surroundings had changed. The oscillation of the water had become a subsurface seiche, undulating yet placid at the same time. There was a sense of irredeemable depth, as if they had gone down to the very core of an alien world.

And then the water changed, took on a deeply familiar scent like that he had breathed all through his childhood days, and tingled across his skin in a way that spoke of home. He even recognized the sharp turn among the rocks where he used to hide himself as a child when his nanny prattled too much.

Together, the two water creatures swam into the depths.

七

7

Before long, the kahaku and the dragon caught sight of the underwater palace—a complex of numerous buildings, halls, pavilions set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards. Its organic origins were obvious in the asymmetry of the complex, as were the additions and reconstructions built by kings of centuries past. Facing east, the main palace itself was situated at the center of the citadel. The majestic structure of the rocks loftily presided over the antediluvian riverbed, its battlement of enchanted glass rising quadruple in height. In its midst, a grand gate straddled the gravel-armored terrace with a triumphal arch motif. It was on that yard that Jun, Rin, and Gou used to play tag when they could sneak away from their tutors.

Nonetheless, all nostalgic memories of the home Rin had not visited in years receded from his mind as soon as he saw how tensed the guards were. It was a rare sight that the king of kahakufolk graced the gate with his presence. The king wore no crown, as garbs were no means of measuring dignity among kahakufolk, nor did the size of an individual's body indicate one's prowess, as was the case with brute beasts. Kingship was mainly hereditary, but on the occasion the council found a king unsuitable for his post, they could hold a public election subsequent to extensive series of personality and aptitude tests.

"See to it that a headcount is performed after the evacuation of our kin who are still on land," Rin's father instructed the palatial retinues.

Without so much as a royal salutation, the second prince blurted, "Chichi-ue, is everyone all right?"

As the king turned at the sound of his son's voice, he noticed the river deity's arrival. He immediately tapped his forehead with the knuckle of his index finger, and then rotated his arm semi-circularly in front of his chest, as was customary for water creatures whilst indicating obeisance. Casting his son's query aside, he addressed Haru in full veneration, "Mizuchi-sama."

"Toraichi-heika." Haru brought his palm facing up, and then motioned it outwards from in front of his throat in acknowledgement. "Let's put aside the formalities for now, for a graver predicament demands our attention."

As Rin heard his father reply, "As you wish, august one," he quirked an eyebrow at Haru's choice of words. God or not, how could Haru switch so effortlessly between a teenage human's diction and a sovereign creature?

"LET ME GO!"

Rin turned around; the yell was made heard in Gou's voice. She was still in her human form and was wrapped inside a huge bubble. A lady-in-waiting followed her closely, goading an even larger bubble, in which Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei were sleeping.

"What's going on here?" Rin demanded, Gou's threats about police and illegal laboratory experiments screeching in the background.

The guards seemed taken aback by the prince overly casual choice of words, but none dare to voice their astonishment. Instead, the stoutest of them replied, "Those three humans prevented the messenger from fetching Gou-oujosama, probably mistaking her as a kidnapper. Time was too scarce for any explanation; hence, she took those humans along with the princess."

Rin snarled, baring double rows of snaggy teeth, "Those three are my friends." He nearly blurted, 'You can't do them in!' but held his tongue and ordered instead, "I won't allow harm to befall them."

"Rest assured, my prince. We shall supply them each with an individual air bubble to prevent suffocation. As soon as the inundation passes, we shall erase their memory of the kahaku world and return them to the surface."

"Fine, but in the meantime, you'd better put them in guest rooms rather than jails," Rin instructed.

"That voice … onii-chan?" Gou gazed at Rin's kahaku form, hesitation clouding her features. "It can't be!"

"Gou, it's all right. It's me." To prove his words, Rin transformed himself into a human. His scutes turned into skin, his tail vanished, and the webs garnishing his hands and feet were gone.

In the few seconds that lasted before he restored his kahaku form, Gou's eyes spoke recognition—this was the same Rin who went to the Samezuka High and aspired to be an Olympic athlete. He felt guilty when that gaze turned into a horrified look once more, so he added, "I can't breathe underwater as a human."

"Are you saying you're one of those…?" Gou clasped her hands in front of her mouth, tears welling up from the corners of her eyes. "But…"

"And so are you!" Rin's brow arched. "Why hasn't your memory returned yet?"

It was the lady-in-waiting behind Gou who answered Rin, "My apologies. The spell to restore oujo-sama's memory takes a heavy toil upon a non-royal blood such as myself. Once I created the temporary air bubble for your friends, I didn't have enough energy to cast the memory spell. I tried to convince her that she was one of us, but she still found little credibility to that fact. I shall deliver oujo-sama to Her Majesty Queen Kei to ensure the best of memory restoration."

"Gou," Rin assured his sister, "You should go with her for now. Nobody will harm you, Makoto, Nagisa, or Rei."

Scandalized, Gou cast worried glances at her surroundings, as though hoping for a rescue. When it became apparent that she had no better choice at her disposal, she timidly mumbled, "What will you do, onii-chan?"

"I'll stay here with Haru. We'll come up with something to save Jun ani-ue."

"Who's Jun … you're my only brother, right? And I don't see Haruka-sempai anywhere." Gou's gaze scoured around, but she failed to recognize the turquoise dragon to be Iwatobi's ace swimmer.

Rin glanced anxiously at the water ripples above them. "There's no time to explain. You should go; we'll catch up later."

Albeit reluctantly, Gou obeyed Rin. She followed the queen's lady-in-waiting and proceeded through a grand lapidary pathway.

"You took your time," a familiar baritone greeted Rin the moment Gou disappeared behind the inner portal of the palace.

"Sousuke! Why are you here?" Rin grinned; it actually felt reassuring to have his best friend beside him in such a crisis. He did not fail to notice Haru tensing up nevertheless.

The taller kahaku spared a piercing glance at the mizuchi next to Rin before answering, "I won't be of much use in Honshuu since the fiasco takes place here, so I thought I'd lend you a hand."

"But aren't your folks worried about you?" Rin asked as he groaned inwardly. Couldn't his childhood friend and his love interest get along without the barrier of jealousy?

"How can I be a good successor to the throne if I can't handle a hurdle at this scale? As the reigning king, my father is surely aware of that."

Rin's mouth opened to retort, but a distortion in the oscillation of the water interrupted his reply. Haru's whiskers stiffened. The king's grip tightened around his scepter. The guards drew their weapons. All who were present were alerted by the sudden sundering in a portion of the profundal zone.

"The spell for dimension travel," Haru mumbled.

All eyes were fixated upon the newly formed whirlpool. From it emerged a half-man, half-shark who swam into their midst with his black fins, his luminous green eyes staring portentously.

One of the kahaku children in the crowd remarked to his friends, "Wow, this is the first time I've seen a samebito," but was immediately hushed by his father.

The creature made a curt bow. "Pardon my intrusion. I am known as Muchimaro, the herald of Ryuujin-sama. If time permitted, I would follow the proper procedure regarding prior notice and etiquette, but given the hazard level of our current predicament, I shall be direct in conveying my master's message." It was apparent how much the shark-man struggled to breathe in the non-saline water; even his spike-like beard wavered along his jaw with the articulation of each word. The deep gash across his flank, however, seemed to be the true author of his agony.

No water creature was incognizant that sharks could hunt their prey by smelling blood a mile away, but seeing the usual predator covered in his own blood and laboring in pain like this, all alone in a foreign water and surrounded by multitudinous carnivorous strangers had to be a discomforting thought. Rin recalled his training days in the sea—no matter how bad some merboys and mermaids treated him, they would never eat him.

"Get a healer here!" Rin commanded a nearby guard.

"My deep gratitude, denka. However, my body will recuperate faster if I return to the sea at the earliest opportunity. Before that, I am obligated to deliver my master's message to mizuchi-sama, for he is the sole deity not currently at the Izumo shrine," Muchimaro spoke through ragged breath. "The demon who stole the tide-ebbing jewel has fortified my master's temple with a spell powerful enough to deny entry to all water creatures. As an additional preventive measure against theft, he also created fakes and scattered them, along with the two genuine ones, into the four directions of the wind, each protected by a trusted guardian."

"Thank you, Muchimaro-dono. You've done well. Leave the rest to us," Haru responded.

The samebito bowed once more before vanishing into the whirlpool again. The space distortion evaporated along with his departure, leaving the water placid again.

'Well, that sharky has to be something if he can manage a dimension travel in that condition,' Rin told himself. Then he glanced at Haru. It seemed like his usually apathetic rival had turned considerably more active since he revealed himself as a deity … or perhaps because this was wartime, after all.

八

8

"Mizuchi-sama, have you devised any plan to overcome this calamity?" King Toraichi asked.

"The spell repels only aquatic creatures. It only stands to reason that humans, as tellurian beings, will have a chance of successfully recovering the jewels," Haru replied in his usual monotone.

"You can't mean…" Rin gasped. His gaze met with Haru's and a mutual understanding transpired between them.

A grin spread across Rin's face, and then the kahaku prince accosted the nearest guard, "Bring my three friends here this instant."

The council of elders stared with indignant flares in their eyes, but dared not raise their voices against the river god. Maintaining his politeness, the king reasoned, "But mizuchi-sama, even if we were to equip those humans with air bubbles, their movements would still be limited. Time is crucial, and we have to stop the demon before his scheme has grown to maturity."

"They will receive a different breathing arrangement." Haru answered simply before calling, "Hatsu."

Out of nowhere, the profundal zone rippled with a distortion again. A ten-foot long arapaima swam smoothly, flashing its formidable scales in vivid iridescence. To everyone's bewilderment, the serpentine fish halted right in front of Haru and bowed to the river deity.

"Hatsu, will you fetch me a stem of suiseifuto from mother's garden?"

The arapaima nodded before disappearing as swiftly as it had appeared.

Haru's pet returned to the scene simultaneously with the arrival of the bubble containing Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei. As soon as Hatsu dropped the plant in his master's open claws, Haru approached the bubble.

Nonetheless, the king reminded him, "Mizuchi-sama, it is mandatory to unfold the events in their mind's eye; otherwise, these humans will panic upon finding themselves in this underwater environment once they are awake."

Haru simply nodded.

"Allow me," the king offered, before a steady droning chant of long-lost vernacular flowed from his mouth, intoxicating the three sleepers with its spell.

The voice swelled, growing in volume while deepening in timbre. It quavered, rising and falling in a complex rhythm. Then the chanting grew faster, more insistent. Now it began to rise in pitch, little by little.

The rest of the kahakufolk watched the ritual in silence, listening intently even though it was beyond them to comprehend the true weight of each word. Even after the king's incantation ended, it left a vibration that thrilled the nerves of its listeners for a spell. Like a lingering taste, the euphonic melody of his voice faded away idly. It bemused the three humans' senses, lulling their astonishment into a sort of dreamy acceptance.

True to King Toraichi's words, Rei and Nagisa were not bewildered in the slightest. Instead of demanding explanations, they merely rubbed their eyes and stretched out their limbs. Makoto remained silent as he looked at his surroundings, his expression unreadable.

Concerned about his best friend's fear of drowning, Haru asked, "Makoto, are you all right?"

Makoto's face melded into a smile. A breathless murmur broke from his mouth, "The open water doesn't bother me … Haru, it's unbelievable!"

"Wow, they're so pretty!" Nagisa commented as he saw passing multi-colored fish. He seemed to have a hard time resisting his urge to break out from the air bubble and poke at every creature that swam him by.

Rei opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Nagisa pointed at the kahakufolk. "Cool, it feels like we're surrounded by aliens! Hey, they aren't bald and don't even have beaks; I guess the movies must be wrong then. Oh, and none of them have boobs. Are they all male?"

Rei reprimanded him, "Nagisa-kun, it's rude to say those!"

This reminded Rin of his elder brother—in their childhood days, Jun used to tell Rin what was right and wrong. To dispel the melancholy from the memory, Rin explained, "Kahaku aren't mammals. The easiest way to tell apart male from female is by looking at our tails. Males often have longer and thicker tails with taller tail fins than females."

Rei could not help with his own curiosity and inquired further, "But how do you determine kahaku's age?"

"We mostly distinguish personal identity—age included—by the chemical released from our femoral pores, but it isn't something humans can learn overnight." Rin pointed at a series of pits within a row of scutes on the ventral portion of Sousuke's thigh for an example of femoral pores, and was surprised to learn that "displeased" would make his best friend's expression an understatement. Sousuke did not exactly scowl, but when he adopted such a saturnine trait, it would not be easily dispelled.

Rin was considering the chance that the taller kahaku was uncomfortable with being set as an example when his eyes followed where Sousuke's gaze trailed: Haru was watching him with rapt attention. 'Has Haru always been so interested in what I say, even when it doesn't have to do with swimming?'

Concerned about the anxious stares of the kahakufolk, Makoto prevented further scientific discussion by asking, "So, what can we do to help stopping the flood?"

"Hold your breath for a minute and take a leaf each as soon as I dissipate the bubble. As its name—aquatic drapery—implies, one leaf of this suiseifuto can make your organs adapt to underwater life for up to twenty-four hours," Haru explained after tearing his gaze off Rin.

Nagisa answered without hesitation, "Groovy! We're ready, Haru-chan."

Haru recited another spell in the ancient tongue. With each syllable, the enormous air bubble burst into myriads of small bubbles that gradually fused with the body of water.

The three humans extended their arms to receive the leaf from Haru.

As soon as Nagisa swallowed the suiseifuto, he chirped, "Thank goodness it wasn't bitter. It looks rather like a lettuce, don't you think?"

"No lettuce is ever silvery like this. Besides, its leaves reminded me more of a hornwort rosette," Rei corrected him. "But wow, Haruka-sempai, this plant is miraculous. Sound travels in the water more clearly than I imagined and I can see so well even without swimming goggles or my glasses." With that, Rei inserted his spectacles in his chest pocket.

"Nagisa, Rei, shouldn't we focus on hurrying up for now?" Makoto gently admonished them out of concern for the little time at hand.

"Hey, hey, are we gonna swim in these outfits?" Nagisa tugged at his shirt. "It'll be hard in such flapping clothes."

"I suppose the underwater residents won't mind if we're in our underwear only?" Upon glancing at the ungarbed kahakufolk, Makoto suggested, though hesitation was obvious in both his face and voice. "And anyway, the water isn't anywhere near as cold as you'd expect in October, it's actually comfortable … I wonder if this is also because of the suiseifuto."

While the three humans stripped themselves down to their briefs and asked a nearby guard where they could deposit their clothes, Rin whispered to Haru, "Are we seriously going to swim in our birthday suits? We can turn ourselves into humans, but we can't create clothes out of nothing."

Haru stood still for a moment in thought. Unlike the case with the kahaku, in which testicles were located permanently inside their bodies and hemipenes were taken out during reproduction only, male humans' genitalia protruded with embarrassing overtness. While water creatures would not find naked humans offensive to their eyes, just as how natural it was to humans seeing birds and fish without clothes, they were about to swim with three other humans.

"Catch!" Sousuke tossed two garments woven from moss-like plants that did not grow in the humans' world to Rin and Haru; Kahakufolk usually utilized this material for bedding, equivalent to human bed sheets. Sousuke manipulated the torrents of water to deliver the garments—a skill that humans had yet to master underwater.

"Gee, Sousuke," Rin japed, "What'd we do without you?"

Haru, on the other hand, asked suspiciously, "Why are you also wearing the mudmoss?"

Sousuke stepped forward. "I've been to the Ryuujin's temple once. I can be your guide."

To the other kahaku, his words might sound like an offer, but Rin knew that Sousuke would not accept "no" for an answer. It might be a wishful thinking to hope that Sousuke's willingness had nothing to do with jealousy.

"But is it all right for you to swim with your shoulder injury?" Makoto asked, sincere concern lacing his voice.

"I can still move freely underwater, though I'll have to leave the competitive affairs on your shoulders," Sousuke replied rather tersely.

Nagisa queried, "Competitive affairs? Are we going to compete? Against who?"

"The guardians of the tide-ebbing jewels." The grimness in Sousuke's tone was a signal conspicuous enough for Nagisa not to ask further.

While Sousuke was not the type of person who would flash a smile every few minutes, his temperamental inclination heightened whenever the Iwatobi Swimming Club members were within sight, especially Haru—that much Rin had not been blind enough to notice. Were it not for courtesy's sake, Rin doubted Sousuke would ask Haru's permission, especially since his every syllable exuded dagger-like tone. "May I humbly embark on this voyage, mizuchi-sama?"

Whatever veneration Sousuke's mouth uttered, it did not quite extend to his eyes. None of his razor-sharp syllables concealed his loathing for the river deity.

Nevertheless, Haru, who had just finished wrapping his crotch with the mudmoss in a loincloth-like fashion, nodded. As unreadable as his human expression frequently was, he granted Sousuke a suiseifuto leaf without further question.

九

9

The six of them arrived in front of the temple unobstructed courtesy of Haru's spell for dimension travel. Since the hijacked temple could not be entered by aquatic creatures, Haru, Rin, and Sousuke had transformed themselves into humans again for this journey.

Rin noticed Sousuke trying to suppress a cringe, and supposed that the salinity of the seawater must have irritated his skin; he, too, had experienced this discomfort during his early days of training with the merfolk—a kahaku's transformation into a human or any other creature could not rid them of their natural vulnerabilities.

"Wow! Even though we're in the benthic zone of the sea, my eardrums aren't pressurized. The suiseifuto does wonders, Haruka-sem—" Rei's remark died out as soon as he caught sight of their destination.

Untamed by humans' pernicious hands, this part of the sea was a subtropical labyrinth of coral reefs, teeming with marine life still in a pristine state. The fortress-like temple precinct was built out of blood-red and bone-white corals, obscured to view in masses of impenetrable shades, and surrounded by tall algae and carcasses of the dead upon beds of rocky outcrops by an oceanic trench.

Every aquatic creature knew that in its heyday, the undersea temple was unparalleled in magnificence, with sunlight filling its inner courts with gentle rays that illuminated its walls. Today, the corpse-gray water seemed never to have held any sun. Even the ancillary buildings inside the walls—the providers of amenities for the residents—were deadly quiet.

"It seems that demon has slaughtered the sea god's retinues," Haru said at the sight of countless fish, turtles, and jellyfish scattered across the coral garden of the shadow-mantled temple yard.

Rin could only pray that it was not his brother's hands the demon had employed to execute the massacre. It was one thing to hunt for meals, but taking innocent lives simply because they were performing their rightful duties was a grave sin. What if Jun's future kingship were to be revoked?

"Eep!" Nagisa shrieked. He dashed toward Rei and hugged his boyfriend tightly.

A bit flustered, Rei asked, "What's wrong?"

"Eyes!" Nagisa whined, "Some eyes are glaring at me!"

Rin instinctively glanced at Sousuke; his best friend had always been in a default foul mood whenever Haru was present. But then he noticed Nagisa pointing at the seabed.

'Speedo Glasses is lucky that Nagisa can cling to him so unashamedly, without a care in the world for others' opinions. Haru wouldn't act cute like that.'

Rin took a closer look at the eyeballs on the sand and gave an understanding hum before enlightening the terrified boy. "That's what humans call a 'stargazer.' They wait buried in the sand with their heads sticking out, until prey swims over them, and then they spring out and eat it. Oh, and stargazers also have two venomous spines on their backs, and can produce electric shocks. Well, given that there are so many fresh corpses over here, I doubt that fish will attack us if we don't disturb it."

Nagisa looked relieved and almost stepped onto the black sand, but Rin warned him further, "Stay off the seabed. It'll be game over once you step onto a stonefish, the most venomous fish known to humankind."

Nagisa pouted. "I thought the sea floor would be more exciting—better than the aquarium I saw with Rei-chan two weeks ago—but the only pretty thing around here is that yellow clump over there."

"That pretty yellow thing is a sea anemone. Its paralyzing neurotoxin is another ticket to the underworld, right Haru?"

Yet, Haru's attention was directed at the enclosed seven-tiered pagoda. Haru cast his gaze further and further afield, until his eyes met the cruel pinnacle of the topmost structure, rising darker than the gloomy shades amid which it was erected. "One of the kanju is hidden there."

"What about the other one?" Rei asked.

As though agitated by some otherworldly aquatic surge, or else moved by some great disquiet within, mantling clouds of sediments rose from the yard and swirled before them.

Haru shook his head. "I can no longer feel the presence of any kanju."

"We'll just have to find it the old fashioned way then," Rin resolved.

The temple entrance was a double door made of heavy slabs of stone. It took the combined efforts from the six of them just to swing one side open. They slipped through the ephemeral opening and entered the dreary confines of the temple, the water reeking with the scent of blood. The unwieldy stone slabs of the door boomed shut behind them, engendering thundering reverberations that echoed through the temple, overpowering the water's subtle natural noises.

Then everywhere turned preternaturally soundless; there were no swimming fish, no fluttering plankton, no rustling sediments of any kind—a foreboding and uncanny hush, like the silence of the ageless void. Even with their heightened underwater visibility, the temple interior was dark, except for the eerie glow along the wall at every five-meter interval. It was a light such as the humans had never seen: a livid luster that was not the reflection of lamp or torch or firebrand.

"They aren't hitodama, are they?" Makoto inquired in a strained voice, his pitch ending up half an octave higher. Despite being the second tallest person in the group after Sousuke, he was the one most fearful of supernatural things.

Rei replied, "But will-o'-the-wisps float in the air instead of water, Makoto-sempai. I'm more worried if they're angler fish or other benthic predators, though I'm perplexed why they don't move."

"Those creatures don't live in the human world, Rei. Just consider them as brain corals with photophore. The sea god had them placed here to light the temple. They won't harm us as long as we don't touch them," Haru explained.

"We have to enter this pagoda clockwise," Sousuke spoke for the first time during their journey. "That is, if you'd rather not risk setting off the traps," he added sharply the moment his eye caught Nagisa turning to the right.

"So, there are flying spears, beds of nails, rolling stones, and guillotines in this place?" Nagisa queried.

"What need does a god have for those humanly traps?" Sousuke replied, exasperation hinted within his tone. "I'm talking about getting stranded in different dimensions if you enter the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally, those spaces have been selected for their utmost brutality."

At once, Nagisa clung to the nearest person in the group, which happened to be Sousuke—to Rei's obvious disappointment.

The five boys followed Sousuke down the dim circular corridor, assaulted by menacing sounds—cackling, gnarling, loud talking, snoring. Everywhere they passed presented its own suite of scents: blood, blood and more blood. With every turn, they expected to see a sea monster, but no peril came upon them until they arrived at their intended door, grandly inlaid with mother-of-pearls. Above it, a placard of seashell bore the sign: "East Gate." The six of them extended their arms, prepared to shift another ponderous slab. However, the door swung open the moment the nearest hand—Makoto's—touched its handle.

"Eek!" At once, Makoto backed off and hid behind Haru.

Sousuke stepped to the fore, dauntlessly entering the dark chamber that exuded murderous intent. The others followed and found themselves floating at the end of a lightless, tremendous chamber. Veiled in darkness, the ceiling was supported by towering pillars of coral extending to the chasm-like floor that was lost somewhere below in the spectral somberness of the place.

"This pagoda is far more expansive than it seems from outside," Rei commented, "Judging by the proportion of our bodies against the pagoda's circumference, I didn't think the room would be this vast."

"That's because we're in another spatial dimension. The water is warmer and saltier here," Sousuke answered, "The physical size of the temple precinct alone wouldn't have sufficed to accommodate that monster when he runs amok."

All other boys looked in the direction Sousuke pointed out.

十

10

The hall had eldritchly darkened more and more with their every stroke forward, though this was nothing compared to the thick gloom and shadow gathering at the far end. Lurking in that shadowy corner was a colossal bull with horns the length of Samezuka's swimming pool, spurred wrists, and membranes like those of a flying squirrel. Queerer still, the beast stood on two feet despite his four legs. Next to his fearsome figure, stood a pedestal, upon which the tide-ebbing jewel nestled. The orb glowed iridescently in the dark, almost pearl-like, were it not for its transparency.

Nagisa whimpered, "I'm not sure I'd ever want to eat beef again after today."

"He's a gyuuki," Haru said simply, almost at the same time with Makoto grabbing his hand.

Although Rin knew that Makoto did not take any sexual advantage of his friendship with Haru from this situation, the claws of jealousy ripped him from the inside, and he was barely aware of Sousuke replying with hinted sarcasm, "That explains the heaping corpses of sea-dwellers out there."

"So, this means that humans seldom see gyuuki and other creatures classified as cryptid or even mythical beings because they inhabit other dimensions while not on duty?" Rei mumbled without taking his gaze away from the oversized creature's bovine head.

Rin thundered, "Argh! Yes, why else do you think humans wouldn't find the kahaku kingdom as soon as they stick their heads into a river? But is this really the time for a little scientific observation, huh?!"

Rei muttered an apology, but Haru intervened over them, effectively releasing his hand from Makoto's grip, "Rin, calm down. Anxiety won't help bring your brother back."

"I know that." Rin's fists clenched, but his voice was considerably more subdued and pain lingered in his eyes as his words slipped through his gritted teeth; how could he ever explain if anyone suspected that Makoto's holding of Haru's hand was a decisive factor in his growing irritation? "I know that, dammit!"

Unmitigated fear still enveloping him, Makoto spoke, "How are we going to get the tide-ebbing jewel?"

"Maybe one of us can grab it while the others baited that thing?" Nagisa suggested.

Grave creases between his tufted brows, Sousuke replied, "A diversion method wouldn't work here. Look, he doesn't chase us even though he's aware of our presence. He won't budge unless we come to obtain the jewel it has been ordered to protect. We'd better split up."

"Are you kidding?! I'm not leaving each of my human friends alone!" Rin protested.

With a collected calmness, Sousuke rejoined, "And how exactly will your presence make any difference? You can't use kahaku magic in your human form. Besides, there are three more guardians like this and a limited time on our hands; judging from the heavy rain earlier, I wouldn't be surprised if the land's flooded by now."

"You five go ahead. I'll stay here."

No one had expected those words to come out of Makoto's mouth.

"But…" Nagisa began.

Makoto answered, more determined than before, "There's no time to argue. Hurry."

Haru nodded. "The flood is already a foot high and it's still raining non-stop on land. Currently, a number of TV stations are broadcasting live interviews with meteorologists in regard to the sudden severe rain storm. That's what my scales informed me."

Dread surfaced on the three humans' faces, undoubtedly worrying about their families and friends. They exchanged glances first, and then Nagisa held out his fist, to wish Makoto good luck. The others did the same, bringing their knuckles together in a promise.

"We'll meet again on the top floor," was the last thing Haru said before exiting the door behind him, leaving Makoto alone with a monstrosity larger than the Iwatobi High School precinct, cloaked in jet-black scales.

Even though they swam as fast as their limbs could carry them, it still took several minutes before they reached the second door. Labeled "South Gate," the bulky slab opened at Rei's slightest touch.

A figure materialized in the inky shadows: a serpentine creature, its humongous body coiling around another tide-ebbing jewel.

Nagisa recoiled as he complained, "Ew! What's that? An eel? Snake? How long is it? Like how many … kilometers? Holy crap!"

"That's an ikuchi, the straddler of ships," Haru answered. "I've never measured him, though."

Rei gulped, but volunteered, "I'll obtain that jewel."

As soon as he stepped forward, Nagisa pushed him back, saying, "No, I'll do it. You go to the next room, Rei-chan!"

"Aren't you afraid of the ikuchi?"

"Of course," Nagisa replied with quivering lips, looking disorientated, "But I don't want that monster to touch you and molest your unexplored spots with its slimy, slithery body, Rei-chan—only I get to do that!"

"Nagisa-kun, would you refrain from that delusional sexual fantasy of yours? You've read too many graphic novels featuring tentacle rape!" Rei fumed. "Considering that the entirety of me is smaller than its eye, don't you think it'd swat me like some dirt instead?"

Rei seemed to be about to carry on lecturing Nagisa, but Sousuke prudently lifted Rei by the waist and carried the smaller boy outside.

"Let's move on," Rin's half-groaning exhortation became their parting salutation. The door closed behind him with the piercing pitch of Nagisa's scream.

"I should have stayed after all." Rei cast an anxious look over his shoulder.

Sousuke seemed to be resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he said, "Oh, the next guardian could even be scarier—you'll never know."

"Don't jinx it!" Rin exclaimed.

As it turned out, the one guarding the West Gate was a gargantuan crab with a carapace resembling a Heike samurai mask from the twelfth century.

"Could this be … the so-called 'heikegani'?" Rei asked.

Haru nodded.

"Ugh, even though I love the art of armory, this is definitely … not beautiful," Rei shuddered. "Shouldn't this species be the size of a normal crab?"

Haru answered, "The only ones that humans have encountered so far are the young. This is the true size of a full-grown heikegani."

"But its body is wider than the wingspan of Boeing-747, at the very least…" Rei continued to lament.

"Aren't you glad he's all yours?" Sousuke sneered before leaving with Rin and Haru.

The three of them were spurring their limbs toward the fourth room, when Rin's eyes caught a fleeting figure and cried, "Ani-ue!"

Jun ignored his call and slid out of his frame of vision, disappearing behind a curved wall. When Rin pursued him, Haru and Sousuke held him by each arm.

Rin struggled. "Let me go!"

"After you caught up with him, what are you going to do? How are you going to expel that demon from Jun's body?" Sousuke reasoned with Rin.

"I don't know! I'll think of something—I gotta save my brother, dammit!"

"Rin, I'll exorcize that demon, so you just focus on retrieving the jewel in the North Gate," Haru promised.

Rin stopped struggling, but his expression was clouded with uncertainty.

"I will save Jun. This I vow," Haru affirmed.

Rin locked eyes with Haru's and nodded.

Haru turned to Sousuke and asked, "Can I leave Rin in your hands?"

"I need to show you around, don't I?" Something in Sousuke's tone indicated that he would rather be locked in a cage with a shark or a crocodile than stuck with Haru.

"That won't be necessary," Haru replied, "The demon must be on the top floor, where I sensed the kanju earlier."

As Haru advanced to the direction where Jun had last been seen, Rin called out, "Haru…"

"Look, I… If it weren't you, I'd rush to my brother's side right now." His body trembled as he spoke, and he had felt pathetic even before the last syllable left his mouth. He did not want to rely on divine power and use his own friend, no less; and yet, what could he do to save Jun? He was distantly aware of Sousuke tensing at his back, felt a hand brush against his own, but he shook it off, his full attention focused on Haru.

However, the moment Haru balked for a second, made the tiniest of nods, and then went on his way again, Rin's dejection was lifted. After Haru went on his way, Rin opened the double doors to the fourth room feeling as fresh as a blank slate.

At the opposite end of the shadowy hall stood the largest sea monster ever known: an anthropoid specter with translucent cloudy-gray skin and a bulbous head as bald as a Buddhist monk's. His figure towered high above—mountainous and immovable, presiding over all from a lofty perch.

'The umibouzu who's reputed to have shipwrecked countless fishermen, huh?' Rin grinned in both fear and excitement, his adrenaline rushing in feverish anticipation.

"Let me know if you need anything," Sousuke told Rin. He followed Rin inside, but remained on standby next to the door, aware that his injured shoulder would not do him any good in attempting to escape from the indomitable umibouzu.

"Will do," Rin affirmed, while his mind raced, 'Now then, how do I outpace this stupendous dude?'

十一

11

Rin moved his hands in an outward scull until they were shoulder width, then, as though catching the water, he pushed them semi-circularly past his waist. He timed the coordination of his butterfly style to a textbook standard of a two beat cycle of leg kicks to one arm cycle. At times like this, Haru's suiseifuto proved to be extremely helpful; without the need of surfacing for air inhalation and diving again for recovery, not only did he lessen the strain on his muscles, but his swim time was also cut down significantly.

Yet, the moment Rin pierced through the water toward the tide-ebbing jewel, the umibouzu shifted its massive body, barricading the gem from access and sight.

Rin wondered briefly why the mountainous specter did not simply clutch the kanju tight to its body, given that it should be impossible for a puny human to pull it from him with strength alone, but the answer came to him swiftly: the guardian could not touch what it was guarding. The demon's spell protected the tide-ebbing jewel from all sea creatures, including his own minions.

Even from its place behind the overwhelming bulk of the monster, the iridescent glow of jewel gave away its position. Rin pressed closer until he was mere feet from it, but was thwarted yet again as the umibouzu lunged at him, titanic fingers stretching wide, ready to crush him into pieces. In a flash, Rin darted forward, straining his limbs for all the strength and speed his human form was capable of, weaving around the massive fingers and grasped the kanju to his chest. Comprising the size of a grown man's head, but the weight of a foam ball, it fit snuggly against Rin's palm as he snatched it away from the podium.

He turned to beat a hasty retreat, struggling to maintain his speed with one arm handicapped holding the jewel. Within a mere blink of an eye, his humongous pursuer already turned for him again. Behind, Rin could hear the sea monk thrashing his way after him, the water gurgles growing louder.

With every meter Rin gained, he felt the stab of the monster's stare. The eerie sensation sent tingles across Rin's skin, rose the hairs on the back of his neck and set his adrenaline to pump faster. And then the umibouzu sprang at him, in full control of the seiche; he could hear the giant's booming step across the seabed. A single sway of the sea bonze's hand was all it took to push a tidal motion as ferociously as a raging gale. The ebb and flow of the water that had always been Rin's ally was now detaining him.

Rin redoubled his speed, kicking water with feet pressed together to minimize the water pressure and thrashing with his free arm. He urged every nerve and sinew within him so the continuous undulation of his body prompted his propulsive movements forward. The distance to the door was getting smaller and smaller.

'Three more meters!' Rin steeled himself, pedaling as fast as his human body allowed to reach the door.

The titanic monstrosity was less than two meters away; from the seismic undulation behind, Rin could feel those swelling fingers whip across the dark water to grasp him. Sousuke opened the door for him and exclaimed, "Rin, toss it here!"

WHUMP!

It happened in less than a blink, but the sound was too turbulent for comfort. The next thing he knew, a bedlam of motion took place. A great pulse of water barreled past him, carrying with it a massive fragment of coral-like pillar that struck Sousuke squarely in the stomach, the force of the collision knocking him cleanly through the open door several yards ahead among a violent torrent of agitated water bubbles.

'Sousuke!' Rin's gut lurched as he darted after his best friend, the tide-ebbing jewel still clutched tight against his chest.

Bellowing with rage, the umibozou wrenched jagged slabs from the central pillar and hurled them with all the force in his tremendous body at Rin. He could not pursue the thief in person past the North Gate since his master's spell bound him to the spatial dimension behind it.

The surges of water chased after Rin, ricocheting from behind and causing his vision to blur red for an instant. Amid the dizzying chaos, painful pressure pummeled him from left and right regardless of his attempts to dodge. His breath rasped as he dragged ever more of it into his lungs, but with a final spurt of effort, Rin burst through the door to sanctuary, beyond the reach of the umibouzu. Safely through the dimension portal and into the pagoda's hallway, the deadly debris no longer followed his track.

Ropes of sand were still uncoiling on the sea floor around Sousuke when Rin reached him. Sousuke himself was facing the circular wall, his forearm nailed onto a coral pillar by one of its rod-like branches. The tip of the branch protruded from Sousuke's skin, and he could have mistaken as the one growing it, were it not for the fresh blood that swirled around his pinned limb. The carmine ribbons swirling around his arm looked so beguilingly beautiful, as though he could feel no pain from their loss.

"Your arm!" A paralyzing panic clutched around Rin's heart. Sousuke's right shoulder had already been injured; must his left forearm suffer beyond repair, too? "If you hadn't come here with me…"

"You talk like I've already become a cripple." The derisive reply made Rin direct his gaze from Sousuke's wounded forearm to his face. In that brief moment, Sousuke pulled his arm away from the branching coral. More blood billowed from his widened injury, tinting the water claret, but he merely gritted his teeth while enduring the pain.

Snatching Sousuke's arm with his free hand to check his friend's injury, Rin incredulously exclaimed, "Quit acting tough! You should have removed it more carefully! What if it damaged your sinews permanently?"

"Save your preaching for later, will you? Freaking out won't help the healing." Sousuke let out a long, ragged breath.

"I shouldn't have let you come inside the North Gate—no, I shouldn't have brought you here at all!"

"You're such a worrywart! It's not like I can't use this arm to eat or write."

"Sousuke, you're the eldest child in your family. You'll become king. What will your people say about…" Rin could not continue, a stinging sensation pricking his eyes.

"Who cares about what they'll say? Even if my arm were to be injured forever, I wouldn't regret it. Any of it. Nor will I regret dying if it's for you."

Rin jerked away from Sousuke's arm instantly at that. His best friend's declaration stormed through Rin's senses, stabbing him like a fresh wound and shackling him with guilt. Sousuke had never said it aloud, but "swimming with Rin" was not all there was in his new dream. Still, a part of Rin had clung to the fervent hope that he would not have to hear the confirmation of his best friend's feelings, as Rin had never possessed the courage to admit that his own feelings could never extend beyond the platonic between them. However, the sudden movement from Rin's flinch wrenched the injury and elicited a wince from the taller boy. Rin mumbled, "Sorry."

A pained look clung to Sousuke's countenance as he asked, "For tugging my wound just now or for turning me down soon because you have the hots for Nanase?"

Although Rin knew which option was true, his tongue just could not form the words to affirm it. Despite the water all around him, he felt his throat going dry. His other hand's grip on the kanju tightened. He stared at Sousuke for a long while, trying to decipher any emotion in those familiar teal eyes. Although he had suspected that Sousuke loved him as more than a childhood friend, it still came as a blow that his best friend spelled out his romantic interest for Haru.

It was not until he had searched and searched, but still found nothing that he spoke, "Since when have you known this?"

"Rin, although you rubbed out 'you' and replaced it with 'him,' some of the letters you sent to me from Australia back in middle school were clearly meant for Nanase." There was no bitterness or discontent in Sousuke's tone, only defeated resignation, and this made Rin felt all the guiltier.

Rin's wine-colored eyes dilated before he burst into a fit of sardonic guffaw. "To think that I wasn't even aware of my feelings for him and your feelings for me until weeks ago … you really are the person who understands me the most, Sousuke."

"Seriously? All those years of obsession and you weren't even aware of what you felt?"

Rin shrugged. "I thought I only cared about his swimming ability."

"You don't have to lie to comfort me." Sousuke turned around and swam ahead of Rin.

A part of Rin wanted to yell back at his best friend to convince him, 'I'm not lying, and you know that!' But when he perceived Sousuke's hunched shoulders and standoffish demeanor, he realized deep down that even his most reliable friend needed a small consolation for the time being—something Rin the heartbreaker could be blamed for.

十二

12

Unlike land pagodas, the underwater pagoda needed no stairways to connect one level to another, as the opening on each floor was passable by way of water.

Finding Haru's location was a straightforward affair; approaching him was not. Having assumed his mizuchi form, he was fighting what seemed to be a lump of dark cloud inside a four-sided turquoise barrier erected not thirty paces from the floor opening through which Rin and Sousuke had entered. The expansive room was brighter than any other part of the temple they had seen, for elaborate swirls of photophore snaked across the dark floor and walls, their intricate looping patterns casting a brilliant blue glow through the space of the throne room. The cerulean phosphorescence reflected off the jewel anemones imbedded into the walls and cast shadows upon the crevices of the knobby anemones hanging from the ceiling.

In all his life Rin had never seen Haru so frightening, yet so beautiful. His head was high in ever alert attention as his serpentine body moved in sinuous and graceful undulations. His quiet movements left no trace in their course.

At a closer look, Rin noticed a snarling, fanged head peeking out and long, wickedly curved claws protruding from the cloud and remarked, "Hey, Sousuke, do you think that's an akashita?"

"Seems so. But what's he doing underwater?" Sousuke replied. "Shouldn't akashita preside over floodgates during the summer months to snatch up thieving farmers and drain the water out of their fields?"

Rin mused. "It's certainly odd. The whole affair is odd. Akashita are celestial demons; they shouldn't have been able to control aquatic creatures. Besides, possessing a river kahaku to control the sea is just … pointless. Taking control of a sea creature's body would have been more efficient."

The two combatants drew back momentarily, acquiring an ideal distance to lunge. The akashita respected Haru's mighty coil, while the mizuchi on his part held the beast's ferocious claws in equal esteem. The demon's cinnabar eyes were fixed upon the bright-scaled dragon with a menacing lambency. His long red tongue lapped his lips, saliva dribbling from his open maw. His intention could not have been clearer: the river deity's demise beneath his rending claws.

'Gods, please don't let Haru die!' Rin prayed in his heart.

"Rin, isn't that Jun?" Sousuke pointed at the other end of the hall, where a majestic throne stood. Sitting on the floor, clinging to its armrest was the eldest son of the Matsuoka kahaku royal family.

Rin hurried to his brother. Despite the physical familiarity of his face, this Jun seemed different, distant, alien even. His leaden visage was colorless, draped in the somberness of the throne's shadow. His untamed, redwood mane frizzed about his head in a halo.

"Ani-ue, are you all right?"

Jun nodded weakly, a smile wavering on his lips. "You came for me, Rin."

"Not just me. My friends are coming to rescue you, too," Rin answered, trying to ignore the eerie feeling that came with Jun's greeting; there was a strange lilt to his voice that Rin had not heard before, almost an echo.

"You even bring the kanju. Excellent … excellent. Now set it down here, together with mine." Jun retrieved another kanju from behind the throne.

Rin squinted. Something was off with his brother.

"Never mind the kanju. We'd better treat your sickness first. You look pale."

"I'm perfectly fine, dear brother. Put the kanju here. It is imperative we make haste."

Jun's tone sounded greedy—a trait that had never tainted his personality before. Rin knew, with a sudden, stark assuredness, that the entity before him was not his brother; whatever was occupying Jun's body was speaking through his mouth. Even Jun's skin was the pallid, insipid grey of waterlogged flesh, a hold-over from whatever creature occupying his body.

Rin grimaced at the realization, then cast a questioning glance at Haru, who was now evading his opponent's claw attack. Rin wanted to inquire, 'Didn't you exorcize the demon who possessed ani-ue?' but then a terrifying notion flickered in his brain. What if there had been more than one demon sharing the possession of Jun's body?

That instant, Rei's head emerged from the floor opening. As the rest of his body followed, it appeared to Rin that Rei was uninjured, but carried no kanju with him.

'Did he fail to get past the heikegani?' Rin construed.

From behind, Jun, who had grown impatient with his brother's dally, stretched his arm to reach the kanju in Rin's hand.

"Rei, catch this!" Rin threw the kanju, calculating the force and timing of the water torrent as he had done while playing ball game with the other kahaku as children.

"Whoa! We can throw and catch objects underwater here?" Despite his surprise, Rei scurried to collect it, while endeavoring to calculate the timing by mumbling something about mass, velocity, and the Law of Newton.

"Halt! Leave it be, thou lowly human!" Panic-stricken, Jun's voice had lost its former gentility. Not only did it sound ghastly and sinister now, but it was also spoken with the –de gozaru verb pattern. The eldest prince stood tall with his dewlap extended, his whipping tail secreting a mild toxin—a demeanor common among kahaku when they were enraged or threatened.

Rei was so flustered by this vagary that he retracted his hands before the tips of his fingers touched the divine jewel.

"Why is it such a big deal?" Rin asked Jun.

Jun flitted to retrieve the dropped tide-ebbing jewel, and fell into a defensive stance that would have been more at home on an armored samurai, his muscles tensing with the expectation of bearing the weight of metal and with the arms splayed as though there should be a katana in hand. He replied to Rin's question with blatant distress, "Sayest thou what, fool?! The kanju shall froth and expire at the touch of a mere human."

"Okay, that did it. No matter how polite and pompous my brother is, he doesn't speak like a samurai. You're a ghost from the Edo Period, aren't you? Most likely you died in a shipwreck; in other words, you're a funayuurei," Rin challenged.

"Fie!" Jun cussed, as he lunged at the jewel on the floor. Rei hesitated over whether or not to secure the kanju which might drift into nothingness at his slightest touch. Nagisa had now entered from the floor opening with no kanju between his hands.

But Rin was faster. With the combined forces of a well-chosen incantation that his grandmother once had taught him and the royal family finger seal, he drove the spirit out of Jun's body.

十三

13

In that moment, the water rampaged inside the barrier. Amid the splashes, bubbles gave birth to numberless gurgles. Outside it, however, the water was as placid as that in an unperturbed lake.

The akashita drew his hind legs well up inside the cover of clouds and leaped to one side, high toward the river deity, his rapid movement little more than a blur in the water. Jutting forward from his knuckles, his massive claws struck the limb on which Haru had been; only the mizuchi was no longer there.

Reclaiming the tide-ebbing jewel, Rin concluded, 'So, the barrier is another spatial dimension, as I thought. That's why Haru can regain his original shape despite the spell that prevents water creatures from entering this temple.'

The hairy-faced beast charged at the same instant as the dragon's fangs struck into his upper back. With a mighty roar the demon attempted to tear the deity's grip from his body, only to be met with a deeper, more persistent bite. It was then too late for the akashita to sidestep the rest of the mizuchi's onrushing body, Haru's muscles rolling under his opalescent scales as he wrapped and squeezed around the demon. Ferocious was the akashita, but more inexorable still was the mizuchi.

The red-tongued beast rolled over—a screaming mass of fury focused solely on the muscular coils of the enemy surrounding it. Pawing at water bubbles, the akashita thrashed about wildly, hurling himself into the walls of the barrier in a painful campaign to dislodge his unyielding adversary. Yet, ever tighter and tighter drew the tenacious fangs that were forcing his back lower and lower out of the mantle of cloud.

Deeper sank the relentless grip of the dragon's fangs into his opponent's back. Now that the cloud had been lifted, it became plain to see that the immense muscles of the floodgate demon's biceps were corded into thick knots, straining to break free of his opponent's grip, but the sinuous body of the river dragon refused to let go. Weaker and weaker the hairy beast's struggles became. At last, with a sickening crack that echoed even through the barrier, Haru's jaws snapped through the akashita's spinal cord at the base of the demon's nape.

The akashita's eyes rolled upwards until only the white sclera were visible. It lasted but for a moment, and then his head lolled down from his nerveless neck. Once those unforgiving fangs had sunk into his flesh and held it beyond hope of escape, he was as good as running straight into the clutches of death.

Only then did Haru let go, and the akashita's body fell lifeless to the sandy floor. A lance of energy blasted from Haru's maw, a silvery blue light that suffused the demon's unbreathing body and purified it. The flesh shone, and then disintegrated into thousands of glowing bubbles. Gradually, the light dimmed out and the bubbles united with the water. Thus, the sea became the akashita's final resting place.

Haru dissipated the barrier and its turquoise shards fluctuated amid the water seiche before fusing with the sea. Now that the akashita who controlled the spell was gone, the sea god's temple no longer repelled aquatic creatures.

Rei and Makoto hurried to Haru's side with celebratory words and grins upon their faces, and Nagisa thrust his hands forward excitedly to offer him a high-five.

Rin, too, was so fixated on Haru's triumph that he realized a moment too late that Jun's body twitched and jerked one last time; with his dying breath, the funayuurei spat his curse. As Jun's body collapsed to the floor, a torrent of water whipped behind Rin. The moment it touched Rin's back would be the moment of his death. Should be…

…until Sousuke shielded Rin with his own body, taking the full blow of the death curse.

Time seemed to slow as the entirety of his focus was drawn to Sousuke, and Rin watched helplessly as his best friend crumpled. Somewhere at the back, Makoto had arrived empty-handed, too, and rushed to his side together with Haru, Rei and Nagisa, calling Sousuke's name.

"Sousuke," Rin called with trembling lips, "Open your eyes!"

His voice was swallowed by the oscillating water, while his best friend remained voiceless and unmoving. In this state, Sousuke looked very much like a puppet with cut strings.

Trepidation sank its claws into Rin's mind as he palpated the side of Sousuke's neck. "Sousuke, I swear if you don't wake up right now, I'll—" Rin could not continue, a sob breaking from his throat. The outcome he had been dreading unraveled before him: he could feel no pulse coursing through Sousuke's carotid artery.

This had to be a bad dream. The empty shell that used to be Sousuke's body lay before his eyes, but no matter how far Rin stretched his arms, they could reach his best friend no longer.

"No … don't do this to me!" Rin's groan punctured the silence of the throne room. Bereft of hope, he punched the floor next to the corpse. The numbing pain that diffused from his knuckles was nowhere near enough to repent his sin. He had killed his best friend in hope of rescuing his brother. If only he could turn back time…

With the same tranquility as he always had in his bearing, Haru halted next to Sousuke. He shed one of his scales and placed it on Sousuke's chest. The opalescent scale shimmered and then disseminated into microscopic particles that permeated into Sousuke's full figure. Just as a sleeper awoken from his slumber, Sousuke roused, invigorated by this new life energy.

Rin, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei watched open-mouthed, bereft of words.

"Haru, what did your scale do to Yamazaki-kun just now?" Makoto inquired, bewildered still.

Impassive as ever, Haru replied, "Gave him some more years to go on."

"So, it's true that a mizuchi's scale is equal to a hundred years of life? Are you saying you cut off your age by a century and shoved it onto me?" Sousuke spoke quietly at first, but then his volume spiked, and what had begun as a question evolved into an accusation.

Rin blinked, nonplussed. The Sousuke he knew had a firmer grasp of self-control.

"You may not gain that many years—how long the scale can survive in a body outside its original owner depends on the host's adaptability," Haru confirmed, expressionless still.

"That isn't the issue here!" Sousuke growled, then continued in a softer volume, but more arctic tone, "Take that scale back. Dissect me if you must."

"Sousuke, chill out!" Arms outstretched to both directions, Rin interceded before further spite occurred. "And Haru, you could at least explain why you chose to do that."

Notwithstanding the three humans' looks of confusion—possibly wondering why Sousuke was nowhere near grateful for the second chance to live—Rin suspected that his best friend loathed being in Haru's debt. That, and a horrendous notion burgeoned within him: what if Sousuke had been desperate enough to think that he'd better off dead because since Rin would not love him back, and now he was furious that Haru precluded him from acquiring the death he had been yearning for?

Haru's expression remained utterly under control as he answered, "I hatched from my eggshell in the fourteenth century and I've lived idly watching other creatures live and die since then. For once, I want to take part in the daily life of someone I can call a friend."

Rin personally considered this reason to be a plausible enough. While Haru had showed no hesitation to cast aside a hundred years of his life, mizuchi remained creatures whose lifespan could last for millennia. Kahaku, on the other hand, rarely exceeded a single millennium.

However, Sousuke yelled, the rage in his eyes speaking volumes, "Find your friends elsewhere! I don't want your charity!" His body shook with fury and his other fist clenched, seemingly ready to punch Haru, but he winced mid-way. It now became apparent that, while the scale granted him life, it did not remedy the pain from his arm injury.

When Haru responded, it was in a language unfamiliar to Rin's ears. He noticed that, miniscule though it was, there was a slight perturbation in the normal poise of Haru's expression, and there was something in his words that sounded like a threatening hiss. At once, Sousuke's eyes flared with even greater fury; even the short-phrased reply that erupted from his mouth was saturated in the tone of a curse.

Given Sousuke's familiarity with the language, Rin guessed that they were communicating in the Ainu tongue, native to northeastern Honshuu where his father's palace resided.

"What are you guys talking about?"

Neither Haru nor Sousuke spoke. Although Rin was aware that they would not have bothered to speak in a language he did not understand if they had not minded him comprehending their discourse, the fact that they kept a secret from him was disheartening.

十四

14

"Can you manage, Jun-san?" Makoto's gentle voice came from behind.

Rin turned around, only to find Makoto helping Jun to his feet and lending him a shoulder to lean on. The eldest prince had returned to his usual debonair self, albeit aquiver on his feet. His answer was too weak to be audible from their distance, but the flabbergasted expression mingled with his gratitude was unmistakable.

Makoto hastily amended, "Ah, sorry for calling you your given name even though we've just met. I thought it'd be weird to call Rin's brother 'Matsuoka-san.'"

Rin suppressed his chuckle; rather than the surname issue, it had to be the first time anyone addressed his brother with "Jun-san" as opposed to "Jun-denka." At the same time, guilt puddled within Rin's gut; he had been wallowing in self-pity too much to pay any attention to his recuperating brother.

However, Rei's saikeirei snatched his attention away from the guilt—the depth of the bow was alarming to them all. (It was not a common thing, even among Japanese who were so prone of bowing to dip one's head to an angle of forty-five degrees unless said person wished to express such deep respect, extreme gratitude, or—in this case—serious apology; the more normal bows in everyday life would be shallower.) "I'm sorry, you all. It's just as the funayuurei alleged, the kanju burst into bubbles as soon as I touched it."

"Uh, I actually kinda … did the same? Te-hee!" Nagisa grinned, clearly hoping that his friends would let the matter slide if he laughed it off.

"Me too, actually." An apologetic look filled Makoto's face, sans the grin. He sounded almost like a wailing toddler as he lamented, "What if the land is doomed?"

"Don't worry," Haru, who had just collected the other kanju near the sea god's throne, explained with a level voice, "They were the fakes; the real ones wouldn't be as frail. Touch this or the one that Rin is carrying."

"It's too risky!" Rei shook his head frantically.

In sharp contrast, Nagisa stepped forward and took the jewel in his hands. "Wow, it really is, Haru-chan! And here, someone feel, it's so much lighter than it looks!"

"But why was the funayuurei worried when Rei almost touched the kanju?" Makoto prompted, doubt still lingering on his face.

Haru answered, "He wanted to trick Rei into believing that all kanju were so frail, to buy himself more time to take the jewel."

The kahaku and Iwatobi boys settled down together surrounding Haru, occasionally asking questions and poking at each other's small wounds, but by and large they wanted merely to rest and recover from the ordeal. Amid Nagisa's prods, wheedling stories out of each swimmer on how they had managed to get past each guardian to obtain the fake jewel, it did not come as a surprise that Haru and Sousuke determinedly ignored each other.

Little by little, the sea god's retinues entered the temple—the home from which they had been denied by means of the akashita's spell. Haru spotted the samebito among the temple dwellers and summoned him. "Muchimaro-dono, would you deliver these kanju to your master?"

"It would be my honor, mizuchi-sama. Ryuujin-sama will certainly stop the deluge without fail. And thank you for restoring our home."

Nagisa questioned Rin, "Rin-chan, how did you know that Jun-chan was possessed by a ghost, not a demon or some other monster?"

"Uh… It was the way he was talking, mostly. See, normally deities and demons can just live their lives any way they want, so, the way we talk evolves and changes just like all speech does, and we end up sounding like modern humans. But ghosts aren't like that. They're still all caught up in their past with regrets and stuff, and are totally frozen to time passing. Even their speech doesn't change from when they were alive and leaves them sounding … well, like that. Also, I was kinda taking a chance on it being a ghost rather than a demon anyway, 'coz kahaku can exorcize the first, but not the latter."

Then Rin turned at Jun, "Ani-ue, how come an akashita and a funayuurei possessed you?"

"Based on the discourses they exchanged while occupying this body of mine, I gathered that the funayuurei—Masayoshi by name—held a personal grudge against Ryuujin-no-kami, whom his entire family had worshipped for generations. He blamed the god for not rescuing him in time of need; after his death due to a capsizing boat in the stormy sea, his surviving family members lived in poverty, and his anger compounded through the centuries. His prowess alone would not suffice, but he saw a chance for vengeance when he met a moping Nobuyuuki." Jun shook his head, his tone disbelieving.

Then he sighed, settling back to continue his explanation, "It had been so long since Nobuyuuki had achieved anything significant that the other akashita considered him to have fallen from glory. In his desire to prove his worth, he fell into collaboration with Masayoshi. Yet, since a funayuurei lacked a tangible body and an akashita could not live in the water, they had to acquire a host."

Jun shifted to give way to a large group of bumbling retinues who came thronging by before resuming his tale, "A simpleton, Nobuyuuki did not call to mind that kahaku were freshwater inhabitants. Hence, when he saw me on my way homeward from visiting my indisposed mermaid friend, he took over my body from behind. In truth, Masayoshi had already set his eyes upon a whale, but it was too late for him to warn Nobuyuuki, nor was it within his capacity to pull the akashita out of a host's body underwater. He was thus left with no other choice than continue their scheme."

十五

15

At the sight of the mizuchi, who had just arrived via dimension hopping, together with three kahaku and three human companions, everyone on the main lawn prostrated themselves on the riverbed. At this uncomfortable reverence, Haru transformed into his human shape again and retreated behind Makoto, Rei, and Nagisa, with a pout sprouting across his lips.

Yet now that Haru was in a more familiar body, Makoto noticed an off cadence to his swimming: Haru was flailing. "Haru, are you okay?"

'The multiple dimension travels and the fight with the akashita, not to mention transforming from dragon to human form back and forth, must have tired Haru out.' Rin instinctively rushed to Haru's aid, but held himself back midway; seeing Rin and Haru close together must be the last thing Sousuke would want to see.

Rin gazed longingly at Haru and pictured himself next to the Iwatobi ace swimmer—it should be his hand that held Haru's and it would his shoulder that Haru leaned on. Biting his lip, Rin unhappily watched Makoto take care of Haru. Nevertheless, Sousuke, who had remained silent all the way to the palace, seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

As soon as Jun informed the gathering crowd that the land was now safe, they cheered and the royal herald cried, "Hear ye, hear ye," while circling the town, over residential roofs of the shiny shingles. The folk poked their heads from their windows with pronounced rejoice in their faces.

Rather than pilasters, the royal palace employed columns with acanthus leaf capitals to create rich, sculptural effects echoing grandeur. Pediments lining the windows were deployed repeatedly on their façades in which scallop shells became typical motifs. At the end of the long vestibule was a mural depicting the Seven Gods of Fortune: Hotei—the rotund and perpetually happy god of abundance and good health; Jurōjin—god of longevity; Fukurokuju—god of happiness, wealth and longevity; Bishamonten—god of war; Benzaiten—goddess of art and knowledge; Daikokuten—god of wealth and commerce; and Ebisu—the sea bream-carrying god of fishers.

"Well done!" The palatial guards greeted the seven youths with congratulatory words and smiles upon their faces. One of them even hugged Jun until his colleagues reminded him of his status.

Upon noticing the torchères on the walls, Rei queried, "How does electricity work in the water without electrocuting anyone?"

"Those aren't powered by electricity," Rin answered; Sousuke had become too saturnine to speak to anyone since the implant of Haru's scale.

"Then, flame?" Rei guessed.

"Nope. Fire is humankind's greatest invention—it tells humans apart from other species, see. But we do have the technology of turning water energy into heat, lighting, and a bunch of other uses."

The group then presented themselves in the great audience hall, accessible through a sliding door of lattice work. The hall was built with a special eye to external effect, attained by bas-relief carving encompassing aquatic foliage-band on the eaves-boards and guilloches. Therein, the double throne for the reigning king and queen with a pair of water-lilies forming its base sat upon a superposed pedestal, flanked by elaborately sculptured tiered seats for council members.

The moment Nagisa caught sight of the voluptuous curves of the pendant-vaulted plaster ceiling when the six boys presented themselves in the throne room, he whispered to Rei, "It's like we're standing under a giant cow's udders, right?"

Rin, who also heard it, would have chortled, had his mother not scurried to his side. She seemed as beautiful as the day he had left for the human world, despite the addition of some minor wrinkles on her wattles. Her eyes twinkled with affectionate relief at the sight of him. Although she could be a nag at times, there was something about her natural scent that made him feel as though his visit to the kahaku world could never be homey enough without meeting her in person.

Neglecting etiquette, Queen Kei threw her arms over Jun and Rin's shoulders and hugged them. Happy tears bedewed her cheeks as she murmured, "My sons… my sons…"

"Lay off, haha-ue; it's only been a year since you last saw me," Rin inveighed, even though he reciprocated her embrace with no less zeal. From the periphery of his vision, he saw Gou leaving her seat next to their grandmother's to greet them.

"Rin, why have you imbibed the vernacular of a commoner?" the queen began to ask.

However, Rin was spared from answering that humans would deride him if he were to retain the palatial way of speaking, as his father solemnly addressed Rin's friends, "On behalf of the kahakufolk, I deeply thank you. Of all the living beings, it was your hands alone that delivered respite and granted life to countless tellurian creatures."

Being the eldest prince of a neighboring kingdom, Sousuke held up a diplomatic stoicism, but the three human boys stiffened, and Haru looked like he would rather be anywhere else but here. Nagisa nudged Makoto's ribs, urging, "Mako-chan, say something."

Makoto whimpered back, "Why me?"

Rei replied, "You are the captain."

Rin could see how much Makoto wanted to protest that Iwatobi High School Swimming Club had nothing to do with this; still, he had to other choice but respond to the kahaku king, "I … uh … we, humans, also thank you … um, we've never thought that non-human creatures would care so much about our safety." He did not know what else to say, so he finished with a deep bow.

Rin wisely chose not to enlighten his human friends that his father had not referred the safety of the humans exclusively, but to the safety of all living things on land.

The king then approached his eldest son and spoke in a grave tone, "Jun, as a father, there is no greater joy than to see you alive and well. As a king, however, I cannot overlook the wrongdoing of those who imperiled the populace, even though the felon is my own flesh and blood."

Jun kept his head low, shame all over his voice as he assented, "I understand. Because of me, the land was nearly submerged in water. This sin is inexcusable."

"No! You were possessed by an akashita and a funayuurei. You can't be blamed for this," Rin shouted, almost simultaneously with the queen's shriek: "You have returned safe and sound—that is all that matters!"

A whisper rippled through the council of elders, followed by a series of sibilant noises. Behind their webbed hands, the wizened kahakufolk murmured among themselves. Some appeared to doubt the honesty in the princes' words and assume this to be an excuse to avoid punishment.

Rin gritted his teeth. 'Those codgers!'

"It was unforgiveable carelessness on my part not to repel them before they possessed me, Rin." Then Jun turned to face the king. "Chichi-ue, please allow me to undergo the purification ritual."

"Ani-ue, no!" Rin and Gou shouted in unison, while their mother exclaimed, "Anything but that!" Behind her, the king looked as devastated as though life had already been extinguished out of his son's body. The council of elders' sibilant murmur grew louder.

"What's a purification ritual? Why do they look so worried?" Makoto inquired to Haru in a hushed voice.

Haru muttered back, "Purification is actually a misleading term. The ritual itself has nothing to do with prayers or exorcism; instead, it's a way to prove the challenger's true worth. In other words, if the challenger is pure enough, he or she should be strong enough to survive. The details differ from one kingdom to another, but more often than not, it results in death, like the witch's trial in medieval Europe."

Rin heard Makoto's horrified gasp before his father obtained his full attention again. "Jun, imprisonment and community service according to dictates of our customs should suffice to indemnify your crime. It is not necessary for you to negate your life."

The eldest prince reasoned, "Having wreaked havoc, I desire to clear my name. Furthermore, to ensure that I shall not succumb to the force of evil a second time, it is mandatory that I prove my strength and endurance."

"Jun," the king said, his voice hoarse with sorrow and disinvested of all its authority—the feeble voice of a helpless elderly, "You are of age and the law mandates that each individual is sovereign over their mind and body. As a king, I cannot stop the decision you make, but as a father, I implore you to consider the feelings of those who hold you dear."

"Chichi-ue, it is for the sake of those dear to me that I am determined to prove myself. For how could there be peace of mind amongst our people if their crown prince were iniquitous? How could my siblings be kept from jeopardy whilst their eldest brother stayed enervated? How could my parents hold their chins high when their son brought them nothing but shame?"

The spokesperson of the council of elders rose from his seat and added, "O Jun ouji-sama, honorable son of Toraichi-heika and cherished grandson of the late Yuu-heika, there is no prince whose devotion to his subjects could be greater, a sibling who could be more loving, or a son whose piety could be more immense than you are. Withal, what use do we have of a reliable future king if he were to perish before the future comes?"

At this peroration, Nagisa yawned and Rei tried his best to stifle his own. Rin drummed his fingers in impatience; why did the elders' speech have to be so bloviating?

Jun replied, "Distinguished elders, just as I believe this dynasty will continue to thrive with your pillars of sagacity as its main supports, please have faith in me. Although I am but a greenhorn compared to your years of experience, there ought to be a time when a hatchling grows into adulthood in every life."

"Very well, if that is your will, we shall hinder you no further. You will be left to the mercy of a school of candirus for an hour, before proceeding to combat with two goliath tigerfish simultaneously. We shall have the materials arranged. In the meantime, please rest and let a healer tend to your wounds."

"I thank you, elders. However, no physical injury discommodes me at present. It is Prince Sousuke who ought to receive the healer's medical attention." Jun gestured at the silent Sousuke, and for the first time, the kahakufolk noticed the lesion on his arm.

Jun's grandmother summoned the royal healer accordingly, while two members of the council slipped through the door.

"Rei-chan," Nagisa nudged his boyfriend, "I get that the second part is about fighting big and ferocious creatures, but what's so scary about the first one?"

"You aren't familiar with what candirus can do?"

Nagisa shook his head.

"Scientifically known as Vandellia cirrhosa, candiru is also nicknamed 'toothpick fish' and 'vampire fish' because it feeds on blood despite its tiny size. The smaller ones can enter small orifices, such as urethra, and have hook-like spikes on their heads to assist their clinging to their hosts. Amputation is needed to remove them from the host's body."

Nagisa crinkled his nose. "Ew!"

"They're said to populate the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers, but I suppose the kahakufolk can transport them by means of dimension travel," Rei added.

Makoto turned to the second prince, "Rin, are you all right? You look pale."

Heaving a sigh, Rin answered, "I don't know. If it's just physical strength, my brother is one of the ten most powerful fighters in the kingdom, but today he has to fight when he is weakened by hunger and exhaustion and maybe even drained of his blood…" Rin swallowed. "Magic demands lots of perseverance and Jun ani-ue isn't at his top condition after being possessed by a demon and a ghost. I'm not sure if he has enough stamina to put up the magic barrier against the candirus for too long."

Makoto attempted to convey words of hopeful encouragement, but Rin, in his discombobulated state of mind, was unable to parse the other's utterances.

Barely ten minutes had passed before the two council members reappeared at the doorway to announce, "The preparations are ready. You may now proceed, Jun-denka."

The queen's sobs burst into an ear-piercing ululation, and the king had to restrain her from clawing onto Jun's shoulders, his own arms shaking. Gou tried in vain to wipe her tears; no matter how many attempts she did, more and more dripped anew.

As Jun proceeded through a secluded passageway leading to a cloistered block of colonnaded porticoes, the queen's wail was audible in the background, "You would have me lose my son twice today?!"

Gou would not take off her gaze of her brother's figure until the eldest prince had vanished from sight. But afterwards, she took a firmer stance and declared to the Iwatobi boys, "Rest. You have achieved so much in a single day."

Whether it was because the tone she employed as a princess sounded more imperious and authoritative than the one she normally applied as the swimming club manager or simply because her appearance was now foreign to the humans, Rin could not be sure. All he knew was that Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei complied with the forced reluctance as they would to a stranger. Only Haru and Sousuke's treatment to her remained unchanged.

"I'll take them to the guest rooms," Rin volunteered.

Gou nodded, and then approached her mother. Together with her grandmother, she consoled the weeping queen.

十六

16

"Rin-chan, what if I need to take a tinkle?" Nagisa asked as the group swam past a long corridor on the east wing of the palace.

"There's a toilet installed in each guest room."

"But won't my pee get mixed with the water that we all breathe?"

Rei looked flustered at his boyfriend's question. He did not, however, hush the shorter boy. Instead, he turned to Rin with expectant look.

Rin sniggered; for a moment, his worries for Jun were lifted. "Oh. You don't have to worry about it. Our technology for sewages and latrines enables disposal to flow into septic tanks. Just as you humans have Archimedes and da Vinci, we have our own scientists with different theories for the body of water. At the end of the day, the septic tanks' contents will be recycled and chemically enhanced into fertilizers."

Sousuke retained his discomforting silence, and Rin could not help but feel relieved to drop him off at the first room.

"I'll see you at the great hall at seven," Rin uttered before Sousuke closed the door.

Haru's shoulders relaxed with the closing of that door, so Rin told him jokingly, "Well, Haru, if it's any consolation, I'll give you the furthest room from Sousuke's."

Rin was half-guilty, half-amused when Haru nodded. He should have expected this, but a selfish part of him still wished to reconcile his best friend with his love interest.

"Thanks," Haru mumbled. In his current state, he did not appear like a god at all. In fact, he was behaving far closer to a toddler being maternally reprimanded for misconduct. The reason could not be more obvious: Makoto was giving Haru a gentle, but admonishing look. Honestly, where had Haru's divine dispositions gone?

"Rei." Rin halted before he opened the door of the second room for the Iwatobi butterfly swimmer. "There's a bell on the dressing table if you need to call any servant. Nagisa's room is directly next to yours, conjoined via a connecting door." Rin noticed Nagisa's eyes twinkle with mischief and perhaps something else that Rin would feel too awkward to say aloud. He cleared his throat. "I have no squawk about what you plan to do to each other, but remember this one thing: you won't have any memory of what has happened here once you've returned to the upper world."

Trusting Rei to have the better judgment of the pair, Rin held the door open and let the blue-haired boy enter. "With that happy note, I'll leave this to your discretion. Just follow that handrail to get to the great hall."

Nagisa made no attempt to follow Rei inside, but Rin was more than convinced the little devil would burst through the connecting door in less than a minute after Rin had left him alone.

"Okay, since Haru will be taking the furthermost room, which is next door, this will be yours, Makoto." Rin stopped in front of the door two rooms away on the right of Nagisa's. It was a precaution; he did not want to give Makoto nightmares from … whatever Nagisa had in mind to do with Rei. Although the guest rooms were soundproofed, there was no telling what the little devil was capable of.

It was not often that Rin parted from Haru without reluctance. Every time he had stepped away from Haru in the human world—even for inevitable reasons, such as the arrival of the bus that would take the swimmers back to Iwatobi after their joint practice at Samezuka and the time to go home after each tournament—made him feel as though Haru had taken with him a part of Rin as he left. And without it, Rin could never be whole again.

At present, contrarily, Rin was glad to be rid of everyone. He wanted to curl up in his own bedchamber, drowning himself in the memories of his loving brother. For so many times, Jun had acceded to Rin and Gou's wish to play, even though he had been exhausted from all his studies. When a tutor reprimanded him for yawning, he never blamed his siblings. He even took responsibility for the prank Rin played against the fuming tutor—the scar on his back remained a testament to his father's angry rod to this very day. And within a couple of hours, Rin feared that all he would see was no more than a rigid body of what used to be a loving brother, with no pulse and no air leaving his gills.

A manifestation of Sousuke's ephemeral death reappeared in Rin's mind.

But then … Haru had been there to revive Sousuke.

Rin gasped. Could Haru be planning to resurrect Jun, as well? Was that why he looked so calm notwithstanding his human friends' distress—even when Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei, who hardly knew Jun and had less understanding of the trials, had seemed bothered by the prince's potential impending demise?

Rin rushed back to Haru's room and banged its door. "Haru, Haru, open up!"

Although Haru's mouth emitted no word, his eyes gazed quizzically at Rin.

"You're not planning to implant another scale of yours to Jun, do you?" The tone sounded more accusing than Rin would have liked, but he could not control his bludgeoning panic. The thought of Haru losing another century of his life was too sickening, and it kept spiking relentlessly through Rin's undefended mind.

"No," Haru answered as expressionlessly as ever, "Your brother isn't going to die from today's trials."

The statement instilled Rin's stomach with the sensation of a steep drop tower amusement ride. What if this new prospect turned out to be a false hope? The weight of his anxiety oppressed him, grinding from all directions. His lips quivered as he inquired, "How do you know that?"

"No candiru will be able penetrate his barrier," Haru asserted.

Rin squinted in suspicion; Haru spoke the words like they were a statement of truth rather than a comforting assurance. "What barrier? Is this your doing?"

Rather than confirming nor denying Rin's questions, Haru simply added, "It won't render him invulnerable from tigerfish bite."

Rin gaped in disbelief. Haru was even considerate enough not to allow anything to remain should Jun survive that would arouse suspicion. Given his capability as a fighter, no kahaku would regard his endurance from the candirus as anything more than a protracted version of the conventional shield charm. On the other hand, the kahakufolk would suspect unnaturalness if Jun were to become the invincible from the two large fish's saber-like teeth. Haru was likely confident of Jun's combat capacity against ferocious beasts since they had fought at the Ryuujin's undersea temple, before Haru had managed to drive the akashita out of Jun's body.

"You've done plenty…" Rin's words strained his throat. "Why did you go to such an extent to help my brother?"

"Back in the sea god's temple, I promised you I'd keep him safe."

Rin could not restrain himself from hugging Haru, tears flowing involuntarily from his eyes. He wanted to tell Haru that Haru had done so much for him that Rin took everything for granted, that a god should not have listened to a brat's selfish request, that Rin did not deserve such an extent of kindness … and, yet, all his befuddled mind could urge his tongue to articulate was, "Thanks."

Rin spun around to leave. Haru's shoulder felt comforting against his chin, and radiating warmth flowed from Haru's arms as they held him, but it was truly embarrassing to let his love interest see this sniveling side of him.

"Rin." Haru caught Rin's wrist, but keeping the pressure light so that Rin could effortlessly yank it off.

It was as though a torrent of electricity had journeyed between them when Rin's gaze met the clear blue of Haru's eyes. An overwhelming sensation draped over Rin; he had come face to face with an entity whose mere presence was so captivating that, if he allowed it to do so, it would absorb his whole person, his whole soul, his very being.

"Stay," Haru bade.

Just as metal was drawn to magnet, Rin followed Haru into the room.

Once inside, however, queasiness seized Rin. What was he supposed to do? A part of him still wanted a solitary respite, but a different part did not want to relinquish this new comfort offered by Haru's company.

"Lie down."

As Rin obliged, languidly resting his body upon the mudmoss mattress, he had no inkling how Haru's monotonous voice could sound so soothing at time like this. At any rate, his brain lost its analytical function the moment Haru's hand found his. He felt Haru's fingers squeezing his tenderly, and his heart assumed the same rapid pulse as when he had just finished a swimming lap across the pool.

They simply lay there, side-by-side. 'It isn't like we've never shared a bed before,' Rin mused, the memory of the cramped bed in a Sydney guest house four months prior re-living in his mind. At that time, they had lain back-to-back to avoid embarrassment—at least they had attempted to, while going to bed at night. (They had mutually agreed to pretend to ignore the fact that Haru had awoken the next morning with Rin's arm draped over his stomach.)

Now they were staring at the ceiling without speaking, without moving, without even seeing each other's faces. As the stolid minutes went by, Rin's heartbeat gradually slowed down. It was only then that he learned how peace could happen in the strangest of situations. Here he was, worrying that he might never be able to meet his brother again, and yet, having a mute friend by his side inexplicably calmed his nerves.

Even over an hour later, Rin still had no wish to leave this newfound serenity, but a knock on the door pulled him out of his reverie. He sprang off the bed as Haru opened the door.

A guard announced, "Pardon my intrusion, Mizuchi-sama, I am to relay a message to Rin ouji-sama." It was not until Rin had crept closer did the guard continue, "Denka, your brother's trials have concluded and you are expected by the rest of your family."

Rin cast a Haru a glance, and his companion nodded. No verbal assurance was needed as he departed with the guard for the cloister where Jun's trials were held.

"How did you find me here?" Rin asked the guard when they traversed across a series of rooms in the main palace.

"Since your chamber was empty, Gou oujo-sama suggested that I try mizuchi-sama's."

###

Outside the cloistered court, Jun stood surrounded by his family. He was covered with fresh wounds and scars, but Rin's eyes melded into a huge relief upon seeing his brother alive and intact. Jun's breathing was ragged, but his steps were triumphant. He waved his hand appreciatively for the palatial retinues who showered him with encouragement. He had proved himself to be a capable and reliable candidate for a future king. His heir presumptive status had even been elevated into heir apparent.

"Child of my womb, flesh of my flesh, Jun!" Queen Kei broke into a relieved sob as she embraced her eldest son, her tears searing Jun's shoulder.

"Tch, ani-ue! Nearly dying twice in a day? Try not to top the record, alright?" Rin threw his arms around Jun, overlapping with his mother's.

But then Gou launched forward and toppled Jun to the ground, clinging fast even after he had collapsed on the polished stone floor.

Through many happy tears, King Toraichi summoned the healer to treat his favorite child's wounds.

The royal herald wasted no time in announcing the joyous tiding throughout the kingdom. No one had survived the trials in the last thirteen years.

十七

17

There were only a handful of times throughout the kahakufolk's history when humans were welcomed in their hall, and tonight was one of them—a sumptuous banquet had been laid out for the saviors.

They were escorted to a capacious hall running along twelve bays on the garden side of the palace. The heraldic crest of the kingdom in the middle of the east wall carried a motto that said: "A welcoming house in harmony united." Although the allegories applied in sgraffito technique and sculpted into decorative plasterwork of the wall panels were beyond the humans' ken, this did not prevent esthetics from impressing them, especially Rei, who mumbled "It's beautiful … so beautiful…" in a mantra-like trance.

Beneath a vaulted ceiling frescoed in the epic battle of Susanoo no Mikoto against the eight-headed dragon Yamata no Orochi stood a long table on a dais, around which the royal family had been waiting upon x-framed chairs with glittering sequins. His gaze lingering a second longer with a sense of pride on his sons, the king exhorted, "May it pleases you all to sit and dine with us here, saviors."

"There?" Makoto whispered to Haru. "Isn't a raised platform usually reserved for the king's family and guests of honor? Not even the elders and the nobles sit there." He nervously gestured at the rows of tables below the dais.

"That just means we're V.I.P.s," Nagisa chirped.

Makoto mumbled, "But I never learned the etiquette for interacting with royalty. What if I do something wrong?"

Although Rei uttered no word, he was the stiffest among them to the extent of calling his movements robotic would not be an exaggeration. Haru was even offered a chair of state, which he declined.

This, however, did not dissuade the king from attempting an amicable discourse with him. "Have you always lived as a human during the past seven centuries, mizuchi-sama?"

Haru answered, "I lived as a dragon until humans soaked my river with too much red streaks of blood mid-Sengoku Period. Curiosity prompted me to learn the source of humans' discords, and that was how I've dwelled among humans ever since."

"In all this time, none of the other humans ever suspected your extraordinary lifespan?" the queen inquired.

"I hopped from one identity to another, wearing different physical appearances and switching occupations without spending more than half a century in any one place. Creating dummies out of paper shikigami also lends credence my status. In my current life, for example, it would have been suspicious for a child to live on his own, so I had a dummy act as my grandmother. Still, it's exhausting to keep a live dummy for long, so I disposed of her when my cover identity grew to an acceptably independent age. My human parents and other relatives are simply the result of my manipulation of the humans' memories."

'No wonder Haru's so detached from everything that isn't water,' Rin thought. 'He has never tried to form bonds before.'

However, Haru was not inclined to elaborate further when the king and queen asked him other questions, and soon the two kahaku royalties diverted their attention elsewhere; after all, Jun's survival of the trials meant the world to them.

"Rin-chan, what's the name of the material for this chair's upholstery? It's soft like … I can't remember what it's called, but anyway it's the yarn made from the silky hair of that really soft goat," Nagisa's question pulled Rin back to reality.

"The Angora goat's fur is called 'mohair'; the fabric we've got here comes from the water pampas-thistle plants instead. Well, not that they exist on land."

It took no more than a glimpse for the humans to realize that the kahaku version of meals was very different from those served in restaurants on land. In spite of the fish abound, each of the dishes were perfected so meticulously that to call it any less than culinary treasures would be blasphemy.

"Wow, they look yummy!" Nagisa commented at the sight of a hundred dishes laid out for them on the table. "I guess the legend about water creatures eating humans' shirikodama isn't true then! I mean, who'd want a small ball in a person's smelly butt when you've got these?"

Rei, who took the seat next to him, replied, "I concur. These dishes are beautiful! But since most of them aren't sashimi, how do kahakufolk cook underwater?"

Rin chuckled at Nagisa's words and said, "That stuff really did happen in our history, though we don't consider shirikodama as a delicacy. It's more like a bitter medicine that gives us energy boost, which was sought by some of our ancestors during the turmoil of the civil war, which took place in the Edo Period. And Rei, you should probably take a peek at our magic and technology for the answer. For a start, we have loads of eco-friendly fuels and natural ingredients that you can't find in the human world. Well, naturally, there are also human objects that don't exist here, like a door lock, for example."

"You don't have door locks in the kahaku world?" Rei could not help but interrupt.

"When you buy a door here, it's already geared with a basic contract spell—that is to say, no one except its rightful owner can open or close it. The pricier the door is, the more advanced privacy it offers. Some even provide an anti-teleport protection to ensure no uninvited guest barges in your room. Oh, the doors meant to be installed in public places have different kind of protective system, though."

"But how do the doors detect if they are being opened by someone other than their owners? Fingerprint analysis?" Rei's eyes glowed with interest.

Rin explained with mixed feelings. He was glad—proud, even—to provide his interviewer with all the necessary information; plus, he felt bad about lashing out at Rei at the pagoda earlier. Even so, a part of him felt a pity for the inevitability that Rei and the other humans would forget about the kahaku world tomorrow.

"The fingerprint analysis covers a part of it," he began. "Humans can use tricks like attaching tapes or plaster molds to the doors for forgery, right? In here, even if a kahaku were to try opening his identical twin's door, and he has already prepared the copies of fingerprints, retina, hair, bodily fluid, and other DNA-testable things, the core of his magic, individual tendencies, and personality still couldn't be the same as his brother's, so it's impossible to clone the entire person. A similar principle is also applied to doors in public amenities. If the entrants have criminal records, the door will automatically deny them passage, except when they are accompanied by law enforcers."

Rei opened his mouth to ask more questions, but Nagisa tugged his arm and dragged him to the balustraded balcony at the left end. As Rei rose from his seat to inspect the example with its sweeping view down the main axis of the gardens, which fell away in a series of terraces ending with the Supreme Court where official business was conducted, Rin noticed Makoto attempting a conversation with Sousuke, whose seat was opposite his own.

"Yamazaki-kun, I wonder if you'd tell me how the food here sticks to those plates like magnets rather than floating in the water."

Given Makoto's geniality, Rin reckoned that his desire to dispel the awkward silence between them was probably greater than his curiosity for the way things worked in the kahaku world. Even so, Sousuke had been in a sour mood since Haru revived him, and made no attempt to correct his gruff tone while answering, "The silt in this spatial dimension is stickier than in yours. Naturally, our potters' kilns and molds are created to adapt to it."

Rin shoved a slice of barracuda into his mouth while thinking, 'He hates to be in Haru's debt that much, huh?'

"Ah, I see." Makoto seemed to be debating inwardly whether he should ask Sousuke more questions, since he did not fail to see how disgruntled Sousuke's expression was.

He was relieved a couple of seconds later, however, when he heard Sousuke add as an afterthought, "Also, while human fingers need some effort to pick food off the plate, our webbed limbs have certain degree of suction that eases the process."

Makoto prolonged their verbal exchange afterwards, taking no offense in how unenthusiastic was each reply Sousuke gave him. Thankfully, he did not need to keep the conversation for long; the court dancers soon came pouring from the side doors to entertain the guests.

Nevertheless, Rin noticed that Sousuke was not the only one looking miserable. Across the table, his sister wore a subdued expression, as well.

"Gou, what's up?" Rin tried to keep his tone light and casual.

"Nothing, onii-sama." Even her laconic answer was cut short by the sipping of her drink.

Dismay filled Rin. In the old days, Gou never hesitated to tell him her woes. Was this a part of growing up or had he turned into a less reliable brother in her eyes than what he'd like to think?

Rin tried to catch Gou's eyes again to coax her into telling him about whatever problem she was facing, but she busied herself by paying a lengthy attention to the magnificent craftsmanship of the goblet nestling between her fingers.

In Rin's disappointment, his attention then diverted to a nearby jug of drink refill. He recalled Haru's Ainu conversation with Sousuke and a not-so-honorable idea flashed in his mind: 'In wine, there is the truth.'

"Here, Haru, drink this. It's our local specialty." Rin filled Haru's goblet without waiting for his consent. It was the kahaku's version of shouchuu, distilled from aquatic plants, and far stronger in alcohol content than its human's counterpart.

Makoto tried to stop him, "Rin, isn't that drink alcoholic? We're still underage."

"Hey, in kahaku world, you're legally allowed to drink as soon as you're fourteen. Plus, Haru's about seven hundred years old," Rin blithely replied.

Decorum demanded that one must at least sample a sip when one's companion pour a drink, and being a river deity was no excuse to be rude. Thus, Haru brought the goblet to his lip.

Then Rin thought that the same drink probably could assuage Sousuke's mental burden, albeit temporarily. He considered offering his best friend, but to his surprise, Sousuke had already refilled his empty goblet with it. Rin started to consider moving the jug out of Sousuke's reach, but he was a step too late; Sousuke kept hold of it.

"You've drunk enough. Let it go," Rin insisted to a scowling Sousuke. It was not long before they wrestled for the jug, leaving their hands clasping and their bodies so close to each other.

Apparently, Haru's alcohol tolerance was far weaker than Rin expected; he had merely imbibed the sip of courtesy that Rin had poured for him, and was already inebriated. Rather than swaying like tall grass in the wind or spouting incoherent words, however, Haru chose to stand up and announce a single statement in a news presenter's tone, "Rin, don't flirt, or I'll be jealous."

Rin stopped dead in his track, all concern about Sousuke forgotten. If hearts could do somersaults, this had to be one of those times. His father dropped his chopsticks and his mother choked on her drink. Jun silently assessed the younger prince with a weighted gaze. Rei and Nagisa eyed Haru, open-mouthed. Makoto looked away, a pained look in his eyes. Sousuke gripped the jug more tightly. The passing palatial retinues' ears perked up. Even Gou tilted her formerly downcast head.

How Rin wished he had changed back into his kahaku form! At least, his scutes would not have revealed his blush then. He had decided to retain his human shape out of consideration for Makoto, Nagisa, and Rei—three lone aliens in the kahaku world.

Less than a minute later, insobriety brought Haru an instant collapse to his seat and closed his eyelids in a slumber.

"Erm, I'll … make sure he gets a proper berth." Rin put an end to the awkward silence. This was definitely not the way he had hoped how he would be confessed to or how his family would learn about his love interest.

Even as he shifted to scoop the snoring Haru into his arms, his family was still lost as to what to say. It was Nagisa who broke the ice by cheering in a singsong, "Whee, Rin-chan's carrying Haru-chan bride-style!"

Rin stomped his foot in annoyance. "Shut it, Nagisa! I'm just being responsible for making him drunk, and carrying him like this is easier than any other way—that's all."

Nagisa's wolf-whistles were still audible even after Rin went out of the hall, carrying Haru in his arms through suites of rooms, past the flanking rows of crystal statues, and up the private passage to the upper apartment, where his bedchamber was located.

十八

18

Rin headed straight for the middle of his room, whereupon a round bed, decorated by the crewelwork of silver and burgundy, lay. In terms of softness, the material was akin to silk of the human world, albeit far more durable, produced by mollusks as opposed to silkworms. Although the bedframe itself was an epitome of intricate ornamentation, no bedposts were attached to it. The idea of a canopied bed was frowned upon among the kahakufolk because it instilled upon them a sense of confinement rather than privacy. Frameless mattresses in futon-like fashion were regarded as inelegant and were reserved only for sports, camping, and festivals.

As Rin gingerly put down the snoozing Haru in his bed, his face hovered just a few centimeters above Haru's. That skin was delectably soft under his touch and those lips looked tantalizingly kissable. Even Haru's steady breathing convinced Rin that the sleeper would remain in his unperturbed slumber if the watcher were to plant a light peck.

'He has a crush on me, right? His drunken statement is as good as a love confession, after all.'

Starting from three weeks ago, courtesy of a glasses-clad Iwatobi swimmer, Rin had realized that his feelings for Haru had been anything but platonic. Worse still, he had been harboring those feelings for who knows how many years. He felt like a fish caught in a fisherman's net, such that no matter how strenuous he twisted and turned, he could not break free of it. It was as if, in pining for Haru emotionally, he had somehow or other created a need within himself for Haru physically as well.

Ten days ago, Rin had tried to snake a hand to hold Haru's on the way to Haru's house, but let go not two minutes after, when Haru's elderly neighbor spotted them. Haru had never asked about his reason, so Rin assumed that Haru considered handholding to be perfectly normal between friends because he was used to it with Makoto and perhaps even Nagisa, too. Unable to invent excuses for a date, Rin had not done anything bolder than that since.

'Don't sweat it,' Rin had convinced himself back then. 'Haru has no mind for romance; I've got only water as my greatest love rival.'

Now Rin inched closer, his forehead meeting the slumbering Haru's in an ever-so-tender friction and his breath caressing Haru's nose. But…

'No, this isn't right. I don't want our first kiss to be something he won't remember.'

A sigh parting his lips, Rin drew back. Next, he shook Haru tenderly on the shoulder, waited until the sleeper grunted, and asked, "Haru, what did you gibber to Sousuke in Ainu earlier?"

Haru's eyes fluttered opened, his glaucous iris reflecting Rin's guilty face, making Rin's heart skip a beat.

Rin could not help exhaling in relief when those eyes shut again the following second. Susurration flowed from Haru's mouth, "'What if your best friend quits swimming professionally out of devastation from letting you die?'—that's what I warned him."

Rin's jaw clenched. Sousuke—the jealous Sousuke—had been forced to accept something he would regard as the humiliating mercy of a foe all because of him. While Sousuke possessed no suicidal tendency, his pride was certainly a force to be reckoned with, and now it had shattered. All for the sake of getting Rin to the world stage that Sousuke himself could no longer stand on.

Shoulders drooping, Rin exited his chamber. Sousuke had done so much for him, but what had he ever done in return? Did he even have the right to be called Sousuke's best friend?

Rin swam his way back to the great hall quietly, slipping behind the choir singing an old folk song in the accompaniment of a shamisen. Nagisa teased him again, "Aww, you're back so early. Shouldn't you be making out with Haru-chan?"

"Nagisa-kun!" Rei hushed his tactless boyfriend.

But Rin ignored them. Even though he was also aware that Makoto's seat was vacant, he simply associated the taller boy's absence with lavatorial need.

He passed them all by, and did not open his mouth until he arrived at his best friend's seat. "Sousuke, we need to talk. Come with me."

Thus, Sousuke followed Rin toward the royal pavilion, linked to the main block by curving corridors. The concameration's circular dome was said to be the most impressive stuccowork caisson ceiling of its time with its center featuring Amaterasu emerging out of a cave in all her splendor, restoring sunlight to the world. It was here that chamber music and other small events were mostly held. It was here, too, that Rin and Sousuke had spent countless hours playing hide and seek as children. As Sousuke's aunt was married to Rin's uncle, he oft visited the Matsuoka Kingdom and became one of Rin's closest playmates.

Rin could not bring himself to face Sousuke, not with what he was about to verbalize. Standing by one of the divans, he kept his gaze at the nearest latticed window. The vista through it ended the rusticated arcade of rock garden. Rin remembered clear as day how his ten-year-old self had picked one of those pebbles and thrown it at Sousuke in a heated fight. That day, no other kahaku children had taken his side, and Rin surfaced on the river in anger. That had then been the moment he met Haru, Makoto, and Nagisa playing on the river.

"Sousuke." Rin's voice perforated through the former silence of the pavilion. He could not manage to pronounce the next words before swallowing thickly, "Remember our race, in which the loser had to do one thing the winner wanted?"

"We were ten back then. What's the point of digging it out now?"

"You could…" Rin's fists clenched and unclenched. "…you could order me to mate with you."

From the reflection on the window, Rin perceived that Sousuke's eyes widened with shock. Yet before he could react, a furious hand had clawed him by the shoulder. "What fucking nonsense are you spouting?!"

"I know the real reason you accepted Haru's scale. Letting you be my first is the least I can do."

"Piss off, Rin!" Sousuke pushed Rin away. "You seriously thought I'd be glad to sleep with you out of pity?!"

Rin's body hit a bust statue on a niche. The niche edge bit into his back and his head bumped into the statue, pushing it further back until it hit the wall and crashed. Rin bit his lip; it was all he could do to fight the sting in his eyes. He knew it was not from the bruises. It hurt. But Rin knew he deserved far worse than that.

"I've already offered to whore myself. Should I also offer to kiss your feet while we're at it?!" Rin exclaimed sarcastically.

Sousuke's mouth opened to yell back his retaliation, his arm swinging toward Rin again.

Rin closed his eyes, but did not flinch. Being Sousuke's sandbag was not even a remotely sufficient repentance.

Sousuke's fist halted mid-way. In a weary voice, akin to that of a toiling aged man, he left with the parting words: "I'll get over you eventually."

Rin bit his lip and stared at the door long after Sousuke had departed. If only grief and guilt were to be dispersible by the shades of night!

十九

19

Even when Rin finally left the pavilion, his chest heaved wildly and his mind was in a mess. He feared that he could never go back. What if, because of his misstep, the last thread holding their bond of friendship had been severed?

Now, more than anything, Rin wished to be with Haru. There was no logic behind this wild urge. He was aware, of course, that Haru was never a comforting type. Still, even the mere sight of that water-maniac would ease Rin's troubled mind.

Withal, when he arrived at his chamber, the bed was no longer occupied. The adjoining bathroom was empty, as well. The furniture and his other belongings remained unperturbed. Haru was nowhere to be found…

…until Rin looked through the window.

Symmetrical double sloping passageways flanked the central axis lead to the yonder garden terrace, with a grotto, extravagantly decorated with frescoes and mosaic to the east side and the elaborate central fountain complex, where multicolored light issued from a rock into a series of scrolling shell-like cups. There, Haru was conversing with Makoto.

Rin gripped the windowsill briefly, and then scooted toward the garden. Haru was probably asking Makoto's advice for his unprecedented confession in front of such a large audience, including Rin's family, but Rin could not care less if he needed to tear Haru from Makoto's side. He wanted Haru all for himself for now. Makoto—kindly, compassionate Makoto—would surely understand that.

There was another reason, aside from the illuminated fountains, for this side of the palace to be known as the "Garden of Light." Presiding over the colorful riffs and heterogeneous aquatic plants were a thousand enchanted floating glass lanterns, shimmering in the water like fireworks that could never die down.

Underneath a large hexagonal prism lantern incised with piscine images, Haru and Makoto were facing each other. Rin was ready to say, "Yo, Makoto, can I borrow Haru for now?" when the mention of his name made him halt and hide behind a reef instead.

Tears spilled forth from Makoto's eternally benign eyes. "I've always loved you. I've always wanted to be the one you think of most. And yet … and yet … even though I've always been by your side, it's Rin who's constantly on your mind."

Haru seemed to be at a loss for words, but he extended his hand, fingers reaching to wipe his best friend's tears.

"Don't…" Makoto flinched as he sobbed. "Don't be so kind to me. It makes it harder to give up on you." Tears continued to flow out of his eyes, even though those diamond-like sparkles floated away and coalesced with the water around him in lieu of trickling down his cheeks.

Haru retracted his arm, his clear eyes wavering with sorrow. At the end of the day, no matter how much pain they were in-physically or mentally, how tired they were, or how busy their minds got, Makoto was always the gentle spoon with his big arms holding Haru against his heart. "Thank you for your feelings, but I'm sorry I can't see you as more than a friend."

"I knew it from the start." Makoto sniffled. "How your eyes lit up when you looked at Rin… How your ears perked up at the mention of his name even when he wasn't around… How you clung to every word he said like a lifeline… How the rest of the world vanished when the two of you were together… Haru, I'm sorry. I was hoping that you could look at me properly if I beat you in our two hundred-meter free-style race at the regionals. I even promised myself that I wouldn't tell you my feelings if I lost and just be content with being your best friend until the day I die, but … I couldn't stand it! I couldn't bear to hear your confession for Rin."

"Makoto, I…"

Yet, Makoto withdrew from him as swiftly as ebbing waters that even Haru could not tame.

Rin pondered. Having endured Haru's communication awkwardness for so long, it was not unlikely that Makoto's hidden affection for his best friend and the desperate hope that is was requited was all that had kept him going. Makoto would do everything within his capacity to make Haru happy. Unlike Rin, Makoto would never hurt Haru out of spite from losing in a race or leave Haru some place faraway for his own egoistical whim. He would always put Haru's everything before himself, just as he had always done so. And now Rin had robbed such a magnanimous human of his joy of living.

It was not until Makoto had completely disappeared from sight that Rin revealed himself. He hugged Haru without offering any explanation further than, "I hurt Sousuke."

They stood there, on the glittering patch of aquatic grass, for quite a while, wrapped by the peaceful silence and the comforting glow of a thousand lanterns.

When Haru pulled away at last, a tinge of worry invaded Rin's brain. What if he had overstepped his boundary and held Haru too long for comfort? Haru proved this assumption to be wrong no later than the following second, in which he parted his lips and claimed Rin's in a kiss.

Rin was vaguely aware of delving in for the kiss, earnest and demanding, and then … his brain could not react properly. In the middle of his spiking heart rate, his world blanked out. Everywhere was pure white until something touched him, watery cool against his skin, yet blistering like flame all the same. He blinked and, gradually, Haru's fluttering blue eyes came into focus, his fingers caressing Rin's jawline.

No. This was wrong. It ended too soon. How could Haru withdraw when the desire within Rin was still unquenched?

This was so fucking unfair and Rin would not accept it. He leaped forward, pulling Haru close using the pressure of his hands on Haru's nape and back, before reclaiming what he had lost.

As soon as their lips were reunited, Rin felt Haru's breath melting into the kiss from his slightly parted lips. He coaxed Haru to grant him wider access by sucking at his bottom lip. When Haru finally did, Rin shoved his tongue in to pry and explore the interior of Haru's mouth. Now that Rin had tasted sin's sweet indulgence, a bite could never suffice. He wanted more of Haru's lips, more of Haru's baited breath, more of Haru's caresses, more of Haru's…

Mid-way, a small voice cried out inside his head, reminding him that he had practically been ravishing Haru's mouth. Although Haru had initiated a chaste kiss, that did not guarantee his readiness for a more erotic version. What if Haru found him to be a creep and refused his kisses in the future?

Rin was starting to pull back—intending to ask for proper permission and even mentally prepared himself for an apology if he had gone too fast—when Haru's mouth suddenly pursued him. Haru's famished tongue entwined with Rin's, sending heady spirals of pleasure shuddering through him and making the words perish on Rin's stunned tongue along with the rest of his self-reservations.

Haru's lips were so soft and moist and delectable, and before Rin knew it, trickles of heat had started pooling between his loins simultaneously with the pressure of Haru's aroused body against his own.

Without preamble, Haru's mouth was torn from Rin's with such rapidity that left Rin bereft and worried. He searched Haru and found nothing out of the ordinary in his expression; as luck would have it, the hurried rise and fall of Haru's chest was nowhere near as inexpressive as his face.

"We need to go back to your room," Haru rasped.

Inasmuch as Rin knew that he had to respond, he was barely capable of making his voice work again. He managed a small nod, and remained in a daze as Haru held his hand all the way back with the same tenacity as that of a parent bringing a hyperactive toddler through the crowd.

The door of his chamber suddenly became miles away, but upon reaching it, he fumbled for several moments without finding the handle because of his nervousness.

二十

20

The door closing behind them muffled the gurgling water to a faint whisper. Haru began to kiss Rin again, but Rin pushed him away this time, even though his length tented the front of his makeshift loincloth as their stomachs rubbed together. In a tone too dire for his own liking, he declared, "Gotta talk first."

Haru settled himself on a curule seat near Rin's chiffonier, his undivided attention upon the owner.

In lieu of sitting on the neighboring wing chair, Rin paced the room back-and-forth. He felt like a world-class jerk for bringing up the subject with such poor timing and braved himself to accept Haru's displeasure. In the best-case scenario, Haru would be mildly pissed off. If the worse came to worst, his first love would be forever gone. Rin grimaced at the thought.

He began, "I'm actually not so sure about sex between guys—not that I have any issues if other people do it, but as for practicing it myself … it's a bit … well, you know…" His words trailed off.

But Haru simply stared at him with a quizzical look.

'Dammit, Haru! Why do you have to make me say it?' "I mean, there's the humiliation issue when another…" Rin's Adam apple bobbed up and down. "…d-dick enters you…"

When Rin made no attempt to finish, Haru completed the sentence for him, "In other words, you'll be fine as long as you aren't at the receiving end?"

Rin nodded, though not without hesitation.

Haru rose from the stool and approached the bed. "Then I want that, too."

"Huh? You gotta be kidding, right? There's no way you'd agree just like that?"

Haru gazed at him with those clear blue eyes. "Would you prefer if I refused?"

"Yes—no—that's … Argh! Talking to you drives me nuts!"

"Then we should just use actions instead of words. Rin, do what you want with me."

Rin's eyes narrowed. "Do you realize the full meaning of your implications?"

"I'm not implying anything. What I said is what I mean."

For the next fifteen seconds, Rin still wondered if his ears had malfunctioned or if they could perform a special trick to make him hear the things he wanted to hear. He watched Haru open-mouthed, his heart racing, his senses so caught up in the full tide of his own desire that there was no room within him for anything else. His breathing quickened as he caught Haru's gaze; the black-haired Iwatobi swimmer did not budge from the bedside as he eyed Rin expectantly.

Rin wasted no time in scurrying to Haru's side and closing his fingers tensely around Haru's shoulders. "You can't just give yourself in to me without any conditions, dammit! Where's the Haru who'd compete with me?"

"This isn't about winning and losing. I was asexual for centuries, watching some of my sibling's grandchildren have great grandchildren, but never got interested in finding my own mate … until you came into my life."

Rin felt as if the temperature had risen a million degrees and the formerly cool water had transformed into lava. Incoherent words uncontrollably slipped away from his mouth, "Wha … Haru … you…"

Haru shifted closer and his thumbs found delight in the softness of Rin's earlobes. "Meeting you made life exciting for the first time. Thanks to you, I've found my dream and now love water even more."

Rin's heart hammered in his chest and tears started to fill his eyes. How could he nearly forsake his precious first time to someone else when Haru treasured him so reverently?

'Do I mean that much to him?'

He embraced the boy before him. Try as he might, he could not escape his love for Haru. If the so-called soul mate really existed, this had to be it.

'This is crazy! I've just heard his confession a little over than an hour ago. We haven't even started dating, yet here we are, having sex…'

Rin planted Haru against the bed, his kisses taking on an ardency that neither of them had yet experienced, the probing insistence of his mouth against Haru's drawing a whispery moan from Haru's lips. The thought of the apathetic Nanase Haruka offering himself like a present for unwrapping was enough to enrapture Rin.

In return, Haru wrapped his arms around Rin, pulling him closer as the kahaku prince clambered on top of him. Lowering his head, he showered Haru's skin with nibbles and kisses as he carved his way down the lithe body beneath him. Possessive marking moved from Haru's mouth to his neck, clavicle, pectorals, abs, navel, and…

There was no mistaking it; Haru was reeling with the sensation of Rin's breath caressing his pubes. The usually impassive boy was now breathing through his parted lips in short, quiet, almost choked gasps.

The loincloth-like garment was undone with a single tug. As Rin tossed it away, it caught the water drifted above their heads. He grimaced, then, annoyed with how fascinated Haru's eyes were as they watched the stripe of fabric being slowly washed away by the gentle water oscillation toward the wall on the far side of the room.

'What a water freak!'

Even so, Rin had his own way to divert Haru's attention back to him. The brush of his lips drifted down to Haru's hip bone before he bit it hard. He smirked at the feeling of that flat stomach tensing under his body.

"It's your fault for paying so much attention to the water when I'm right here," Rin leered.

Haru stared at him.

"What?" Rin asked, alarmed. 'He isn't cross, right?'

Haru stated matter-of-factly, "Rin, you shaved down there."

"So what? Shaved body hair reduces water resistance while swimming!" Rin bellowed to cover his embarrassment.

But as Rin moved his hand in front of his genitalia, Haru caught it. "Rin, you're beautiful. Don't cover it up."

Rin's breath hitched. What karma had he earned to deserve a boyfriend who knew no shame?

Haru cooed, "And this beautiful part of you will be inside me soon…"

"Haru, stop talking!" Rin felt bad about hushing his newfound boyfriend, especially since Haru's tone was dreamy and his eyes were brimming with an enraptured yearning that Rin had seen reserved exclusively for water thus far. Hence, he added, "Please."

"You hate it when I talk?" Haru queried with an amused tone.

"Well, you listed only embarrassing things from one to another."

Haru snaked his fingers into Rin's redwood tresses in response, a tacit agreement of truce.

With his teeth and tongue, Rin mapped new territory that was his lover's body. His territory. He parted Haru's legs wider, kissing each muscular thigh and smiled briefly as the hard flesh in their midst welcomed him with its pulse. Moving forward, Rin ran his tongue over the top of Haru's hardening erection and then circled its tip. Next, he traced his tongue over Haru's slit, and flicked at the tip of the eager manhood. The gasp escaping Haru's lips sent shivers down Rin's spine. He varied between flat and quick licks, slathering hot puffs of breath over the shaft and stiffened it even more. His fingers crept to the sac, massaging it sensuously.

Then, with utmost care, Rin lowered his mouth to take in the length between his lips. To avoid scrapping, he made sure that his lips covered his pointy teeth. It was weird as hell to have his mouth stuffed, but this was Haru's, and that alone gave enough excuse for almost every single damned thing in the world.

Holding the base of Haru's shaft with playful fingers, Rin kept hollowed his cheeks time and again around the flesh, twisting his head in a circular motion and causing his partner's erection to swirl inside his mouth. It was then that he heard Haru's suppressed groan.

Breathing harder with swollen lips, Rin looked up. How much he hungered for Haru! But there was a new intensity in the blue of Haru's eyes, a peculiar seism that shook Rin to the core and made him feel like everything he had done was pale in significance compared to this moment.

Rin's mouth latched back onto Haru's erect flesh, lips closing around the pulsating heat, tongue lapping at its tip. He resumed tucking into Haru's length with earnest, his mouth bobbing and sliding, wet and greedy and lewd. Again and again, he plunged deep and pulled up. Nevertheless, he refrained from the gagging risk of taking it too far into his throat—not tonight. His breath was a pattering of heat at Haru's delicious length, sheathing it from the jealous water around them and pooling at the junction of Haru's thighs.

Haru bucked forward, despairing to push his hips into Rin's face. His eyelashes fluttered with each push and pull of Rin's mouth. His legs trembled with the waves of lust and his sac tightened.

But Rin pulled out, earning him an annoyed look from Haru. "It wouldn't be fun if you came too soon," he chuckled. "After all, I've still got other things up my sleeve." 'Those weeks of online research on gay sex finally pay off.' The memory of closing the website window frantically when Sousuke entered their room at Samezuka dormitory burned painfully in Rin's mind.

With that, he elevated Haru's legs, grabbing them steadily by the calves until the soles of Haru's feet faced the ceiling. He secretly found it addictive to see Haru's Adam's apple bobbing up and down, to instill panic into Haru, to learn the extent of his influence over Haru. It was not until his face was an inch away from Haru's open crotch did Haru crack.

In a half-warning, half-begging tone, Haru said, "Are you sure about this? Anal rimming is very unsanitary. While kahaku are unaffected by humans' diseases, you're using your human body right now."

Rin grinned from ear to ear. Having the typically sangfroid Haru to beseech him was cute in its own way.

"I mean it. Hepatitis, poliomyelitis, gastroenteritis are just a few examples of the many diseases anilingus can induce," Haru tried to convince him, but his pleading tone became no longer concealable.

Rin sneered in response, "Thanks for trying to ruin the mood, professor, but if those risks come in a package with your flustered face, I'll gladly rim you over and over again."

Rin silently thanked the inexistence of lubricants in the kahaku world; unlike humans' anus, kahaku's cloaca required no artificial moistening. He could use this as an excuse if Haru made more fuss about anilingus.

Rin probed at the swell of Haru's backside and kneaded the cheeks, relishing how the firm flesh shivered under his palms. He teased the sensitive area with feather-light caresses before sensuously pulling those twin mounds apart. His middle finger took an experimental plunge into the cleft between his lover's buttocks. He pressed inward, coaxing the tight pucker of Haru's entrance. Not missing Haru's tensed muscles while his finger dipped inside this hidden portal, he could not help but smirk as he saw Haru's determination to appear as poker-faced as possible.

Rin crooked his finger while keeping an eye on Haru, who was biting the insides of his cheeks to prevent a more embarrassing reaction. He twisted and teased for a moment, gathering all the patience he could muster while waiting for Haru to get accustomed to this new presence inside him. Only then did he add a second digit, which resulted in the jerks of Haru's body and a continuous muscle contraction. When the third followed suit, Haru instinctively pulled his body away from its intrusion.

'His insides should be loose enough by now, right?'

Rin withdrew his fingers, only to replace them with his tongue. Dipping his head, he licked around the edge of the puckered skin to familiarize himself with the shape of Haru's opening. He then wetted his lover's entrance with his saliva, flattened his tongue against it, and delved inside. He went slowly at first, but the violent shudder that racked Haru's figure turned him on and soon the meaning of "holding back" was lost to him.

Rin darted his tongue in and out, esuriently lapping with deft flicks and twirling precision. He had his fingers along the back of Haru's thighs, exploring with tender caresses. As he drank in the sight of Haru's heaving abdomen, a proud roar echoed in Rin's head, 'I caused this.'

Haru's arms shot upwards and his lips slightly parted, though nothing audible came out of his mouth. With his legs splayed up and his face flushed, he was practically imploring to be taken and Rin was no less keen to oblige.

Rin leaned in, latching his fingers to his beloved Haru's soothingly. It was hard to believe that until a moment ago, he had promised himself that this would be the day he made the usually composed Haru cry from pleasure, but now, all he wanted was Haru's comfort. He gazed at the exceedingly beautiful creature beneath him, almost hesitant in case he would hurt his beloved in his unbridled passion.

But Haru ached for Rin's bare skin against his own—this he showed by means of action. He kissed Rin as fervent and insatiable as if he might not get a second chance. He invaded Rin's mouth aggressively, his tongue flicking at Rin's lips and licking at Rin's gums. He even encircled his arms around Rin and held him like Rin was the only thing in the world that mattered notwithstanding all the water around them—an incentive for Rin to double the effort that he was pouring into the kiss.

Anyone who had seen only Haru's usual languid self would not have guessed that he was this clingy, and Rin was the only one with the privilege to discover this side of Haru.

"Ready?" Rin asked, his tone whispery, yet belying his yearning all the same.

Haru could manage only a nod.

However, when Rin pressed the head of his erection against Haru's stretched entrance, Haru intoned, "Going with the classic missionary?"

Rin blinked. "You don't like it this way?"

Haru shook his head. "I just thought that since we're in the water, we may as well use the different gravity to our advantage."

'Haru's initiating?' The thought thrilled Rin. He had wrongly assumed, that since Haru was mostly indifferent in many things other than swimming and mackerel, the best he could come up would be replying, "It's fine" during sex.

Fleeting images of the forty-eight sex positions in Shijuuhatte—the Japanese Kama Sutra—swam inside Rin's head. Grinning from ear to ear, he prompted, "Which position appeals most to you right now?"

Haru's gaze shifted awkwardly to the side, flush distinctly evident upon his cheeks, and then his eyes returned full force, smoldering Rin with intensity alone. "I want you to be my human chair tonight."

"Your wish is my command, mizuchi-sama," Rin quipped. He found himself incapable of stopping the grin that filtered across his lips as he drew back to sit on the mattress. Not that he would say it out loud, but he lauded Haru's idea. Given the small margin of their difference in size, there would be no way Rin could lift Haru long enough without exhausting himself outside the water.

Haru lowered himself onto Rin's lap with his back to Rin's stomach and his legs straddling Rin's thighs. After ensconcing himself as comfortably as a king on his rightful throne, he declared with his usual monotony, "And no honorifics during sex. You'll be punished for your impudence."

'Now this is getting interesting.'

"Ooh, what might my punishment be?" Rin enjoined, while his fingers busied themselves with the smooth expanse of Haru's torso, the pectoral nubs pebbling under his touches, as though mutely imploring his possession.

Despite his tensing abs, Haru responded in a voice no less steady than his normal tone, "You'll see it in time."

Rin canted his hips against Haru's until their bodies were aligned, his teeth taking hold of Haru's shoulder as his length slid into the depth of his partner's heat, inch by glorious inch—love, lust, everything in between. The moment Haru's heat sheathed his appendage, Rin could feel his shoulders trembling from the pleasure. He had anticipated—more like hoped—to hear a gasp at the initial penetration, but Haru gave him none. He simply tipped his head back and arched his torso, while his fingers anchored themselves to Rin's thighs, fingertips digging in at the sensation of being filled to the brim.

'Haru, I want you. So much.'

Rin rolled his hips, shallow and gentle, allowing all the time Haru needed to adjust until he was ready to rock back against him. He dragged his hands against Haru's bare flesh, roaming affectionately on the hairless chest before stroking his pubes.

Shudders of tension rippled through Haru as Rin touched his lover. "Rin, don't. I'll come too fast."

Rin complied by moving his arms to wrap around Haru's waist, enabling their bodies to snuggle up together tightly. He was pleasantly surprised that Haru was the first to move, gyrating his own hips, his insides squeezing tightly around Rin's girth, until their two bodies ground together.

Rin closed his eyes for a moment at how incredible it felt to have Haru's warmth engulf him fully. As he tenderly rocked his hips, he thought that he lived for the reactions he could pull from Haru. During sex, Haru was as quiet as his normal self, but nowhere near as impassive. In the absence of his moans, the pressure of Haru's fingertips told Rin all he needed to know. Those desperate fingers wandered endlessly, lost in the sensation—where he liked to be teased, how hard the pounding should be, the interval between each lick, and more…

Rin kissed the boy above him again. That nape's soft skin was not enough. Never enough. "Haru…" he whispered the name he treasured above all others.

'Haru, Haru, Haru…'

In recompense for the absence of any verbal reply, Haru's hands reached behind and skimmed over Rin's flank, caressing him as they moved in tandem. It was impossible to draw Haru any closer, given their position, but his wordless demand of "Stay like this" was a fair consolation prize for Rin.

Rin moved faster, sliding in and out of his beloved Haru. His body throbbed with each beat of his heart; how he had longed to feel Haru's silky skin against his own! He wanted that stoic expression to meld with desire for him and him only.

'Too bad; I can't see your face from this position.' Rin consoled himself by kissing Haru's upper back.

Haru's breath hitched as Rin entered him deep and hard. The quiver of his body avowed that Rin was the only one who could rock the core of his soul, deeper than flesh could ever reach. His grip tightened around Rin's thighs, but Rin wanted more. It felt so good, too good, inside his lover that he could barely contain his self-control. He kept pounding into Haru—rigorous, incessant, and thorough.

'Gently, gently! I mustn't get rough!'

Biting his lip, Rin scooped Haru's thighs and spread them wider, shifting from the so-called Pressing Lotus Blossom to the Disturbed Peony position. Desire flowed through Rin's veins as a soft whimper not unlike the murmur of stream water over stones slipped past Haru's tongue. The sound was pure and idyllic and unadulterated.

'I love you.'

The thought made Rin give a sharp thrust of his hips, bucking irrepressibly. He perceived Haru lowering his own hips to meet each thrust and nipped at the slope of Haru's neck in appreciation.

'So madly in love with you.'

Then, without warning, Haru stilled. He presented Rin with a gorgeous sight, his back arching, hair loose about his head, inner walls clenching around Rin's flesh up to the hilt. Seconds later, Rin noticed a ribbon of thick, white liquid—more opaque than the water around them—rise and disperse before him, and Haru was once again fascinated watching the flow, but this time, Rin did not berate him.

Rin was more dumbstruck by Haru's sudden transformation. No longer was the figure on his lap a human but a dragon. He needed no explanation; his own body knew well that a transmogrifying spell would wear out if he lost control of his emotions—extreme distress, excessive fury, and in this case, the pinnacle of bliss.

Haru loved their intimacy just as much as, if not more so than, Rin did.

The knowledge brought joyful tears to Rin's eyes; perhaps the so-called heaven was not necessarily located in the unreachable, lofty sky after all. Keeping his movement to a minimum, he started to remove himself from Haru's body, recalling the information about how unpleasant it was to be stimulated during the hyper-sensitized state immediately following an ejaculation.

But Haru would not have any of Rin's consideration. No longer in possession of anthropoid arms to hold Rin's thighs, he slithered his lower body around Rin's and relaxed his upper body onto the bed between Rin's legs. Pushing his face down against the mattress and pulling his rear up, he exposed the parts where they were joined, displaying their connection for Rin's inspection while sliding up and down using Rin's shins for leverage. He panted, catching his breath as his body continued to shiver with the aftermath of his orgasm. Even so, he deliberately tightened the clench of his muscles around Rin's girth, wordlessly declaring, 'I won't part from you.'

Excited to discover Haru's masochistic side, Rin took what had been offered to him. He pushed on, burrowing into Haru's serpentine body with a quickened pace; this position allowed him an even deeper penetration. Holding Haru's hips tight, he pounded vehemently into the mizuchi.

Rin leaned back to appreciate the erotic view: a part of him was gradually sinking into his partner's furled opening. In spite of his contracting muscles, Haru accepted Rin's shape as his own. He let Rin fill him by meeting every contour, every sloping length, until the entirety of Rin's sex became the very form of him.

No scent in the world was more desirable than Haru caught in throes of pleasure—his body exuded pheromones so sweet as he slid back and forth Rin's erect flesh, but the best part was the knowledge that only Rin was allowed to see and smell and hear and touch and feel this side of Haru. The pooling heat between his loins grew more and more unbearable, and his release built all too quickly then. With one final thrust his back arched, his hips jerked, and his seed spilled inside the tight passage surrounding him.

"You've also gone back to your true form," Haru stated simply as Rin's pulse quieted down to a more natural rate, and he was once more in possession of himself.

Rin looked down at his own body and realized for the first time that this was no empty accusation. He had to be more careful with his withdrawal then; otherwise, his penile spines would hurt Haru's inner walls.

"Haru, tell me if it hurts."

An indolent "Mmm…" was the only answer Haru gave. He wiggled his hips slowly in small circles, creating more frictions ingrained with allurement for cuddling.

In lieu of resisting the temptation, Rin wrapped his arms around Haru, webbed fingers against scales, torso against backside. There was nothing lewd in his embrace; he simply wanted to feel Haru, to touch Haru, to stay close to Haru. The first time he met Haru, it had not occurred to him that he could ever be infatuated with a person this much.

'Haru, my love, my heart, my soul…'

A surge of emotion swelled within Rin: he had been born to meet Haru, to love Haru, and, in time, to die for Haru.

After their bodies untangled, Haru turned around. His mouth was curving upwards—one of the rare occasions in which he actually smiled. "You're incorrigibly in love with me."

It was a statement of fact and one Rin had no desire of denying. He gathered his webbed hands around Haru's serpentine body and hugged his lover close. Nuzzling his head around the dragon's neck, he mumbled, "Don't make it sound like I'm the only one who's head over heels here."

二十一

21

Rin woke up hours later at the sensation of Haru's smooth scales against his limbs. The timepiece on his console table indicated ten past three in the morning. Even through the eyes still bleary with sleep, Rin did not fail to notice how the mizuchi's eyes were alight with desire and adoration for him. He japed, "Hey, what's this? Is my sleeping body so sexy that you can't help but launch a sneaky attack?"

"I'm delivering your punishment," Haru replied, his voice husky.

Rin laughed as his lover tried to cover up his embarrassment by concocting the excuse. The derision, however, did not last long. He could only gasp the moment Haru's serpentine body slid between his inner thighs. Although Rin hesitated, it lasted ephemerally and was soon swept away, his senses drowning under the slow lap of Haru's tongue, his body turning fluid, wanting, needing his lover with so much intensity that that longing became a confused string of husky words punctuated by the fevered tension of his writhing body.

Haru's caress felt smooth and comforting, sending tiny electrical impulses through Rin's body. The kahaku's stomach muscles tensed defensively, but it was no use. Even the merest waft of the mizuchi's breath betrayed his pretense and the caress of Haru's mane against the hollow of his throat made his body tremble. His femoral pores began to exude the heady scent of arousal.

Time and time again Haru's paw stroked across Rin's stomach and beneath his ribcage, causing Rin to press himself against Haru in a frenzy of desire. Delirium seized Rin. Not only did it render him mindless and able only to obey an instinct, far deeper-set than logic or reason, and which blinded him to everything but the need to prolong the pleasure of Haru's touch. He yearned in frustration and ached for more of Haru's touches, as Haru's continuous slithers skated around his diaphragm and teasingly swept over his calf. He whimpered as his lover's maw continued to pay loving homage to his body. His hemipenes sprang to full bloom between his groins; the full contact of Haru's body brought him to the brink of eruption.

Rin growled, "You damn tease!"

Running out of patience, Rin turned around to face Haru. His mouth sought the betraying pulse beating in Haru's throat—the throbs that revealed his passion for his mate—before moving upwards to capture the dragon's maw, parting them with a starvation to match the kahaku's own. Inhibition was forgotten. Rin's arms slid round the glittering scales of Haru's back, clasping his lover to him, his thighs parting wider under the assault of the passion he could feel rising inside Haru.

Haru's kiss sent spirals of pleasure through quivering nerve endings as they moved languorously along Rin's throat and shoulders. It smoldered beneath the intense pressure of his mouth as it closed over Rin's, blotting out everything by the ferocity of their mutual desire.

However, when Haru began to nip the underside of Rin's jaw, Rin protested, "Cut it out. I'm swimming later."

"I let you leave your marks over me last night." Haru rolled his shoulders, drawing attention to the faint spots dotting the slopes of his upper back.

"You aren't the one swimming in the pool together with the entire Samezuka team today. Besides, it's not like you'll get embarrassed in front of Rei, Nagisa, and Makoto."

At the mention of Makoto's name, Haru twitched.

"My bad," Rin uttered. 'Congrats on ruining the mood, Rin!'

"As long as it's the places other swimmers won't see, you're okay with it?" Haru asked.

"Uh … I guess so." Rin could not back out; he had just been led to discover Haru's hidden negotiation skill. Nor did he regret the discovery when kisses and nips started to rain down his inner thighs. Unlike the tearing of the akashita's flesh the day before, Haru playfully scraped Rin's skin with the barest touch of his incisors this morning. When his teeth pressed harder than intended, his tongue was quick to compensate with its erotic swirls. The dragon's maw nipped, nibbled, and sucked the kahaku's bareness, and the two of them found themselves swimming in a sea of sensualism as Haru marked Rin with his scent.

Rin tried his best not to gasp too loud. It had never struck him before that Haru would cosset anyone. After all, his human profile gave him the status of being an only child who was showered by others' affection rather than vice versa. Furthermore, with Makoto and his indulgent, big-brotherly deportment constantly by his side, Haru was bound to grow up as a pampered boy. The Haru whom everyone had pictured was nothing like this. He somewhat reminded Rin of himself as a child when presented with a new toy—lavishing it with curiosity, desiring to mark it as his own, yet treasuring it all the same.

Rin's hands wrapped into Haru's dark mane and yanked desperately. "Dammit, Haru! Stop playing around and just get on with it!"

In contrast, Haru kept on twisting and twirling, creating new frictions against Rin's skin, each more delicious than the previous. His tongue swirled this way and that with calculated precision, at intervals nudging the spot inside Rin that made the kahaku's vision go white. Haru—that insolent bastard—stimulated Rin's already frazzled nerve endings in a way he hadn't even thought was possible.

'Never again will I scoff at those documentaries on snake mating ritual dance,' Rin promised himself. Pride aside, his legs shivered with the desire to spread wide, to invite his lover into the depths of him. His loin tightened even as he urged, "Haru, fuck me."

Craning his neck, Haru climbed onto Rin's chest. His lower body undulated and, for a moment, Rin assumed Haru was going to oblige. Instead, he veered to the side and nipped Rin's hand playfully.

"It's now or never!" Rin barked through gritted teeth.

The underside of Haru's body moved around Rin's torso in gentle worship and still he would not do anything else but protract his slides into a sensuous dance, and Rin suppressed a moan deep within his throat. Through the haze of delight, Rin wondered whether Haru was exceptionally prodigious at touching him in all the right places or if Rin's body became sensitized because this was Haru caressing him.

Rin nearly squalled an expletive when Haru flipped him over until he reclined on his stomach. He felt the trail of Haru's mane down his spine before that head lifted his tail. Haru nuzzled against the skin beneath the kahaku's tail bone, and then proceeded to lick the area around the cloaca.

"Haru, you can't be thinking … no, that's cheating! I rimmed you using a human's tongue last night. Dragon's is way longer; it'll make me—ah!"

The tip of Haru's tongue infiltrated Rin's opening, and the rest of its length followed in a luscious slither.

Rin could not repress his gasp. The sensation was entirely foreign to him, though he would be lying if he were to claim that it was unpleasant. While lubrication was never essential to any aquatic creature on the planet, the way Haru took Rin shook him to the core and drowned him in a tide of sensation he had no power to resist. Pleasure permeated his scutes as that agile tongue explored the crevices Rin had never known of existing, making him forget everything but the desire that was burning out of control inside him.

"You don't need to—nngh! Aaah…"

"Rin, I want to learn every part of you."

Although the slurping sounded more muffled in the water than it would have in the air, embarrassment refused to leave Rin. He tried to cuss in-between his moans, but that only resulted in groans more helpless, more erotic than they already had been. How could he survive the rest of their copulation if he had been this swept over by Haru's foreplay?

"Dammit, Haru—ahn—I'll get you back—ahh—for this! Haa…"

"I'm looking forward to it," Haru whispered and carried on with his tongue's ministrations.

Rin could not take it anymore; the intoxication was too overwhelming. His femoral pores had released enough quantity to coat the entire palace complex with pheromones by now. His hemipenes erupted without being stroked. He came with clenched fists; Haru had managed to bring him to a climax using tongue alone—it was like his partner had won the duel even before their blades ever crossed. How much more humiliating could his sex life be!

Haru must have sensed Rin tensing, because he raised Rin's hips, liberating the trapped hemipenes from between Rin's stomach and the mudmoss mattress. With utmost care, he licked at the seeping tip of Rin's erection, causing Rin's body to jerk even more frantically.

Rin had never experienced anything like it in his life, never dreamed there could be such yearning, such fervent passion, such acute and compulsive ardor. It was as though an unknown force had taken control of his being … as though he had undergone a powerful, irresistible change of personality. It overwhelmed him, thoroughly effacing everything else, making him groan beneath the pressure of Haru's tongue. It was an inexplicable thrill to become so vulnerable in the presence of the entity named Nanase Haruka.

"This is all your fault!" Rin accused Haru. He felt tears prickling the corners of his eyes and was glad Haru could not see his face from their current position.

"Then I'll take the responsibility of making you come properly this time." With that, Haru crept upwards, slithering his body along Rin's back until his head reached Rin's shoulder. He kissed Rin's nape slowly but persistently until Rin's hips undulated from the tingling sensation.

Haru entwined his tail around Rin's leg and elevated it upward, while his own hind leg suspended Rin's tail. Imbalanced, the kahaku now lay on his side with one leg held high by the dragon's tail. Haru shifted to a more comfortable position, molding himself into Rin, stomach to back. His short dragon front legs did not reach as far as Rin's front, but one of them wrapped around Rin's flank.

Rin spread his legs wider, and Haru needed not telling twice to dip his own hemipenis inside. Pain shot through his lower region the moment Haru's flesh lanced into him. But little by little, his rectal muscles stretched to accommodate his lover.

The same pain also ignited a more urging need from within the core of his body. A shiver raced up his spine, and pleasure coursed throughout him. It evoked heat to swell in his loin and his spent manhood twitched in renewed interest.

With every inch of Haru slid in deeper, wilder and wilder Rin's pulsation became. Rin lay there, reduced into a moaning pile of boneless lust, tantalized by inextinguishable delight. The sweet torment continued as Haru plunged harder and faster and deeper; he seemed unwilling to let go until their bodies blended together and they were one.

No matter how much Rin tried to stifle his moans so as not to boost Haru's ego, the dragon's deft nips and seductive wriggles drove that restraint away. It was as though Haru's life's mission had been drawing sounds out of Rin against his will all along. As the mizuchi began to move smoothly within his lover, the kahaku could not help but moan a drawled out version of his seducer's name while moving his hips in counterpoint.

'What should I do? When he holds me like this, I go out of mind…'

It was a wonder that their two bodies, so different structurally, could fit so perfectly. Haru thrust with such devotion that made Rin feel as though he craved him more than all oceans' nursling mackerels, more than swimming, more than water itself. It lifted Rin higher on some new plane of passion.

Just the sensation of Haru's body moving against Rin's was enough to make the kahaku prince ache with need. He twisted against his lover, gasping with pleasure with every motion of Haru's twists and slithers. Before long, the two creatures shared their very breath as they moved as one. For one moment, the increase of their heavy breathing and the ruffles of the mudmoss mattress were the only existing sounds.

But then Haru changed the angle of his hips, and then dragged his erection against the different parts of Rin's inner walls, experimenting to find the location of that spot. Upon finding it—marked by Rin's hitched breath—he revisited it again and again, pressing in repeatedly and unyieldingly.

Haru murmured ever so softly against the slope of Rin's neck, "You're the only one I refuse to let go."

Rin spoke nothing in return. His arms clasped Haru's serpentine body tightly in a vain attempt to calm the storm in his head and the thunder in his chest. 'Is mating supposed to make you feel like bursting into bubbles?'

Rin's hips bucked and pushed at the weight behind his body, feeling his passion mount within until it turned into a tempestuous river of longing. His thighs tightened and unclenched in anticipation. Again and again, he writhed in front of his lover, groaning uncontrollably and no longer able to form coherent syllables. Only Haru, only this wonderful entity, had the power to turn him into a panting mess.

Haru's hips snapped up against Rin's intimate passage once more, his body taut behind the kahaku. He penetrated as deeply as possible, as if ensuring his seed would be implanted inside his mate too deeply to come out.

"Ah! Ha … ru!"

The sensation of Haru pulsing inside him, heat jetting forth against his insides and pooling at the base of his spine, sent Rin over the edge. It was like he had just realized that Haru was restoring a piece of Rin that he had not even known of ever missing, making him whole at long last.

Rin screamed Haru's name as he peaked, his back arching into his mate's front. Dignity and reputation were worlds away—some distant concerns eclipsed by the intense need for orgasm.

Even as Rin gradually came down from high, his heart fluttered strangely when Haru held onto his shoulders, steadying him.

二十二

22

Rin was thinking that if this was how it felt to be penetrated, perhaps he should invent more reasons for Haru to punish him in the future, when Haru reached for Rin's fingers to curl them around inside his own. "Rin, marry me."

The utterance made Rin's head spin. This was Haru. A word from him could fly Rin's heart to the starry heavens or sunder it into a zillion splinters. He considered that he had misheard Haru, but the surety in the speaker's voice and the intensity of his stare did not indicate otherwise.

Rin swallowed thickly before managing to force his voice out. "Whoa, wait a minute! Haru, this is the twenty-first century. People don't get married after they screw once or twice."

Haru rolled to the side until his figure loomed over Rin's, their hips aligned together intimately. "Should I ask you again after our tenth mating?"

Rin's eyes widened. Haru did not appear to be joking. It was not unusual for dragons to mate for fully seven times without respite when they were in a heat cycle. This, combined with Haru's immense love for water and the ripples of it around them during sex added up to the incapacitation of Rin's lower half.

"Which parts of you don't understand the meaning of 'I'm gonna swim as soon as I get back to Samezuka,' huh?!" Rin head-butted Haru.

If Haru felt any pain, he did not show it. Neither did he shoot Rin an accusing or a furious look—just his usual imperturbable expression.

'How has Makoto been able to read Haru's mood all this time?' Rin questioned himself as he rubbed his forehead. But soon, a moist, warm tongue lapped his skin; Haru was licking him to soothe his pain, no less lovingly than a patient tabby cat smothering her boisterous kitten.

"Why are you in such a hurry to tie the knot with me, anyway?" Rin conjured up the question to dispel the guilt for hurting Haru's feelings.

"You're going to Australia again soon."

Rin sighed. "So, that's what this is about? It's not that soon, anyway. There's still five more months left 'til I leave for Aussie."

"Four months and twenty-six days," Haru corrected.

Rin rolled his eyes. More than he was willing to admit, giddiness bubbled up inside him at the realization that Haru had been counting the days. "Still, the answer's no. I'm barely eighteen."

"I don't mean we have to get married now. I'll wait until you're ready, no matter how many years or centuries it takes."

Rin's chest tightened. Did he deserve such an undying devotion?

He had to clench his fists as he retorted, "You should ask me years later instead of now."

"I want us to be properly engaged so that you'll remember me."

"I went to Aussie before and—" Rin held back in time before he blurted, 'you were always the last thing in my mind before I went to bed and the first thing that swam in my head the moment I woke up,' but decided to say instead, "—I still remembered you when I returned to Japan, didn't I?"

"You can go across the sea with a peace of mind knowing that water is your only love rival, but how will I know that some foreign swimmers won't chase after you?"

Rin replied defensively, "I don't see why I can't turn them down like I always have."

"No living creature is impervious to age, hormones, and physical need."

"And you're saying that a band of metal around my finger is going to prevent all those?" Rin mocked.

"There's a lot more to a betrothal with mizuchi than a ceremony and ring exchange, Rin."

Rin squinted suspiciously. "I knew it—there's something you aren't telling me. Spit it out."

"I dreamed that you died shortly before your five hundredth birthday. If you—" Haru heaved a sigh and looked away, unable to continue.

"What's that?" Rin laughed out loud. "Are you saying you got a mumbo-jumbo prophecy about me dying?"

Haru's serious gaze did not falter as he replied, "Augural dreams aren't within mizuchi's power. Still, that nightmare reminds me of the difference in our lifespans."

Rin was taken aback. Did Haru earnestly think so far ahead to their future?

He remained speechless even as Haru continued, "When a mortal is betrothed to a deity, that creature's lifespan will extend to correspond to his or her spouse's."

Rin's breath hitched. He knew he should not be so hasty in making a big decision like this, but how could his mouth articulate otherwise, when his heart screamed how much he wanted to spend the rest of his lifetime with the entity in his arms?

Haru spoke again, "Now that you've become a part of my life, I don't think I could spend eternity without you."

Although Rin planned to spout another "no"—just for the hell of it—the longing in Haru's eyes guided his head to nod on its own accord.

'It's no use. Deep down, even the most insolent part of me knows that I love Haru too much to let him go.'

At once, joy lit up Haru's eyes. No word of relief left his mouth; he did not seem to trust himself to do anything more complex than to slither his serpentine body around Rin's waist affectionately and rest his head on Rin's shoulder, his scales soothingly cool against Rin's own.

'Good job, self. Now you can no longer appear in public without kahakufolk looking funnily at you—the prince who becomes a god's fag,' Rin berated himself. Even so, deep inside, he knew that his life would be an empty shell without Haru.

Rin inclined his head to inhale the scent of Haru's mane. He had originally wanted to propose to Haru perhaps five or six years from now, in a pool he intended to build in the courtyard of their house, where the pink petals from the surrounding sakura trees were scattered across the water—something that he initiated after much thought and effort, rather than having it happen by chance or on a whim. It was strange Haru's proposal still filled him with inexplicable elation even though it had totally ruined his plan.

"And Rin…"

"Hnn?"

"I'm thinking of asking Makoto and Sousuke to be our best men."

Rin sat upright. "Are you out of your fucking mind? Don't you realize how they feel about us?!"

"That's exactly why."

"Hey, you aren't trying to play matchmaker for them, are you? Licking each other's wounds isn't something Sousuke would do."

Haru shook his head. "I don't want our engagement to ruin our friendship with them. I'd rather let them see it as is than sneak behind their back."

"Oh, yeah? You think they'd appreciate the torture of attending our betrothal ceremony? Shouldn't we do something to distract them from their broken hearts first?"

Haru remained pensive for a while, but then he declared, "I have an idea about the solution for Makoto."

"Which is?" Rin gasped with a pronounced interest.

"Makoto recently found his life's calling in teaching, after coaching at the children's swimming club. He's become especially attached to the younger brother of Shigino Kisumi, and has been spending more time with Kisumi because of that. Makoto … he always seems happy and at peace when Kisumi is around. They are so naturally comfortable with each other that I believe they may be good together. I'll encourage them."

Rin quirked an eyebrow. "Hmm, that name rings the bell."

"You and Sousuke were supposedly to go to the same elementary school with Shigino Kisumi."

"Oh." While the humans involved in a kahaku's memory modification spell would by default remember his existence among their midst, the same could not be said for the spell caster. But since Haru was a divine creature clad with more powerful spells than kahaku could ever possess, he had no trouble seeing through the veil of deception and should have realized instantly that Rin had taken all those troubles just to be with him. Still, he said nothing about it, and this made Rin burn up with chagrin.

Then it came across Rin's mind that Haru might transgress the law of nature if he were to use his godly power for a mortal's sake. "Hey, wait a minute; are you gonna snap your fingers and the next thing happens, this Kisumi guy falls in love with Makoto—is that what you're saying?"

"Rin, you can be daft sometimes," Haru stated in his usual monotone.

Rin's mouth hitched up on one side, but Haru continued, "Even without my interference, Kisumi has had his eyes on Makoto for years. During middle school, Kisumi actually poked his tongue at me behind Makoto's back whenever he managed to monopolize him. You see how much it meant to him when Makoto prioritized him over me?"

Given the hinted irritation in Haru's tone, Rin could envisage how vexing it must have been for Haru to have his best—and possibly, only—friend snatched away from him repeatedly. That aside, it made sense that interactions with Nagisa and Rei would almost certainly bring Haru to Makoto's mind whereas Kisumi offered more of a clean slate. "But why didn't he call dibs on Makoto if he's been mad about him for so long then?"

"Kisumi's perceptive. He could probably tell that Makoto had feelings for me, even back in middle school, and might have feared that Makoto would reject a confession from him. Considering that Iwatobi High has an upper hand reputation for basketball and is closer to his house than his current school, I think it likely that he chose to attend that school because of his conflict."

"Hmm… Okay, but Makoto is a human, so he's bound to forget his confession to you and whatever else happening down here, right?" Rin returned to his reclining position and propped himself on an elbow.

"He'll have his memory modified to remember a betrothal ceremony on land in a room full of humans. Photos of him with us and our parents in humans' guise will also be good evidence. Same for Nagisa and Rei."

Rin's brows furrowed in realization of a prospective disownment. "Parents … what if any of our families disapprove?"

Haru gazed at him with unwavering blue eyes. "I told you that you were the only one I refused to let go. War against kings and deities won't deter me."

Rin blinked. If Haru was prepared to choose Rin over his own family and divine privilege, and was even prepared to fight against every creature that stood in their way… That familiar sting, the damned sensation of onrushing tears came to him. He gritted his teeth. He was not going to cry because of a goddamn proposal! He looked away; he doubted he could withstand Haru's intense gaze without breaking into a sob.

Haru's serpentine body entwined him in a hug nevertheless.

二十三

23

They had a little time to stroll in the garden before breakfast. Both had changed back to their human forms since they would be having the repast together with their human friends. Rin caught sight of Gou promenading under the canopy of a pergola, where the leaf-arrased pathway sheltered walkers with its shadows of privacy. The foliage was figured with little blossoms of azure and lilac and yellow, like an ornate broidery. But to Rin, there was no sight more exuberant than the absence of desolation from his sister's face. To his surprise, she had also assumed her human form.

After biding Haru to go to the dining hall first, Rin approached Gou. He fondly ruffled her hair. "Good to see that the morning's treating you well so far. Ready for a trip back to the humans? Or is the garden just too pretty to leave?"

Gou smiled faintly. "To tell you the truth, I was unsure about going to the human world again. I thought I fell in love, but when that feeling turned out to be gratitude, it…" she sighed before continuing, "… a part of me didn't want to accept that everyone else was right, that romance hasn't actually come to me yet."

She stretched her arms overhead. "Anyway, that was yesterday. I'm … better now. Things make more sense, and I'm thinking more clearly, at least. So, I'm going to follow through what I started and I won't waste Jun ani-ue's efforts to get me into the human world. There's still a year left until my eighteenth birthday, so I may as well grab a high school diploma before returning here. And maybe even find a new love."

"Gou!"

"Come off it, not all humans are bad."

"But their lifespan is shorter than ours. Aren't you going to be sad when your husband dies at the age of eighty and you still have to go on 'til you're six hundred years old?"

"I'll worry about that when the time comes."

Not wanting to argue for a possibility that might not occur, Rin dropped the subject and asked instead, "So, was it a good night's sleep that did the trick of soothing you?"

"I guess the sleep is part of it, though mostly it's thanks to Sousuke-kun. He encouraged me even though his situation is worse than mine."

Rin had heard that seeing someone else in a sorrier state than one's self could bring a psychological catharsis, but right now his eyes squinted in suspicion; Sousuke's unrequited love and Gou's preferences for beefcakes did match. "Don't tell me you and Sousuke are an item now?"

"Why would I go out with a guy who sees a glimpse of my brother in me—that is to say, if he chose me?"

"Gou, you knew it all along?! Was it always that obvious that Sousuke had feelings for me?" Rin asked, anxiety dripping from his voice.

Grinning, Gou winked at him. "Sousuke-kun is nowhere near transparent as a certain someone's ogles, but the liquor did the talking."

"You drugged him? And what do you mean about the ogling part? I—" Rin had to restrain himself from confessing, '—password-protect all of Haru's photos in my electronic devices.'

"How rude! I merely met him in the garden, all wasted from god-knows how many jugs he had emptied at the banquet." Gou poked her tongue, and then she giggled. "But I didn't mean you about that ogling part. After the relay at the nationals, when you talked to the other Samezuka swimmers, Haruka-sempai kept staring at your team, intensely eyeing a single subject. There's only one thing in the entire universe that he gives that look—the look as if he were in the water when he isn't. And that thing is currently talking to me."

Rin's mouth opened and closed, but no words came out as his cheeks blazed a furious scarlet. It took several heavy breathing before he could retort, "T-that look can just mean friendship or rivalry!"

"Yeah, right." Gou took a sarcastic turn while retaining a pleasant smile. "There wasn't any covetous intention at all when he stared at you like a thirsty desert traveler at the sight of an oasis. Nothing non-platonic whatsoever. It's not like he looked at you as though you were the only one he had and would ever desire to touch."

Rin's blush crept all over his face up to the tips of his ears.

The route to the dining table was a torturous one, with all palatial retinues giving him awkward glances and then quickly averting their eyes from him, as though they might be unable to restrain their sniggering otherwise.

'Dammit, Haru! Why did you have to leave your scent on me?'

Unlike the great hall, which was constructed with a mind for large events, the modestly-sized dining hall was reserved for the private use of the royal family and their guests. The oval dining table was permanently set up beneath a grand chandelier in the middle of the room with elegantly arching back chairs arranged around it. Normally, dish after dish would be brought by the servants under the supervision of the royal chamberlain.

However, today, before Rin could acquire himself the pleasures of the table, his mother singled him out from his companions. She told him curtly, "A word, my son."

'Here it comes,' Rin mentally prepared himself as he followed his mother outside the dining hall with fear emanating from him like heat from a bonfire. What if she was about to lecture him about his lack of masculine pride, the disgrace of submitting himself to another male species, or worse, the importance of begetting progeny to maintain the family line and so forth?

Queen Kei led her son to a long corridor named the Gallery of Kings. It was upon the walls of this corridor that the framed paintings of the previous monarchs and their families were hung chronologically.

"Mizuchi-sama requested an audience with us after breakfast. Is this going to be the wedding bells I hear?" Her expression looked as stern as when she was about to lambast his five-year-old self subsequent to his pranks upon the elders in the council.

Rin nodded. His throat felt dry.

"I suspected this might be the case as soon as I caught the scent of his pheromone and yours last night." His mother turned sharply to him, eyes full of opposition. "This would be an issue graver than all other events in your life thus far."

Rin swallowed. He could not bring himself to articulate any word.

"Won't you regret it when he takes concubines in the future?" his mother began interrogating him without even bothering to neutralize her distrustful tone.

"Haha-ue, it's not like we can't get divorced if a rift grows between us. Why would he want doxies anyway?"

"O son of mine, surely you are not unaware that two male species cannot produce a progeny?"

Rin blinked. "But Haru isn't into kids. I mean, he doesn't hate Ran and Ren—my human friend's younger siblings, that is—but he's never made an effort to hang around with random children. If he wanted babies so bad, he could have fooled around with some girls ages ago, but no, he stayed a virgin until … well, last night." Rin cleared his throat.

His mother, however, paid no mind to his discomfiture, seemingly deep in thought instead.

"How can you be so certain?" she asked him after a period of pensive silence. "While you have never been entangled in any romance, as avid a swimmer as you are, the innocence of a seven-hundred-year-old entity is less indisputable."

"It's obvious if when you see Haru in daily life. He's indifferent toward … well, almost everything really. Except for water and mackerel, that is. He's not interested in interacting with people, prefers to watch. It's like he lacks initiative for everything. He didn't even care about his swimming speed until I … um, motivated him."

"I should wish to hear that this motivation does not revolve around indecency," she retorted acerbically.

"Gosh, no! I swear nothing happened between us before last night! We just held hands once—that's all! Ugh, forget it! This is stupid!"

"I fail to understand the sudden transition from the Platonism to such bold moves." There was no insistence in the slightest in the queen's tone, only irony, but the sharpness of her tone hinted that she meant business.

Rin gazed at the picture before him. It was the portrait of his great grandfather, one who had perished decades before Rin was born, through a purification ritual. 'Is she harping on the offspring issue now because she's worried Jun ani-ue may not survive and needs a male successor to carry out the family name?'

"Haru has his reasons," Rin tried to give his answer an air of finality.

As expected, his mother would have none of it. Not without further explanation. She urged, "Such as?"

Rin sighed. "He was insecure that I might get suitors in future. Sure, I went down under before, but that was before Sousuke came to Samezuka. I think Haru got jealous about Sousuke, especially after he saw how far Sousuke was willing to go for me in the Ryuujin's temple yesterday. Not that he actually said it aloud, of course, but … having known him for so long, I could tell."

His mother was silent for a moment, lips pinched with something that was perhaps displeasure or disbelief, or at least the attempts to hold fast to such inclinations.

"And you? What has made you enamored with Haruka-sama?"

Rin paused for a moment, then let a brilliant smile spread unattended across his face. "Haru showed me something amazing once, years ago. I'd lived my whole life in the water, just breathing and existing, but when I met Haru, it became something more. Because of him, because of swimming, I've come to love the water with everything I am. And him too."

The queen's wine-colored eyes squinted. "How long has that sentiment lasted?"

"Whenever Haru comes into mind, the world turns into a new height of challenge—that's what I used to believe. There were loads of reasons why I wanted to give up my training abroad, but he was the one purpose that kept me going. I've already been used to getting Haru's vision randomly popping out in my day-to-day life, so I didn't think much about it. But um…" Rin scratched the back of his head. "…starting from three weeks ago, one of my human friends made me realize that what I felt for Haru was deeper than that."

"Deeper in what way?" his mother insisted.

Rin groaned, "Ugh, haha-ue, must we go into lengthy details?"

"It is only natural that mothers have the right to obtain answers, especially if their children are traversing a misguided path. You would do well to present a kahaku bride to our family and, in time, healthy grandchildren to your father and me. I have a list of acquaintances and their daughters, each the choicest amongst her peers; why don't you go and put yourself forth as a suitor to one of them?"

A wince was all Rin gave his mother.

"How many parents would accede to male suitors for their sons?" she urged.

Rin could not help but to fidget before managing his reply, "Well, if you must know … I started to get wet dreams about him and even consciously imagined him while I jer—" he changed his wording the moment he noticed his mother's scandalized look, "—relieve myself."

His mother made a moue of displeasure. "But are you certain about marrying him? I shall not deny you the great honor of being the consort of a god, but it grieves me how the populace's censorious eyes will fall upon your same-sex marriage."

"Neither Haru nor I will run away. Let them scorn us all they want." Rin's fists clenched.

The queen's stern expression transmuted into something akin to a wail, and Rin had a second panic, but when she spoke, she rapped out the words that denounced his anticipation, "You left to the human world too early … oh dear, what am I supposed to do with your bridal training?"

Rin's relief about her approval was immediately overshadowed by his chagrin. "Bridal? Why do you assume I'm the one who bottoms?!"

"Are you not?" The queen replied sardonically, "His divine status and his scent on you aside, you have always been possessed of a tearful tendency. Did you not bawl more than Gou and Jun combined?"

A shade of crimson suffused Rin's cheeks. "This and that are separate matters entirely!"

"Be that as it may, it is obligatory for you to learn how to attend to him properly in daily life."

"Haru's accustomed to living by himself. He can cook, clean, do laundry, and maintain a house better than I can."

The queen grew silent.

Just when Rin thought this signified the end of their conversation and he turned back to the dining hall, his mother said, "In that case, you must treasure him in lieu of taking his affection for granted."

Rin conjured up a smile. "I will. Thank you, haha-ue."

Mother and son returned to the dining hall afterwards. Now that his family had already been cognizant of his relationship, Rin took a seat next to Haru.

二十四

24

Sousuke was nowhere to be seen, and when Rin inquired of his whereabouts, a serving maid told him that she had seen Sousuke going ahead to the human world. It was painfully clear that things could never be the same again between him and Sousuke, but could their friendship ever be mended?

"Eh?! Why didn't Sou-chan wait for us?" Nagisa protested over a mouthful of koimelon.

Rei dabbed the corner of his mouth with a napkin before replying, "Maybe he's in a hurry or has some urgent business to take care of." Then he asked Rin, "So, what time are we going to get back to our world?"

Rin stabbed a slice of prawnberry with his fork, mind still disgruntled over his best friend's misery—first love was said to be hard to get past; how long would Sousuke need to move on? "Well, I still have things to discuss with my family, so in two or three hours, I guess?"

"We'll skip school? Cool."

"No," Haru explained, "The water is still draining from the flood. It reached half a meter yesterday and has been reduced to less than ten centimeters this morning, but lots of shops, offices, and schools are still closed because of the water damage."

"Let me guess … you know this from your scale again?" Rin asserted. "Doesn't detaching a scale mean a century cut off your age?"

"Only if the detached scale is affixed somewhere else and doesn't return to my body. I usually do a scale rotation system to learn if certain humans need any help. The temporarily removed scales don't affect my age."

Rei asked, "But with such a severe flood, wouldn't our parents be worried about us, since we didn't go home last night?"

"Rest assured, guys, we'll have your families' memories modified, too. They'll remember receiving your phone call about a sleepover at Haru's because his hilltop house wasn't flooded."

At the end of the morning repast, Makoto bowed to the king and said, "It's been a short time, but we have never received a more impressive hospitality. Thank you so much."

Rin stared at Makoto. The tall human boy did not look distraught in the slightest, as though the weeping figure Rin saw in the garden last night had never existed. But Rin knew that when it came to Makoto, concealing anger or sadness behind a benign smile was a habit. Stones of guilt settled within Rin's gut. If he had never waltzed into Haru's life, wouldn't Haru have bestowed his affection on a more grateful, more benevolent recipient?

After today, another false memory would imbed itself in the three humans' brains:

At one point during their stay at Haru's house, they were watching a DVD together. Haru brought two bowls of freshly microwaved popcorn from the kitchen and then set the big bowl on the coffee table for his friends to share, the buttery scent wafting into the air. He carried the small bowl with him as he sat on Rin's lap, straddling the redhead while feeding him the popcorn mouth-to-mouth. Although a blushing Rin complained about Haru's head blocking the screen, he kept demanding for more popcorn anyway. Rei mumbled something about never guessing that Haruka-sempai would be so bold, while Nagisa cheered them on. Only Makoto gave them a melancholic smile before excusing himself to the toilet. Upon returning to the living room, Makoto's eyes were red and puffy.

This—Haru assured Rin—would be the most practical way to spare Haru the necessity of rejecting Makoto a second time.

###

Having restored their true forms out of respect for the kahaku king and queen, Haru and Rin followed the latter's parents to the state room spread with a carpet embellished in the pastel-colored appliqué of primrose and ivory. The four of them sat upon a sumptuous suite of ornate furniture beneath the heraldic ceiling comprising the Matsuoka family tree. The open door revealed an enfilade of rooms culminating with a library.

The king's astute eyes peered at them and his prominent jaw was set. The last time Rin saw his father wearing such a stern expression upon his countenance, the little prince was in a big trouble.

Although Rin was familiar with Haru's taciturnity, it still turned his stomach when he heard Haru's discourse with his parents. Not only was Haru as direct as could be in conveying his course, but he also adopted the mechanical voice used in GPS navigation recordings. "Your Majesties, please give me Rin's hand in marriage."

'Geez, Haru! I get it that you're nervous, but can't you elaborate a bit?'

King Toraichi did not as much as elevate a brow upon the ungainly absence of Haru's pleasantries and merely replied, "Mizuchi-sama, as a god, you can claim any consort of your choosing with terrifying ease. Nonetheless, propriety, which has lasted for generations by the grace and will of the gods, must not fall. Grateful though we are for your consideration, we desire to know to what end you intend to forge a matrimonial bond with our second son."

It appeared that divine status did not supercharge Haru's communication skills—or lack thereof—in the slightest. He had always been awkward with strangers and with no Makoto to back him up now, he seemed almost as lost as the day he had stopped in the middle of the swimming lane during the regional tournament, having been pressurized by the talent scouts and school teachers.

Haru wavered before the king and queen, obviously struggling for words that would not come, but neither offered the respite of a more lenient question. They were determined that anyone who wooed their darling child—deity or not—would answer for it. Seeking for any sort of help, Haru glanced anxiously at Rin, who could only gaze right back at him with equal worry. Thankfully, Haru regained himself after a moment, and he turned back to Rin's parents determinedly.

"I entertain no malevolent thoughts about Rin," Haru intoned, his timbre remaining neutral even as an aura of godly assuredness suffused his form. As if to complement his renewed mind set, the ambience changed, grew within the throne room. Water shimmered and gurgled, flocking around the river deity to adorn his serpentine body. Unprecedentedly, he appeared more prominent, and his scales glistened with the triumphant iridescence of opals in jubilant light.

Ever so slightly, the kahaku royal couple shuddered. A consternating silence spread over them, and during the ephemeral oppressiveness, their eyes were sending sharp messages. The river god's implication was clear: 'Hindering my advances towards Rin is tantamount to earning my wrath.'

A glimmer of hope sparked within Rin's heart. Elopement and disownment might not prove necessary, given that his mother's prioritized Haru's divine status over his gender or anything else. King and queen though his parents might be, they remained the creatures who feared gods. Divine power could, for instance, rack them with cramps, fill their bones with ache, and make them yelp so as to make their kin and kith tremble at their din. A more extreme case of retribution, such as the obliteration of the entire kingdom, was also still within a god's capability, should he feel so inclined.

The cups containing algae tea on the low table rattled. The table itself trembled. Every piece of furniture within sight quavered, and the chandelier above swayed precariously. The sofas where the four of them were seated undulated, as though a gigantic snake had been slithering its way underground. A seism shook the state room.

"Tsunami!" Queen Kei shrilly exclaimed, rising from her seat.

The other three rose, too, as the quake grew in severity, potent enough to send a cabriole-legged commode tumbling down. As the tumult swept, turbulent whirlpools spun about the room, knocking the stools and thrashing the drawers of the surrounding bureau, while agitated bubbles frothed against the walls.

Rin grabbed Haru by the shoulders. "You don't need to go that far! Stop!"

"I didn't do anything," Haru denied. Then his pupils dilated in horror, and before Rin could react, the dragon deity had rushed forward to knock the kahaku prince to the side.

Rin landed ungracefully with a thunk. As soon as he had the chance to look, his vision of Haru was obscured by a thick cloud of sediments. A booming sound announced the crash of a heavy object.

"Haru!" Rin hurried to his feet.

"I'm fine, Rin." No sooner had Haru confirmed his safety than the cloud dispersed through the turbulent water to reveal that the gilded grandfather clock had collapsed barely an inch away from the tip of his tail.

Breath still bursting in loud puffs of surprise and relief, Rin approached Haru. His gaze darted from the fallen clock to his savior. "But if it wasn't you, who created the tsunami?"

"I did." A familiar voice rang from behind the door. Despite the frailty with which old age had impelled it, the voice was laced with charisma. At its sound, the tremor ceased and all objects in the room repossessed their former placidity.

The door flung open to reveal Rin's grandmother standing beneath the lintel. "Nonetheless, I must admit that evoking a true tsunami has never been in my capacity; even waggling this room alone has proven to be toilsome for my withering self."

Rin's parents turned sharply toward the wizened queen dowager, scandalized looks stamped upon their features. Rin's jaw fell open. Never before had his mild-mannered grandmother unleashed her power without a reason.

Rin opened his mouth to ask why, but his paternal grandmother spoke first, "Haruka-sama, it would have been a simple matter for you to prevent the clock from injuring anyone with your divine power. Instead, you shielded my grandson with your body. Why?"

"It happened all of a sudden … I had no time to think," Haru answered.

The aged kahaku continued, "Yet, your instinctual response was to protect Rin rather than yourself."

At this remark, King Toraichi exchanged another glance with his wife. Queen Kei clasped her husband's hand and nodded.

Queen Dowager Kyou urged further, the tune of her senesced voice ebbing into mellowness, "It is said that love makes people behave irrationally. Are you claiming that this is the true reflection of your sentiment for Rin? Do you love him with your life?"

The blue of Haru's eyes flickered with enthusiasm at the sound of Rin's name. The mizuchi nodded.

Rin's breath stuck in his throat. 'How can he admit that openly without getting flustered at all?!' His webbed hand reached for Haru's paw and entwined their fingers.

"I am relieved that Rin will be in good hands." Queen Dowager Kyou's lips curled into an exuberant smile. The smile, however, did not reach her eyes, which glinted with a dagger-like sharpness of the unspoken declaration: 'No impunity you will find, god or not, should you dare to wrong my bloodline.'

Rin swallowed hard. The adage "even rivers that seem to flow quietly have whirlpools within" had just proven itself to be true. 'If this is how grandma treats my suitor, I feel sorry for cousin Nao's future suitor—she's her most favorite grandchild, after all.'

Repressing a sigh, King Toraichi uttered with a tight smile, "In that respect, we shall entrust our son in your care, mizuchi-sama."

"Thank you, Your Majesties. I shall return with my parents, bearing proper engagement gifts, at a later date."

Henceforward, Rin's parents treated Haru with only the stiff courtesy of the honorably vanquished.

二十五

25

Jun congratulated Rin with a sincere smile when he broke the engagement news.

"You won't ream me out for going steady with another guy?" Rin asked. He feared Jun's high regard for orthodoxy would lend to him an extreme aversion to same-sex relationships, leading the elder prince to deem him some morbific agent.

Instead, Jun ruffled Rin's redwood mane affectionately. "Dearest brother, you tend to be overzealous whenever you talk about Haruka-sama, not to mention that you have hardly opted for other conversational topics since you were ten years old. I have had my suspicions for years. Still, it is gracious of him to seek our parents' blessing when he could adjure your espousal if he so wished."

From the cursory glance Rin gave his father, he caught disappointment in the king's downturned mouth, as though his father had expected his elder brother to admonish him about the shame of his effeminacy. Perhaps Toraichi really had.

Hence, Rin addressed his father, "Chichi-ue, of all the parental love you've given me, permitting me to go to the human world is the one that I appreciate most. Well, in the end, I did more than reclaiming my honor from the defeat…" he paused in embarrassed happiness from the thoughts of his lover, "…but yeah, that's … um … anyway, thank you so much for allowing me to compete with Haru."

"Should I be pleased when that decision has stolen from me a son and will bring shame upon us all?" Toraichi bitterly declaimed.

Rin opened his mouth to protest, but Jun had already preceded him, "Honored father, how can you proclaim this joyous occasion disgraceful? Is it not our kingdom's doctrine to apprise skills honed through operoseness as opposed to innate talents gained from birth? Was it not the very reason that every single position, including kingship, is determined through tests in lieu of heredity? Will this ancestral value be made exception for marriages under your scrutiny? Rather than giving Rin to a female kahaku simply because her sex possesses the natural ability to bear Rin's child—wouldn't it be more prudent to entrust him in the hands of one who cherishes him more than any other creature in existence could? Beyond mere prudency, I feel pride on behalf of my brother, for he is the first of the kahakufolk to become consort to a mizuchi."

The king offered no response beyond a heavy, frustrated shake of his head as he retired to his quarters.

Rin mumbled, "Ani-ue, your support means a lot to me. Thanks."

"It's the least I can do for my dearest brother and for the one to whom I twice owe my life."

Rin's eye widened in horror; what if Haru had unknowingly stripped Jun of his confidence? "You knew about the barrier?"

"Rin, in my fatigue, my ability to sustain a shield charm against the candirus was incapacitated after halfway of the trial's time limit. Yet, an external, benevolent power kept me from harm to the end. The extent of Haruka-sama's devotion for you is perspicuous. You are blessed to have him as a lifelong partner."

###

"Let's go through the plan," Rin exhorted his four friends, who gathered in his room, garbed in their school uniforms, "Haru's gonna use his dimension hopping spell to transport us through water into his bathtub one by one, since it's small and it'd be weird for everyone to be squeezed in there. Remember to get out as soon as possible, 'cuz more will be coming in after you. When you get there, you'll think that you got soaked by the sudden downpour on the way to Haru's house and took a quick bath in turn. Makoto, you first. Rei next, followed by Nagisa. I'll be with you after that and Haru, the spell-caster, will obviously get the last turn."

Rei asked, "What about Gou-san?"

"Gou's old nanny will escort her to our human house and wipe out her memory again—you know, just to prevent her from cheating and accosting Mikoshiba Seijuurou just because she knows that he saved her life in the past. Now, speaking of, there's one thing I need to tell you before I wipe yours."

"We're all ears," Nagisa piped up, noticing Rin bit his lip in hesitation.

Rin took a deep breath. "Makoto, Nagisa, we weren't actually childhood friends. I didn't go to your elementary school and was never a member of Iwatobi Swimming Club. The relay you think we won six years ago doesn't even exist. I'm sorry for deceiving you about this."

"I don't quite follow," Makoto uttered, puzzlement lacing his every syllable.

"I just … I … made you think we were friends," Rin explained. He stole a glance at the riverbed, preparing himself for the betrayed look in Makoto and Nagisa's expressions, before mustering his courage to face them. "Remember my father's spell causing you to get some basic knowledge of the kahaku world, the stolen kanju, and the flood? What I did to you is quite similar. I added myself to your childhood memories."

Makoto and Nagisa's pupils dilated with shock. Even Rei's ears perked up. For one dreadful moment, Rin thought the two humans would explode with anger or bombard him with protests, or even worse, they could refuse to be anywhere near him, and even after their memories were erased, Rin would never be able to face them again.

However, Nagisa just slapped Rin's back, a big grin on his face. "What are you talking about? Rin-chan is Rin-chan. Mm, don't do it again, though," he finished with a pout.

Makoto bit his lip, before smiling gently and shaking his head. "I suppose you had your own reasons for leading us to believe you were our human friend back then. Besides, we've really been friends in high school, right? I treasure those memories, so it's enough."

No resentment laced Makoto's tone, and Rin's chest swelled with gratitude at the knowledge of how this human treated his love rival so unbiasedly.

"And I'm honored to have swimming lessons from a real kahaku," Rei earnestly added.

"You guys…"

"Rin, are you crying?" Haru scudded toward him.

"I'm NOT. Don't ruin the moment, Haru!" Rin barked as he wiped the droplets a-little-saltier than river water that began to accumulate in the corners of his eyes. As Haru tried to comfort him, Rin noticed a flash of pain sear across Makoto's expression in the face of the dragon's endeavor.

"Uh, Makoto…" Rin began, "About Haru, I…" He was unable to continue. The twang of guilt gnawing inside him extinguished his voice.

Makoto rested his hand on Rin's shoulder conciliatorily. "It's all right. I know you'll cherish him just as much he treasures you."

Rin nodded, solemn and grateful and beyond touched by this human's kind understanding. Makoto squeezed Rin's shoulder once more, and then moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his human friends.

Smiles upon the three human boys' lips, they took the last glimpse of the variegated flora and fauna in the underwater utopia before the enchantment that Haru cast closed their eyes.

THE END

OMAKE

Rin laid the gold medal he had won the day before among the other medals and trophies in his display cabinet and closed its glass door to sprint toward his bathroom the moment he heard a splash from his bathtub. The sun had long fallen behind the distant Opera House, and coal-black color suffused the April sky.

It took the tenant less than five seconds to stride from the living room to said bathroom. Although small, the apartment had come fully furnished, located just three stations away from the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, within walking distance to basic amenities, and—most importantly—soundproof. Privacy was Rin's main objective when he had purposely rented this apartment rather than staying at Russell and Lori's house again despite their kind offer the instant they had heard of his return to Australia three years prior.

"You're late!" Rin barked as soon as Haru surfaced in his bathtub, unable to suppress the growing irritation of how much he had longed for Friday evenings for Haru's weekly visit via dimension travel and the thought of how deep the hole would burrow into Rin's lonesome heart with Haru's departure every Monday morning—a yawning emptiness in his life that only Haru could fill.

Haru wiggled to shake off some water from his head. The droplets flying around the midnight-colored hair did their magic of enhancing Haru's looks, and by the time Haru opened his mouth to mumble his excuse of "My essay took longer than expected," Rin's vexation had already evaporated.

Upon noticing his own reflection ogling Haru with slightly parted lips in those damnably entrancing blue eyes, the best Rin could do to cover his turn-on was approaching the towel rail and handed the visitor a fluffy white towel. "Hurry up. I'm hungry."

"Here's the takoyaki you asked for."

A swim bag-sized bubble floated next to Haru's left arm. It was foggy from the steam of freshly-cooked battered octopus balls arranged neatly in a Styrofoam box. But in all honesty, the wafting aroma from the high-cholesterol sea food could not hold a candle to the appetizingly sculpted abs of Haru's dripping wet torso. Not to mention that those transparent beads of water cascading down Haru's deltoid muscles were inviting Rin to lick them…

Rin by no means wanted to gawk at the man before him. Alas, like the drops of sea water upon parched throat, the more he drank in Haru's beauty, the thirstier he became.

Rin tried to distract himself, but his gaze ended up on Haru's hand instead. Invisible to humans' eyes, the band of enchanted orihalcon wrapping his ring finger gleamed under the bathroom's fluorescent light. Three years had elapsed since their festive engagement ball, so enlivened by hundreds of aquatic entertainers and thousands of freshwater dishes that not even the hints of disappointed resignation wafting from Rin's parents—and maybe from another ten thousand guests—had dampened his high spirits.

Since Rin still did not take the snack even after his fiancé stepped out of the bathtub, Haru asked, "Are you hungry for food or me?" With that, he slid his purple-dashed black jammers down his ankles, revealing a pair of delicious pin bones, taut thigh muscles, and an eager shaft between his groins.

For three long years, Rin had hungered to let his fingers roam over the taut terrain of Haru's stomach, never getting enough whenever he touched them, and tonight he was hungrier still. Yet, it was not until Rin had crushed Haru's lips in a possessive kiss that he replied, "Need you ask?"

OWARI

I was tempted to liberate Makoto, Sousuke, and Gou from broken-hearted misery, but then the plot felt too unrealistic if everyone were to have their happy endings at the same time. For this reason, they'll find their true loves in my future fics. Stay tuned.