"…are you crazy?! Do you even realize how valuable this is to the scientific community? It would change the field of marine biology forever!"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, once he's back in good health, he's going back where he came from. It's against my ethics to do research on highly intelligent creatures, why do you think I don't study dolphins or whales?"

"Well then, give him to me and I'd be happy to study him! I will conduct a study with his best interests in mind, trust me I won't hurt him, and I'll give you equal credit…no scientist has ever had the opportunity to even see one of these things dead, let alone alive! We can get the Nobel prize for this!"

"I've made my decision, Takiguchi-san. And as my friend and colleague, first and foremost, I trust that you won't do anything behind my back…"

Mao woke up to the exchange of some kind of foreign language he had never heard before. His mind was still a bit fuzzy, but his memory started coming back to him soon enough, and he shot up in a sitting position to find that he was only half-submerged in clear water, in a weird container of some sort. He quickly scanned his surroundings and fear began spreading through his nerves, making him panic.

Where am I? he thought in dreadful silence.

Mao then looked at his tail and found that it was wrapped in a strange cloth, as if someone had bandaged it for him. Paranoid, he quickly took it off and threw it away from him, and it landed in a puddle of water inside of a strangely-shaped white vessel.

Soon, somewhere nearby, Mao could hear the strange voices again and it caused his adrenaline to rush as he thrashed around in the water.

"Watanabe-san, do you hear something?" Takiguchi inquired, referring to the splashes of water he could hear coming from the bathroom.

"Now that you mention it, I do. I thought I was imagining things," Watanabe replied, "Maybe…"

The two scientists exchanged a knowing glance and quickly headed towards the bathroom where Watanabe had been keeping the merman in the bathtub. When they finally got there, they saw the frightened creature sitting upright and backed into the corner, looking at them with wide, panicked eyes.

The scientists looked at each other again, none of them knowing what to do. Neither one of them ever dealt with a creature so exotic before.

Since the merman looked far more frightened than they were, Watanabe decided to approach him. He stepped forward slowly, trying to soothe the creature with gentle words when the latter began thrashing its tail around in a frenzy.

"Shh, calm down I'm not going to hurt you…" the scientist said kindly as he continued his gradual approach.

The merman's heartbeat started racing faster with every step the man took, and he eventually froze in his position when he did not know what else to do.

Watanabe crouched down in front of the bathtub and offered a nice smile, "Hello there," he began carefully, "My name is Watanabe Daisuke. I found you on the beach last night and I wanted to help you. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, okay?"

"I don't think he understands you, Watanabe-san…" Takiguchi said, seeing the worried expression on the merman's face. "It might be impossible to communicate with him."

"I don't think so," Watanabe replied as he kept his gaze fixed on the creature before him. "Kindness is universal, as long as he gets the impression that nobody's going to hurt him, I think we can figure something out."

Watanabe put his hand out toward the merman, hoping that the latter would take the opportunity to touch him and see that he was harmless.

Mao looked at the hand that was extended to him, but he remained motionless save for his heaving chest. Watanabe remained patient, however, determined to build trust with the creature.

Eventually, Mao did calm down a little bit, and since the man didn't seem threatening, he slowly reached a hand out to touch his fingers. Watanabe was pleased. "See, I told you I won't hurt you," he offered with a smile.

Mao realized that the man's hand looked awfully similar to his own. He touched each finger, and stroked his palm, and even put his own hand against the stranger's, noting the warmth that emanated from it. The merman was now much more at ease.

Watanabe noticed that the bandage he put around Mao's injury had been removed, and it didn't take long to realize that the merman had thrown it into the toilet.

"Can I see your tail?" the scientist asked, wanting to check on the lesion. Mao just kept staring at him, obviously not understanding a word that was coming out of his mouth. The problem now was to get Mao to trust him enough to handle his tail, a very sensitive part of his body. He eased his hands in the water, causing the merman to grow a bit nervous, but Watanabe kept speaking to him gently to assure him that he meant no harm. When he finally touched the tail, Mao twitched, but still allowed the stranger to handle it. "It looks like his injury healed up pretty quickly. Makes sense. Under water there're predators that hunt the scent of blood, so merpeople probably developed a rapid immune response as an adaptation."

"Do you see why it's so important to study something like this," Takiguchi said, "the implications this could have in medicine could be astounding.

Watanabe got up and faced his colleague, "Let's take him outside and let him free, he's fully healed and there's nothing more we can do for him here."

Takiguchi rubbed his temples nervously, "Did you not hear what I was just telling you? We have an opportunity to make great strides in science with this finding, and you just want to let it slip between our fingers?"

Watanabe turned back and saw that the merman was getting intimidated by their argument, "Let's take this outside, we're bothering him."

The scientists went outside and shut the door to the bathroom, making their way to Watanabe's office to talk.

"Watanabe-san, I won't just stand around and allow you to—"

"Takiguchi," Watanabe interrupted, "I said. We're letting him free. And that's final," he proclaimed, leaving no room for argument.

Takiguchi sighed, "Fine. How about this. Let's keep him around for a little while longer so we can observe his behavior for our own personal interests. No experiments. Just an observational study for the sake of satisfying our own curiosities. You can't tell me you aren't interested in learning more about him, you are a marine biologist after all and that's what you live for."

Watanabe looked thoughtful for a moment. It wouldn't hurt to keep the merman around for a little while longer. Takiguchi was right, he definitely was interested in learning more about him, even if just for his own sake. "Alright, I agree—but nobody can know about this! I'll keep him here at my house and we'll keep it a secret. If word gets out, he won't be safe from anyone."

"Deal," the other scientist agreed. "Since you'll be keeping him at your place, would it be alright if I came over every morning to watch him for a few hours?"

"Sure. But if he starts getting distressed, we'll need to give him his space."

"That's not a problem. It's settled, then. I'm going to head over to my lab now, I have some work to do."

"Alright, thanks for coming over today," Watanabe said, patting his colleague on the shoulder, "And to think you thought I was crazy when I first told you," he laughed.

Takiguchi chuckled, "I'm going to be honest, I didn't believe you when you told me you found a merman on the shore, I thought you were just pulling my leg."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't joking this time around. Anyways, it's just between you and me, right?"

"Right. I'll see you around."

After his colleague left, Watanabe remembered that if he was going to keep the merman around for a while, he was going to need to feed him. "He's probably hungry right now. I wonder what merpeople eat…fish?" He went to his refrigerator and found some sashimi. "This should do, it is raw fish after all…" When the scientist went in to give the merman food, he found him in the same place he left him in, looking sad and solemn.

He must miss his home, Watanabe thought with a pang of remorse.

Pushing back the guilt, the scientist cleared his throat to get the merman's attention. "Uh, I brought you something to eat. I figured you were hungry…" he said, stepping over to the bathtub. Mao had no idea what the man was saying, however, so he just stared at him. "I uh, got you some fish…you like fish, right?"

Mao blinked a few times and then looked at what the man was offering him on a platter. Mao cocked his head for a moment, not really understanding what was going on, but upon more careful observation, the merman realized that he was being served what looked like the flesh of fish.

Mao's face scrunched up in disgust and he refused to take the platter, merpeople do not eat fish! They dwell on seaweed and other ocean vegetation.

Watanabe retracted the plate, wondering what had gone wrong. He was under the impression that merpeople ate fish, but he was obviously wrong.

"You don't like it? Okay, I'll try to find you something else…" the scientist exclaimed. He went back to the kitchen and tried figuring out what other things merpeople could eat. He found a package of nori seaweed in his cabinet and hoped that the merman would like it.

"I found this, do you like seaweed?" Watanabe asked when he got back to Mao, holding out a large sheet of Nori.

The merman cocked his head, what is this strange food? he thought, It's so flat and dry in texture.

He hesitantly took the nori sheet and smelled it; it did smell oddly like seaweed, although it also had an aroma that he did not quite recognize. Watanabe watched the merman analyze the food with amusement. He found it especially cute when Mao experimentally touched the tip of his tongue to the seaweed sheet to try it out before realizing he liked it and ate it in a hurry.

"Oh so you like that, huh? I've got plenty more where that came from," Watanabe laughed, handing him another piece of nori.

After Mao finished the entire package, the scientist decided he would try to establish some type of rapport with the merman. He started off by trying to find out his name.

"My name is Watanabe Daisuke," he said while gesturing to himself. "Dai-su-ke. I am Daisuke. What's your name?" he asked, now pointing to Mao.

The merman seemed to understand and pointed to himself saying, "Mao."

"Mao," Daisuke repeated with a smile on his face. "I like it," he said more to himself than to the creature. "Mao…" A beautiful name for a beautiful face.