PROLOGUE : Mermen

The world rocked back and forth, the tiled wasteland far below drawing ever closer with each passing second. She was vaguely interested in the strange place she found herself floating leisurely in—the atmosphere was thick, and pressed on her in every direction, but still her density drew her ever downward. Her hair trailed along behind her, flickering towards the lights that were twisting over her head, far away from her in this murky abyss. It was a foggy blue-grey no matter where she looked, giving the impression that it was endless, and that she was trapped in it despite the direction she may find herself drifting in.

In the distance the sun seemed almost level with her own body, as though she had created her own horizon. It hovered there, hanging in the fog, and she wondered why nothing grew down here.

The thought was almost comforting—thinking that nothing grew here. She didn't want to grow—she didn't want any part of her to grow, not ever again. She almost touched her stomach, but her hand seemed to drift away at the last moment. She was content with how she was. Hell, she could do with a little shrinking, actually.

But she endured it. The weight that everything seemed to give, pressing in on her in every direction, pushing her every which way. There was so much weight around her, she was beginning to feel weightless in comparison. Insignificant.

Her yellow dress billowed around her, and she had almost forgotten she was wearing it. It sometimes clung to her legs, sometimes brushed against them, but mostly it constricted around her chest, digging into her rib-cage, binding her together, an exotic yellow snake wrapped around her. They often fought, and she imagined that the snake often won. It represented something. Or maybe it didn't.

Far away and somewhere above her, she heard the sound of laughter, a door slamming shut, and her lungs began to ache. She wondered how long she had been down here. The laughter—could it be only an echo? She had heard it before, only moments ago, but she had thought it had faded already.

A shadow passed over head, and only for the moment she had left to spare, she knew she should at least feel fear, or terror, or despair or something. Instead, she only felt a drilling numbness as the laughter faded, along with the garbled speech that accompanied it, and was thus cut off by the sound of a splash above her.

She looked up and saw a long, dark creature. It was strangely shaped and approached her with incredible speed. From the upper part of it's middle segment, two long tentacles stretched out in front of it, forming a long triangle ahead of it's fore-segment. It's lower half was even darker than it's upper half. It appeared as a long, thin fin that tapered near the end.

As it got closer, she began to realize that the creature that had dived into the atmosphere was much larger than she was, and as it slowed it split it's tail end into two halves and flipped them separately, propelling it closer to her.

"What a strange creature," she said. Or, at least, tried to say. The thick air filled her lungs and she felt a horrible sensation of wanting, so desperate it was painful. She reached out, trying to realize what had caused this problem, and in the next moment the creature reached her and she realized it's intentions. It wrapped it's long, thin tentacles around her—arms, she realized—and brought it's double fin down to kick off of the bottom of the tiled wasteland—legs, she realized. She was dragged with it, and would she have not been too busy desperately trying to pull herself away from the creature, she might have noticed her feet being pulled away from the ground below her.

The thing only tightened it's grip on her, and she struggled, trying to tear herself away, beating at it with her hands and kicking her legs, but they got caught up in the skirt of her dress.

Then they broke through the surface, and she ripped open her mouth, gasping desperately for air, coughing violently to try and replace all of the water in her lungs with oxygen. The sharp edges of reality cut through the fragile strings that had been holding her together, and if she had enough air she might have cried out in agony, but she could barely breathe as she was. She was dragged to the side of the pool and heaved over the edge, where she rolled onto her side and propped herself up, heaving desperately.

Hisoke tried to ignore the fact that she had practically gone schizophrenic only moments before, and instead focused on remembering how to breathe as the boy that had 'come to her rescue' lifted himself out of the pool. But before she could turn and give herself the joy of seeing the look one might expect to receive after one had to be dragged out of a pool, she managed to notice a blur of baby-blue and white slumped against the silver bleachers. One of the traditional blue blazer that male students at Ouran High School wore had been thrown aside.

She gasped for air and turned to look as the young man ran a hand through his hair. From what she could tell he had both dark hair and dark eyes, and relatively tan skin. He was tall and lanky, his legs sticking out, though not awkwardly. He seemed relatively proportioned.

Though she couldn't really see much without her contacts in, which had floated out in the pool. She slowly made to stand, and the boy's eyes flickered up to watch her. He still hadn't said anything, and while she breathed heavily he seemed to be managing just fine.

Hisoka turned and looked out at the Olympic sized swimming pool, frowning as she noticed her school books floating in the deep end. She sighed, brushed her blond hair out of her face. There was nothing she could do now, she supposed.

She turned to her 'savior,' and opened her mouth, as though she intended on saying something to him. Anything. But nothing came out, and instead she wondered if she had really been that close to drowning, and if it would have been so bad, after all. She imagined he was looking at her as though she were a lunatic. Shouldn't she at least say something? Maybe a 'thank you?' But wasn't it that one was only supposed to say their thanks when they were thankful? Hisoka wasn't so sure that she was.

Instead she turned around and walked away, her left shoe making a squishing noise, and her right foot slapping against the tile with every step. She realized somewhere in the back of her mind that she would have to order a new uniform eventually.

At the door, she turned around one last time, just a short glance over her shoulder to notice that the boy was pulling his white shirt on, his back to her as he buttoned up the front. Only after she had turned and almost completely disappeared behind the door, save for one bare foot, did the boy turn to catch a glimpse of her retreating form.

Hisoka was relieved to find that her driver was still waiting outside of the monumentous school. She had also misplaced her phone in the pool, and didn't have any other way to call for someone to pick her up. She didn't say anything to the driver, either. She simply got in, and waited while he started up the car and began his way out of the crowded city and into the country-side, where most of the wealthy family's that sent their children to Ouran Academy lived. She waited until the car came to a complete stop before swiftly exiting.

She walked into the house, and up the stairs without paying any mind to the fact that her parents may or may not be home yet, and once she reached her bedroom, she didn't even bother to change out of her uniform before throwing herself on top of her bed, burying her face in the pillows, and tried to pretend that going to sleep was that easy.

"How was your day, honey?"

"Fine."

"That's good. I was working on that party we're having in a couple of weeks-what do you think? The dark blue roses, or the violet ones?"

Hisoka pushed her broccoli across her plate, glancing up over her back-up glasses. She would have to order new contacts.

"Violet."

"I don't know... maybe we should just have both. I'll ask your father. Did I ask you how your day was?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I'm glad..."

Whenever her father wasn't home, Hisoka and Chiasa would sit across from each other instead of at opposite ends of the table. Normally Chiasa, her mother, would sit at the foot, her father, Mamoru at the head, and she would sit on the right at the center. That was simply proper etiquette.

"No, the blue ones look best. Don't you think the blue ones look best?"

"Yes."

"Then again, the violet one's have a certain 'spark' that you don't normally see. Maybe we should try something new?"

Chiasa was surrounded by her binders and folders, photographs of the choices she had to make. She hadn't even touched her dinner. She always got this way when she was planning a party. It was what she lived for. She loved events. Everyone knew her as the event lady.

Momaru and Chiasa Mara owned a distinct and esteemed law firm. They had become partners a long time ago, and soon thereafter fell in love and got married. It made sense after all. They were impressive lawyers, and often took care of large cases, sometimes even involving very important global matters. Mara & Mara was a largely sought after company, and had a very high average of cases won. Hisoka didn't remember the exact percentage, but she knew that her parents were very proud of it.

Though, lately, Momaru had taken more control over business transactions, and Chiasa did a lot of the social work. Which meant lots and lots of binders.

"I'm going to bed, ok?"

"Sure, sure, whatever you need."

Hisoka stood and picked a piece of meat off of her plate, walking out the door to leave her mother to plan. She didn't know what the party was for. As she passed the large aquarium outside of the kitchen, where the lobster's were kept, she dropped a piece of meat into the water with a quiet 'plop.' It sank to the bottom slowly, hovering just above the gravel before the lobsters converged on it, their claws ripping through the dead flesh. She stared until they dispersed, searching for more in other corners of the tanks, leaving the shreds to rest on the bottom of the tank uneaten. Then she quietly turned away.