The two wanderers traversed the desolate waters, their only company being the gentle lapping of Mero's tail. The bleak, featureless world around them was shrouded in a dull grey mist; occasionally, they could hear distant voices and, even more rarely, catch fleeting glimpses of obscure figures in the distance, like photographs whose clarity faded away as soon as they appeared.

Though doubt gnawed at her heart, Mero kept pushing forward. The little boy on her back whimpered and still quivered, pressing into her and tightly holding his blanket for comfort.

"You like your blanket a lot, don't you?" Mero asked, finally putting an end to the uncomfortable silence. Perhaps if he started talking, his fear would fade or at least weaken.

He nodded emphatically, his fingers loosening their hold on the soft white fabric. "My parents gave this to me when I was born, and I've never been able to sleep without it - even when it's hot out."

Mero said sweetly, a smile spreading across her face. "Is that so? I used to sleep with a doll my godmother gave me all the time. It was a seal, with big, bright eyes and the most soft and fluffy fur!"

Antonio leaned forward even more, letting his legs slide down her sides. His eyes were filled with excitement as he asked, "Really? That's cool! Do you know what a leopard seal is?"

"Mm... I believe they hail from the Antarctic."

The boy paused, adjusting himself more comfortably in his seat as he continued. "Yeah! They live where it's super cold and hunt penguins!" His eyes widened in excitement as he added, "They got huge teeth like this!" He bared his teeth and made snarling noises, gnashing them together. "They're alpha predators! Though maybe not, cuz of killer whales..."

Mero let out a delighted giggle, more amused by his enthusiasm than the information he shared. "You are quite the connoisseur of marine life," she praised.

Antonio proudly puffed out his small chest. "I know so much about animals because my grandma and grandpa have a huge library of zoo books! I'm always reading them and learning something new!"

"Oh, so you want to work at a zoo, then?"

He shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I wanna be a pale-ee-on-tologist!"

She blinked at the sudden, complicated word coming from a child. "What is a... Ah, paleo...?"

"Pale-ee-on-tologist," Antonio finished, beaming. "They study dinosaurs. I have wanted to be one since forever. I even learned how to spell all their names, even the crazy ones like pach-y-ceph-alosaurus and archae-opteryx!"

"Most impressive," Mero said. "I am sure your dreams will come true with such passion in your heart!"

"Thanks, Miss Mero," Antonio chirped happily, wrapping his blanket around him like a cape. "What about you? What would you like to be?"

Mero considered for a moment before smiling coyly.

"Promise you will not tell anyone?"

"Promise!"

Mero slowly pivoted her head to face him, her lavish pink tresses cascading down her slender shoulders. "I am a royal princess, and one day, I shall be the Queen of one of the four merfolk realms," she declared to him with confidence.

"Whooooooa!" Antonio's eyes bulged, and his jaw dropped. "No wonder you're so pretty; you're a princess! I never met a princess before!"

Mero giggled in delight at Antonio's reaction, continuing to swim as she glanced back at him. "You are such a charmer," she said with a smile. "The fortunate lady you decide to court will be very lucky indeed!"

Behind her, he made retching sounds, disgust evident in his voice. "Blech, no, all the girls I know are dumb. I'd much rather play Pokemon or video games and learn more about dinosaurs," he declared.

"As you wish," Mero replied, the corners of his mouth curving up in a slight smile at his emphatic refusal. After a few moments of silence, her thoughts returned to their earlier conversation. "Would you like to know why I dearly treasured my seal doll?"

"Yeah."

Mero began, her eyes gazing wistfully outward as she sighed. "Such a tragic beast, eternally caught between two worlds: that of the land, where it is weak and can't move well, and that of the sea, where its body is perfectly tailored for swimming, yet it must come up for air to breathe."

"Tragic?" Antonio echoed, confused. "But it evolved over millions and millions of years to become what it is now. How can that be considered tragic?"

"It needs both the land and sea to survive, yet finds no place to call home truly," she explained. "Wouldn't you feel lost and lonely without a home to return to? No matter where it goes, it can never find the happiness it seeks."

Antonio went quiet at that. "I guess," he conceded. "But... I dunno, I'm kinda jealous of seals."

"Oh? Why so?"

"I love swimming," he replied with enthusiasm. "It's like flying, and you can do anything you want while beneath the surface. You must have so many amazing experiences while in the water, Miss Mero."

"Well, I am not so sure of that..." Memories returned to her of when she first got into the pool at Sports Club Kobold and how she finally felt free. She even did her best to perform impressive feats before her friends, and the rush she felt through her body when she made eye contact with-

"So I don't believe seals are tragic," Antonio continued, seemingly unaware of the woman. "They are perfectly suited for the ocean environment, and their swimming skills make them awesome. That's all there is to it." He nodded decisively as if to emphasize his point.

Mero frowned in disbelief. "You think they're 'cool' just because of how they were born? That's not impressive - they had no choice in the matter."

"So?" he retorted bluntly. "I didn't choose to be human. You didn't choose to be a mermaid. But that's how we are."

Mero was confused by her defensiveness, as the boy was only a child. She felt the urge to debate him despite her long-standing promise to always be kind and courteous to others. "But you just now told me you were jealous of me and my capabilities, which your body can't replicate," she countered.

"Yeah, it's kinda dumb," Antonio admitted. He was starting to sound older. Familiar. "But there's nothing tragic about that."

Mero shook her head. "I must disagree. Why do you think so?"

He shrugged and sighed. "I don't know. Seeing imperfections as tragic is just a bit too much for me." Antonio yawned, resting his head against her hair as he closed his eyes. "I'm so tired," he murmured.

A spike of anger flared in her chest at the sudden dismissal. What was the point of all that discussion if it just led to nothing? Didn't Aki know that-

Mero blinked. Oh. That was odd. For a moment, she had lost herself. What had made her think of that man? Perhaps it had to be because it was his mind they were lost in. Yes, that had to be it.

That was when the waters abruptly turned emerald. They shimmered around her, pulsing once, then twice. A voice that could have only been Suu's reverberated throughout the mental landscape.

"Found you!"

"S-Suu?" Mero asked a quiver in her voice. She glanced around, but still, she only saw grey fog. "Where are you?"

"I'm here with you," Suu said reassuringly, "It was a long journey, but I'm glad I finally found you and Dad. I appreciate you for taking care of him in my absence."

"Beg pardon? I have yet to see Aki since everyone vanished."

"That's him on your back," Suu pointed out as the waves began to push Mero towards the right. "He... told me he wanted you all to see everything, so I tried to give him what he wanted but ended up losing control. I'm still having trouble, but I think I can get everyone together again."

"This is... Aki?" Mero wondered, looking back at the child murmuring with his eyes closed. This was the man who had been a source of such anxiety and frustration within her in his youth. There was some resemblance, she supposed.

"Yup! Well, he's also Antonio, but you're still right. Anyway, follow the waves, and you'll reach the rest."

Still shaken, Mero couldn't help her next question. "How are they?"

"Lost, like you." Suu's voice was heavy with sorrow and regret. "I messed up."

"You... did your best, Suu." Mero felt her words were weak and didn't reach the one she was trying to comfort. "You couldn't have known."

"Maybe. As you go, you might see some of Dad's memories," Suu carried on, seemingly unaffected by Mero's attempt. "I dunno if he'd want you to see them, but he did say everything..."

At that, the emerald hue of the water faded, returning it to its former clarity. Mero let out a deep sigh and, after ensuring that Antonio - Aki - was still peacefully asleep on her back, she allowed the waves to carry her forward. As the seconds slowly stretched into minutes, Mero found herself alone with her chaotic thoughts.

Aki had been saying strange things before Suu had connected their minds. He said he knew them all before he had even encountered them and before he even arrived in their world. He claimed he had read a story where they all lived together without him. This thought was utterly foreign to her. The Kurusu household without Aki? The man had become an integral part of the family, and it felt like he had been there since the beginning and would always remain.

Even if sometimes Mero wished he wasn't there.

She sighed heavily, gazing back at the sleeping boy. According to Suu, Antonio and Aki were the same person. In a way, it was as if Aki was lying there, peaceful and near her, radiating warmth. The idea filled her with joy, but she quickly pushed it away. He wasn't Aki, just a young child.

And even if he were, she'd have more than a few words to say if she could muster up the courage to do so, at any rate.

As the fog began to dissipate, the dense clouds drifted apart into wisps, unveiling a bed that was floating atop the waves, gently swaying with their currents. Sitting on it was undoubtedly Aki, though he seemed much younger. His face was adorned with a light peach fuzz mustache while his hair, not long and curly like a child's, remained slightly curly.

As Mero drew nearer, she noticed he was hunched over, intently focused on the illuminated flip phone. The bright screen illuminated his expressionless face with a harsh blue light. She wanted to linger, but the river's current pulled her along. Just as she was passing him, she heard him quietly utter something.

"'You don't have a clue, do you?'," he said, reciting the words with confusion. "What does she mean by that?"

She kept swimming, leaving him behind.

Another scene passed, that of a smoking, loud machine that sputtered against a patch of grass. It looked like a lawnmower, something she'd seen humans use to cut the grass around their homes, but this one sounded ill as if it were dying. Aki was there again, running his hands through his hair and gritting his teeth.

"Does it hurt that much to use your head for once!" shouted an older voice in frustration. Mero winced at the heated tone.

The little boy sniffled into her hair as Mero desperately wanted to reach out to Aki. However, his figure soon dashed away, tears streaming down his cheeks and falling into the water as he vanished. Mero could only watch helplessly as Aki disappeared into the distance, and eventually, she continued on her journey, swimming alone.

Another scene appeared, this time far more distinct. Aki was sitting in a cramped office, uneasily shifting in a metal folding chair. Across from him, a middle-aged woman with thin pink lips and overly glossy black hair sat behind a chipped wooden desk. She flipped through some papers, droning on about how, no, they wouldn't be rehiring him to work in the warehouse next summer. Yes, he had put in a lot of effort, even after they had kept switching him between different tasks right after he had been trained for the last one, but cuts had to be made.

But it was the last thing she said that came through with clarity.

The woman, with a trace of Eastern European accent that deepened the vowels, said, "One more thing, just a little criticism to help you. In the morning meetings, when we talk about our days, you know? You don't say much. Your lack of contribution tends to make people think that maybe there isn't much going on up here," she tapped her head, "you know?"

Mero had spent years observing lords and ladies at court, so she had learned much about the nuances of body language and the art of concealing emotions. While she was far from a master of discerning the feelings of those around her, especially in environments foreign to court life, she prided herself on her powers of observation. She had also interacted with Aki on numerous occasions, giving her the ability to determine his feelings - be it joy, sorrow, or rage - even when he chose to remain silent on the matter.

His eyes narrowed into slits, and his lips curved into a tight, toothless smile as he gave a stiff nod. His hands, already intertwined, went rigid and grew pale as they became still as a statue.

This was why, right when the woman finished her last sentence, Mero knew that Aki was furious.

Aki's eyes glazed over as if he were looking through the woman before him. She had become a stranger to him, someone he no longer respected or could relate to.

"You wanna know why that pissed me off so much?"

Mero yelped in surprise, nearly jumping out of the water at the sudden sound of Aki's voice beside her. She spun around to see him standing there, ankle-deep in the water, just as she remembered seeing him the last time. But the little boy had vanished. She placed a webbed hand over her pounding heart, trying to calm it, as Aki continued speaking.

"Because it was true. Or, well, it was something I always feared was true."

"What... what do you mean?" Mero asked. Why wasn't she yelling at him for startling her so?

"For some inexplicable reason, you're getting a firsthand glimpse of my insecurities, so I thought I should be upfront about it rather than just shroud it in mystery or give you vague explanations," Aki explained, running his fingers through his silky black curls. "At times, I feel that I'm thinking at a slower speed than all the people around me. Everyone seems to have the answers, and I'm just standing there. Those moments are what fuel that fear of mine."

"You believe you are simple?" Mero scrunched her brows. "That is ludicrous." After realizing what she said might have been insulting and not polite, she covered her mouth.

"Heh, maybe." He shrugged. "Can't help how you feel, I guess. Oh, and sorry if mini-me was annoying you at all. I don't get how that even happened... but yeah, I was a brat back then."

Aki was trying to move the conversation along. Mero could tell that much.

"You need not worry about that," she said. Frustrated though she was, Mero elected to respect his choice. If he did not wish to dwell on such things, why did he bring them up in the first place? "But if you are yourself now, are we closer to reaching the end of this... oddity we found ourselves in?"

"Yeah, I think so." Aki nodded, inclining his head forward. "The others should be waiting for us just up ahead. Once we find them, I can finally show you guys what I was trying to get at earlier. I didn't mean for things to be so roundabout, but, well, c'est la vie and shit, I guess."

As Mero followed him, she glanced back at the memories they left behind. Of all of Aki's memories she could've witnessed, why was it those? Sources of such negativity and regret for him, yet they seemed inconsequential to her. Did they mean that much to him?

And why was she so bothered that she wasn't included in those regrets?

To be continued...