The Cursed but Blessed Man
Fujimoto was such a great character that I had to do this.
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I own nothing
The Cursed but Blessed Man
The moment he grasped that the human population was a bunch of polluters, he became miserable. Ever since he could remember, Fujimoto has been obsessed with the ocean and its inhabitants. As a young lad, he would spend countless of hours watching the many school of fish swim by and the crabs walk along the shore.
The day of his eighth birthday, he had secretly followed his father to the sea and has seen him empty out the trash into his beloved ocean. The poor boy had been devastated. How could his father do such a thing? How could any living organism do something so cruel to another living organism? He swore to himself that if ever he would become a father, he would do everything in his power to set the right example to his children.
Throughout the following years, Fujimoto got involved in ocean protecting programs through his school and his community, but nothing seemed to change despite the efforts put up by the groups. Almost everyday, he found some dead sea creature and it tore at his heart.
Each night, before going to sleep or whenever he had a spare moment, he would gaze at the endless blue that was the ocean wishing that there was some way to stop the pollution that was slowly eating away at it.
It was during one of his many observations that he spotted a very strange but beautiful sea creature. At first, he had thought that it was a mermaid, but the creature was too majestic to be a simple mermaid. He tried to get closer to the water, but by the time he got there, it was gone.
He spent the entire night researching the creature in his many books and finally came to the conclusion that it was probably a sea goddess. Fascinated by the prospect of having seen such a beauty, he promised himself to return the next day to see if he could find her once more.
It took the fifteen year old boy five days, but Fujimoto was finally able to see her again. When he saw her, he tried calling out to her, but she got frightened and swam away. The young Fujimoto tried running to her, but the sea goddess was much faster.
Discouraged, the young man sat on a rock and looked at his saddened expression mirrored in the water. He remained in that position for a long time until he realized that his reflection seemed to be smiling and had suddenly much more feminine traits. Fujimoto jumped back when he realized that he was being observed by the sea goddess. The said goddess got frightened by the sudden brisk movement and ducked under water.
"No, wait! Please, don't go. I won't hurt you, I'm not like those vile fishermen." He shouted after her. It took a few seconds before she poked her head back out, but he was glad she did.
"Hi there, I'm Fujimoto, what's your name?"
"I'm Granmammare. You were at that Protect the Sea Life Rally last week weren't you?" It had always interested the sea goddess to see what the humans came up with to save the ocean. Fujimoto was shocked and impressed that she knew such information and nodded his head.
"It didn't do any good though. The water is still continuously polluted and more species keep on dying every day. It's no use, nothing seems to be working." He paused. "I can't believe they can do such horrible things." He added as a second thought.
"They?" Granmammare was perplexed by who he meant when he had used the word.
"The humans, those monsters!" He spat out.
"But aren't you human?" She asked him quite honestly and innocently.
"I no longer associate myself with such scum." Granmammare saw his expression pass from loathsome anger to deep sadness and felt bad for him. No one deserved to feel this way.
"Would it made you feel any better to know that there are creatures down below who also try to keep the waters clean?" She asked him trying to cheer him up.
"A bit, at least I'm not alone." There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
"I must be off now, my duty awaits for me." She told him quite suddenly as if realizing that she had wasted very precious time.
"Will I ever see you again?" He asked her.
"If you want, I can pass by here at the same time next week." With that promise in mind, Fujimoto left a tad rejoiced.
--
Over the following years, a unique relationship was created between the two. One that neither Fujimoto nor Granmammare wanted to change for anything in the world. The only problem with their happiness was that one of them was a human and the other was as ea goddess. They couldn't be as together as they wanted to.
"Fujimoto, you seem rather down today, what's wrong, darling?" Granmammare inquired one day as she looked at the man sitting on a rock in front of her.
"You know, the usual. I just wish I could join your world and never have to do with the humans ever again." The sea goddess was used to this and put a soothing hand on his. She too wished that he could come and live with her in the underwater world, but she hadn't learned all of those complicated spells yet. That's when an idea struck her. Perhaps she wasn't yet qualified to do so, but her father could.
"How badly do you want to change?" She asked him.
"I've wanted to leave the humans for nearly two decades now. If there's any way to never be associated with them, I'll do whatever it takes." He declared.
"Meet me tomorrow morning at the break of dawn. There might be a way." She gave him a quick peck on the lips before disappearing with the waves. Fujimoto remained there looking at the distant water until he fell asleep.
--
The following morning, Fujimoto woke up early and waited for Granmammare to come. He didn't have long to wait for five minutes later, she appeared with an imposing figure of a man behind her who looked to be her father. He approached him and spoke with a very imposing voice.
"Listen here human, I can change you and you will be able to live amongst the underwater creatures, but there will be some consequences that will come with such a change. Are you ready to accept them?" The man asked Fujimoto who nodded his head in a dignified manner.
"I see that your heart is in the right place, human. For that reason, I shall grant this change, be ready." Fujimoto braced himself and before he even knew it, he found himself standing in the same place, but he suddenly felt… dry.
"I have now changed you." Granmammare's father said snapping Fujimoto out of his thoughts. "You are no longer human, but you aren't a full sea creature either. While you may still be able to breathe above water, your body needs to be constantly in proximity to water and while your body will be at complete ease underwater, you will need an air bubble to breathe. Also, I shall take you on as an apprentice of some sorts and you shall learn how to control the sea life. These are the conditions to the change; do you have anything to say?" Fujimoto looked at the man and smiled. This was already so much more than he would have ever dreamed of.
"Thank you." He simply said.
--
Fujimoto quickly found out that taking care of the underwater world was no small task and that it required a lot of hard work. However, he wouldn't change his new circumstances for anything in the world. He now had a beautiful wife whom he loved dearly and a couple of eggs on the way as well. Even though some might think that he was cursed because of his predicament, in his underwater home he was able to live quite normally with his new family despite their hectic schedule. He wasn't so much of a cursed man, but a blessed one when he thought of it.
Owari
No, I have not perished since last February or March.
Started writing: August 24th 2009 12:15pm
Finished writing: August 24th 2009 1:36pm
Started typing: August 24th 2009
Finished writing: August 24th 2009