Yo! I haven't updated in a while, sorry about that, the exam season is beginning to start and yeah, the teachers are making us do more work to help us prepare. Anyways, enjoy!

"That was the most irresponsible thing I have ever seen a mermaid do in the many years I swam this ocean!"

Akko winced at her words, her shoulders hunching together as her eyes scrunch up. She would apologise but she knows better to speak when the old mermaid Finneran is talking. Even then it's hard to control her silence, she wants to defend herself but she knows she shouldn't. As a result, she holds her arm, rubbing it with nervousness as her head focuses on the flicker of her tail.

"Look at me when I'm talking you Akko," Finneran orders and Akko raises her head slightly to look at her and all or the other people in the council. They stay there, sat behind a large semi circle coral reef, fishes swim past them like with ease, oblivious to the anger radiating from one of the council member.

"Do you understand the many rules you broke with that one thing Akko? How you broke the secrecy of our race?"

"It wasn't that bad," she interjected before she managed to control her tongue. Gasped echoed around her and even Holbrooke gave her a pitiful smile. The guilt and panic began to pile themselves inside her lungs when she realised who interrupted. "I mean," she quickly corrects, finding her throat dry with nothing to say despite the many volumes of water that surround her. "She passed out after we-" Akko paused, tints of red colouring her cheeks before she shook it away, now wasn't the time for that. "After we interacted. She won't remember anything, she'll say it's a dream like every other sailor."

"We don't know that Akko, she could telling everyone of our existence and we'll be hunted once more come a few months or so."

"She wouldn't tell anyone!"

"And would you know that? Have you been meeting her before Akko?" Akko looked down, shaking her head as she bit her lips. Of course they never met she's been careful to never meet her, or any other humans. But that doesn't mean she can't observe them from afar. She always sees her on her open ocean travels, often it's just a glimpse of her boat but at one point she saw her and that small moment told her many things about this human.

They were stationed at night, under the tranquil water she saw the wavering form of her silhouette against the moonlight. When she peered her head out using the darkness as her cover she saw her on a small boat, a few strokes away from the main. She was alone but she didn't seem to care.

Her face was a beautiful contradictory, her eyes hung darks bags under them but the irises glowed in the darkness, shining blue gems that mirrored rare sapphires of treasure. Her lips were partly swollen, she noted a small dark sharp line on her bottom where her lip was cut and only began to heal and Akko's stomach churned in slight worry. Yet the woman gave the biggest grin, ignoring the expansion of the cut and even with swollen lips that smile was worth millions of treasures that is buried under the sands. Her cheeks were tainted with day old bruises, the rough colours stand out against her pale skin.

It's only later, when she heard the clicks of vibration hit her scales and the quiet echo of Dolphins above the water she realised why the sailor left the safety of her boat to explore the ocean at night. She can see it clear in the glowing blue pigments in her eyes, the joy seeing such aquatic mammals play near her. Akko remembers the faint laughter as she saw the blues eyes close to protect themselves from the splash of the dolphins probably sent out to find her. She knew there and then, staring at the hidden smirk on her face. That sailor wasn't one to tell a tall story, even if they would believe her.

"Are you even listening to me!?"

Akko blinks, the memory fades from her vision. She was no longer in the memories of the past, under the cool softness of the moonlight seeing a sight only exposed in the darkness of the light. She returned to the present, swimming under the glares of the sun and the old mermaid Finneran. "Eh?"

"Unbelievable." Finneran sighs, flabbergasted as she swims away. "How are you the supposed hero of the reef again?"

The question hurts her more than she lets it. Akko's body's hunch even more, a flinch to her system when the other council members look at her. "Now now Finneran that's just being rude." One of the members said, her eyes cold and stern towards her colleague, "We all know why Akko was chosen and apart from a few mishaps she was successful in doing what she was asked to do."

"You have a very strange definition of the word Mishap, Council Ursula if you label the direct exposure of our race a mishap."

"You have a very strange definition of the word exposure when the sailor was passed out after she saved her life Finneran." Urusla quipped back.

Instantly, Akko watched Finneran speed through the main reef, her tail flicking away a few coral in sheer fury. "You have a lot of things to say for someone who is new to the court reef." She hisses at Ursula , whose usual calm face mirrors the ugly look of anger in front of her.

"Ladies." Holbrooke intercedes, blowing her conch shell to get the attention of the others. "I understand tensions are high with the recent attack on Luna Nova but please don't let it interfere with our judgment. " Holbrooke gives them both a look, Finneran glances another glare at Ursula before she swims back to her seat on the opposite side of the room.

"Now with that settled, let's return to the real matter at hand." Holbrooke clears her throat as her eyes fixate to the centre of the room. There Akko gulps, a shiver rolling up and down her scales as she holds her hands together behind her back. "Akko, you are aware of the actions you did, while admirable are dangerous to our race." Akko nods, eyes flickering to the burning stare of Finneran to her side than the rest easy look on her mentor Ursula.

"Then you are aware of the consequences that go with them yes?"

Akko nods again, an uneasy smile on her face as her soul is being torn apart under Holbrooke's neutral stare. Fear engulfs any sense of logic inside her, any happy thoughts as the stare disappears entirely, her decision made.

Akko gulps down any hope that they won't do the proper punishment if someone breaks the secrecy act as Holbrookes whispers it around the semi circle reef, each person nodding in approval. The worst punishment is having the first layer of scales be plucked out, one by one until it forms a crown of agony for your head. Of course it'll be from the lower end of the tail as it'll be less harmful but it would still hurt a lot.

"Does the reef agree with the terms?" Holbrooke asks, eyes glancing around her.

"The reef agrees." They all said in union, even Finneran and Ursula.

"Akko," Holbrooke calls again. Akko tries not to make her fear be visible in her eyes but she knows that the fear was written all over her face when Holbrooke's face softens. "It won't be the thorning of the crown." The dreaded name becomes a contradictory to her emotions, one side her body bristles and straightens that the feared punishment was said so casually but on the other it brought a sense of relief that it wasn't for her.

"You will however be bound to the central reefs and caves, escorted by other mermaids to and from the shell works where you will clean and fix the shells of hermits for 5 days and fix any broken equipment in the latest skirmish. Furthermore you are declined the right to swim in the ocean for a number of weeks until we as a whole reef council believes you are have learnt from yesterday's mistakes. Are we clear Akko?"

Akko nods, not trusting her mouth to speak. With a blow of her conch shell, Holbrooke swims up from her seat. "This meeting is then adjourned." The rise of murmurs came the moment the seaweeds opened letting everyone swim out. Ursula patted her shoulder with a smile of gentle care as she swam ahead, already hounded by other mermaids for her time when she sweeps trough the small dense forest of seaweed.

Akko sighs as she too leaves the court, her shoulders slouches forward in utter excitement to clean the discarded shells of hermit crabs.

"Akko!"

Akko looks up, her body twirling in circles as Lotte lunges at her and spins her in relief. "You're okay!" She beamed, eyes shut and therefore oblivious to the tint of green on Akko's cheek. Amongst the spinning world, Akko can just see a blur of a sharped edge mermaid tail, coloured poison purple like nightshade flowers. "See Sucy, I told you she's fine." She heard Lotte chide as the purple tail moves forward.

"If fine was a synonym for nauseous." A dead voice of reason chimes in her ears. Instantly Akko's vision stops before it shakes and wobbles. Two mermaids in front of her splits into 4, then 8 then they stretch and bend, becoming blurred mirrored illusions. It was like she was in a kaleidoscope, things always moving, always spinning, always the same motions of each image.

She heard questions bounce off the walls within her head. Questions directed at herself, though they are too were garbled and Akko struggled to even understand two. Who was she? Who is in front of her?

"Sorry about that Akko!" One of them, well several of the same person apologies. It was the shorter one which a ginger blob for her hair, Akko recognises it and something urges inside her to talk, to tell her not to worry but jumbled words leave instead.

She sees the taller one, with lavender hair and one visible eye sigh at whatever verbal mess left her mouth. Her copies rummaged through the satchel that the other mermaid have, procuring clones of this flattened pebble colour ball, sketched with white dotted lines. Akko attempts to contact again, her mouth opening as something gurgles inside her. It rumbles up her throat before the pebble ball is thrown in her mouth with no warning.

Akko's vision stabilises as her brown eyes widen as her body forces the strange substance down her throat. It forces whatever was coming up to go back down, leaving a trail of shiver and bad taste linger as her sense ring clear. "Wha…" she managed to say before a cold hand covered her lips, a singular eye, dancing with lazy mischief stares at her. Akko's eyes widened as something explodes in her stomach. A jolt of pain, similar to a sharp pinch shakes her core as her world stabilises. The mirror copies bounce against each other to form one body again.

"Are you dead yet?"

A groan escapes her body as Akko clutches her abdomen. Her mind busy focusing on the rotten feeling of death inside her rather than communicating. Even then it was struggling, her eyes blur once more as her eyelids became heavier and heavier.

"Sucy! You were suppose to help her! Not make her pass out!" She hears someone whisper, even when the initial voice was raised. Akko tries to keep up but in the end she had to give way to the demands of her body, but not without the final words from her surroundings.

"At least she's not dead."

"Sucy!"

/-/

She's back in the past.

Back in the moment of last night. In the middle of a battlefield, between an old foe and the ocean itself. Her body is moving, her scarlet tail thrashing side to side to increase her speed. The grip on the 7 ocean trident tightened as she kicked back another scaled serpent back to Davy Jone's locker.

Near her yet distance she hears the agonising wails of other monsters of the ocean deep, in the corner of her eye an angler is covered with the black spikes of urchins. The sight leaves her with a momentary grin that lasts in that second of happiness before the battle mindset forces itself back into the forefront of her mind.

Akko knows she's special. That her life was chosen for a purpose that only the stars above knows. She always knew, from the moment she trusted the guts of her stomach more than the sound logic of her mind.

She always follows that hidden advice inside her, even when it tells her to dive into the chasms of the jellyfish forests, even when it tells her to pluck her own scales off and bleed in front of the council, even when it tells her to ignore the old dragon enemy Fenir and go to the forbidden open ocean view.

She knows it was stupid and reckless to trust a voice she doesn't know. Then again, she knows it's even more reckless to trust the mind that's never sound enough to go against it.

The ocean is rough against her skin, it shoots her with small sparks that static her brown hair. It was loud, angry and out for hunger. It was out to kill. Both the sky and sea was out to kill. Why? She doesn't know and like many circumstances in her life, she would never find the answer.

Her voice hitched when her eyes find who the victim was. Her mind froze, blank at the recognition of the porcelain skin and the golden curled locks of the sun, at the glowing orbs of rare of sapphire gems that gleam in the moonlight.

Something tugged inside her once again, a yell of urgency that mute the soundness of her mind. She propels forward, enduring every aggressive rush of water as she fights the current. There's no doubt inside her that Akko wanted to meet her again but she never dreamed to her meet her like this. Not even in the nightmares that haunt her every now and then.

Her heart doesn't beat anymore. Instead it contracts, each twist forcing out a pain that tears a holes in her lungs. She doesn't even breath. She's too focused on the dimming light in her sailor's eyes to even think at all. Her eyes blink in worry, silent pleas and begs that bleed from her mind, the ones telling her to the eyes open just for one more second.

These emotions, this sensation of agony and pain, it's all new to her. Never before was she in this much turmoil from the possible death of another. Never before was she risking her life, the secrecy of her race to a human. Never before did she ignore the voice in her gut, telling her to push her up and out of the ocean's clutches, with a kiss.

A kiss that ignores all of her senses. That throws away all logic in her brain, disregarding the emotional status of her heart. Her eyes close as the questions yell inside the chaos of her mind. Each word just becoming a mess of white noise.

Why did she kiss her? Why did ignore the voice inside her? Why is she continuing the kiss?

Why? Why? Why?

The word repeats constantly, in a some pathetic attempt to make her answer. But Akko doesn't know why. She never knows why. But she knows that she's kissing her, a stranger, a human, in the middle of a battle that she should've been leading.

She knows the taste of her lips against hers, the musical hum of her moans that echo in her ears. She knows the cool but soft touch of her skin imprinted on the callous of her fingers, the burning desire to keep kissing her. She knows how the curves of her back and how easy it is to push them together. She knows the way her hands move against the tussles of her hair, the way time just seems to no longer exist in this small pocket of kisses and desire.

She doesn't know when the light from the trident glows, when the golden rod tremors and vibrates. It breaks the illusion of peace, makes her eyes open and realise what she was doing. Even then, with her eyes open and the continued kiss colouring her cheeks red she doesn't want to let go.

Akko eyes the trident, the tip just grazing the skin and she knows it did something. A bright light envelopes them and Akko closes her eyes once again, savouring the kiss before she needs to end it. She can taste the evaporated kiss of salt water on her lips be replaced by the rich scent of oxygen as it pushes her lips away.

Her eyes open to see the fading glow of the Shiny Rod. There is silence, both within her and around her. Her eyes only lock and focus on the sailor's face. How her brow arches up and around, how her lips look soft when they're no longer swollen or cut. How her cheeks are coloured with rose pink, a tone to match her own cheeks. She presses a hand to her cheek, feeling soothing warm from its glow.

She flinches it back however, when her eyes blink open in slow lull motions and Akko's world is swept away. She always found the colour blue beautiful. The ocean was a navy and it was beautiful, the sky was baby blue and was beautiful. She saw lost treasures of the past and present be coloured with the shades of blue, sapphire, cerulean, lapis, turquoise and they all were beautiful.

But she knew the word beauty itself would not be enough to describe her blue eyes. Not a string of words that forms a sentence nor a string of sentence to form a paragraph. Even then Akko knew it would not be enough to do describe her eyes and do justice to what's in front of her.

"Thank you…"

Akko couldn't help but gasp as the sailor floats towards her, the smallest smile on her. She knows the language. She knows her language. More questions that won't be answered fill her head. Instead of the usual worry, her body is uplifted with giddiness and excitement that she doesn't even hear Sucy and Lotte call her.

"Akko…"

"Akko."

"Akko!"

/-/

Akko rolls off her seaweed hammock, her eyes groggily open at Lotte's outstretched hand. She grunts in mild annoyance, the frown softening at Lotte's giggles. "You must've had a good dream to be that determined to sleep in."

Her mind pounces at the dream, at the scene that haunts her sleep. The kiss that keeps repeating every night since that moment. Every time she thinks of it the aching pit is dug deeper and deeper in her stomach.

"She's dreamt of the kiss again." Sucy states. Akko's cheeks flush red as her voice stammers.

"I-I-I DID NOT!" She howls, brown narrowed eyes forming daggers at the purple mermaid in front of her but like usual Sucy doesn't even blink.

"Akko…" Lotte sighs, a look of pity in her eyes. "Again? How many times has this happened?" Akko doesn't know. She stopped counting after the 20th time the memory distracted her from doing her punishment. It's been at least a week since they first kissed and in that week nothing else stuck in her mind like the kiss did.

"I don't know!" Akko exclaims, her cheeks huffing as she looks away. The picture of her sailor, of her sand beach hair and her immaculate blue eyes pierce her mind again. "I just keep thinking about and about her and I don't know why it keeps happening. Or why every time I think about it hurts me."

She looks at her friends, the closest people she trust with all of her heart. She knows they won't tell anyone what she will say next, even if it's taboo. Besides it's been gnawing her sanity and if she doesn't say it she will scream. "Or why even when I know I shouldn't I want to kiss her again…"

Lotte and Sucy look at each other, their gaze telling a conversation Akko can't translate. They stare at each other for at least for a minute before Sucy looks away with a sigh and swims out of the room. "If you want to do it Lotte I won't stop you but I'm not getting involved. It's too much effort."

Akko blinks, confusion all over her face as Lotte looks at her with fidgeting hands and nerves on her brow. "Me and Sucy has been hearing stories of a sailor being seen near the edge of the boundaries for a few days."

Akko looks at her, jaw slowly dropping the more Lotte explains. Disbelief expelling from her body. It couldn't be true, it shouldn't be true. No human can find the boundaries, at least find it and stay there for days.

"And we think it could be that girl you kissed."