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7 July, 1990
Night time,
We arrived on the third day at the sea neighboring Iceland.
Rhine conducted a radar search in the captain's room, up till now, like before, there is still no sign of mermaid's whereabouts. I am very skeptical about whether the mermaid
can survive under such cold water temperatures but Rhine insisted that last year he once found some traces of mermaid here.
According to known records, mermaid's are classified as tropical creatures, but I do not want to let this small hope slip away.
I'm just to eager to see a real-life mermaid.
I hope that I can use my byname to continue the exploration of the mysterious creature that even the greatest biologist was not able to do.
I wrote these thoughts in my diary, before looking towards the small round cabin window of the boat unexpectedly as if expecting some unimaginable things to happen.
It was gloomy and dark outside, I could only see the warm reflection of the lamp on the window and my thin outline in the reflection, Black hair, black eyes, and the increasingly pale face that looks remarkably like an overdosed drug addict.
I smiled, Rhine said that I sometimes resemble a lunatic when I act paranoid, maybe it's true.
As I wrote this sentence down, the tip of the pen suddenly cut deeply into the paper when a sudden uneasiness invades my mind. At this moment, a cry of surprise came from outside -----
"Desharow, my little Wallace! Come out quickly, there is something under the water!"
My hand trembled fiercely. With a body that responded more quickly than my mind, I rushed towards the captain's room with big strides and happened to collide with Rhine that was coming out of the room. He firecly hugged me in his arms, before pointing at the screen of the deep sea camera with excitement. "Wallace, look, I said there are merefolks here, you should have believed me!"
When I widened my eyes and focused on the moving shadow on the screen, I lost my breath in an instant.
It is clear, incomparable streamlined silhouette of a form, that shows a distinct difference from sharks and dolphins where it upper body has no fins on either side, but a pair of open a ordinary human like limbs.
It is indeed a Mermaid.
"Quick...Quick cast the net! Rhine, what are you still waiting for?"
I almost jumped up as if awakened from a dream and punched Rhine in the chest, but he just grabbed my wrist and laughed: "You think I'm slow like you? This Mermaid has already been confused by our shark-hunting odor, otherwise, why do you think it's not running away?"
"You!?"
Immediately I rushed to the deck like lightning and indeed saw that the sailors on board had already changed into their equipment and suit before diving down and casting their nets under the water. There were luminous bouys attached to the fishing net, which scattered on the sea like stars in the sky.
They lurked beneath the undulating sea as the sailors dived down, my heart follows alongside it as they rise and falls, my nerves are rather tense as if under the pressure of water.
This will be one of the most astonishing discoveries in the history of human biology.
With that in mind, I could not help but stiffen my back and stand on my tippy toe on the boat mast, wishing I could dive down with the sailors to bring the Mermaid up.
"Wallace, relax a little ~ try not to fall into the water!"
Rhine let out a laugh behind me, causing my lower leg to subsequently tense up, his arms suddenly grabbed me, frightening me to the point of almost responding to his joke, my body leaned forward, plummeting down head first, Rhine manages to grab hold of my back collar of my top with swift hand, but ended up with two men tumbling onto the deck all at once.
My butt practically pressed onto his face. Good thing my weight is light, otherwise, I would have crushed the whole bridge of his proud nose.
"Brother, You have to be so eager to kiss my ass, ok?"
I move my body away to stand up. I narrowed my eyes and smiled at him mischievously. Rhine was indifferent as he stayed on the deck and said with the mouth that needed some good beating, "From a biological point of view, the shape of the butt is very good, the taste of it is also pretty good. This is another great history besides the Merman tonight."
"Your strong kneel is pretty good, too." I kicked him on the knee, before showing a mouthful of white teeth.
The next second, the splashing sound of the water under the boat immediately took away all my attention. I crouched over the mast of the boat, watching the sailors pull up the luminous fishing net and then hanging it up on the boat hanger.
The nets are entangled together, inside, it evidently wrapped around a wet silhouette, like a captured shark with it's body thrashing around.
When the hanger lifted up the net, it's long tail leaked out of the net and fell into a graceful arc.
The only kind of Mermaid that has been discovered in human history is the Indian Ocean red-tailed Mermaid. This one is different. It's tale is black, but it is not pure black.
I don't know if it is because of the reflection of the water surface, but it shows a strand of a cold blue colour sprouting from the center like a firework, however the tip is dotted with a little bit of red, a red that shocks the eyes and astonishes the heart, it is like blood stained on a sharp blade.
[1 shocks the eye, astonishes the heart (idiom)- shocking/horrible to see / a ghastly sight]
All of a sudden, my eyes started feeling a slight pain, as if they were pricked, my heart also started breeding a trace of unknown feeling. I vaguely recalled the legend that Mr. Shinichi, a senior who had studied merefolks for fifty years, had told me when I visited Okinawa, Japan, a few years ago for research purposes.
It's a creature called the "Night Demon Mermaid." It's tale is blue and black, with a touch of red, just like what I see before my eyes.
He told me with a cautious panic on his face, saying only that it was a creature far more terrible than the tiger shark. The definition of terrible was not based on their offensive power, but the evil mystic power they carry.
[2 Tiger shark is considered to be one of the most dangerous sharks, however, their attack rate on human is low. It ranks second on the list of the number of recorded bites on humans, behind only the great White Shark.]
He warned me that if we ever encounter such mermaid, we must not bring it ashore, and should treat it like a red-tailed mermaid that was being researched, otherwise unforeseen bad luck will land on our head.
"The evil spirit from hell," he described.
However, I am not Japanese, nor do I understand Japanese culture, I somewhat understand the meaning of the word, but could only guess that it is probably to the similar to the Chinese devil and Western demon.
As for how terrible it was, in that conversation, Mr. Shinichi did not tell me, only ended the conversation with a harsh sentence, "it is a matter that must be kept in secrecy." It seemed as if he was trying to avoid my questioning and visit. When I went to Okinawa, Japan, the next year, what turned down my visit was unexpectedly the news of his death.
That puzzle had remained in my memory ever since then.
But now, that legend itself has truly appeared in front of me.
Regardless of whether Mr. Shinichi's warning was said before or after, the Mermaid itself, for me, as a paranoid mysterious biologist, is the temptation to approach death.
When it was carried onto the deck and placed into the water tank, my heartbeat at that point became more immobile.
With the help of the sailors, I carefully knelt down, put the right amount of anesthetic into the tail, and boldly touched the curve of the fishtail after the injection.
The cold, small scales on the fishtail are not the same as other fish, even smoother and thinner than the skin of a dolphin...so much so that it seems to resemble the texture of the human's skin, like a human leg wrapped in a thin membrane.
I was intimitated by such thought that I inadvertently touched the tip of the tail with my hand, and immediately a stinging pain followed.
I was surprised to find that it had barbs on its tail with a triangular tail fin that is as sharp as a real blade.
The trail of blood on my fingertip dripped down onto the scales and disappeared in a blink of an eye as if it had been absorbed.
Suddenly, the Mermaid maid an abrupt violent struggle, it's tail curved towards me in an incredible arc, like a python trying to wrap around my ankle, which even several sailors could not control.
I tumbled back onto the deck, frozen in place, unexpectedly stunned while staring.
"You foolish boy, are you dumb?"
Rhine pulled me up from the ground, fling me aside, stepped on the fishtail that was attacking towards me, and directly inject in the rest of the anesthetic with efficiency.
"Don't! That is the amount for a Shark, too much excess of it might kill it." I screamed. Seeing the tail became quickly obedient as if calmed down, I panicked and tore Rhine's hand away, before removing the net from it's body.
My hands couldn't help but tremble from the emotional struggle, the excitement, and the fear that lingered in my memory which slows my movement. When the net was uncovered from his head, reveals the whole body, I trembled all over and stepped back in order to stabilize myself.
This is my first time facing a living Mermaid in my life.
It looks quite different from the collected corpses and photos of skeletons and accumulated in the libraries and museums. If you don't look at that fishtail and those sharp ears, it basically looks like a human being.
It lay there with it's body bent, it's face turned to one side, it's hair (I don't know if it should be called hair) dripping down on it's neck in wet strands, it's face was invisible, only able to see it's lower sharp jawline. Judging from the side, it might have a good looking human face, which of course was not what I am concerned about.
As my gaze extended downward, the undulating muscles on it's back were well built and taut, shaped like a bowstring waiting to be launched, like a ferocious beast. I even suspected that it would suddenly jump and bite me like a shark.
This is a Mermaid that appears to be a half- length adult man from the look of it.
I once thought that merefolks was gender-free and only changed their sex like moray eels at the time of mating, but this paradox completely destroyed my conjecture.
[3: Clownfish, wrasses, moray eels, gobies, and other fish species are known to change sex, including reproductive functions]
[T/N: Please notes for future reference: from this point on I will be using specific gender
mermen = male mermaid = female
merfolk = collected/group. If gender was not specified I will use capitalized mermaid.]
My eyes involuntarily looked down to his lower abdomen, where there was a really a bulge, just wrapped in a squamous membrane that grew downward along with the oblique muscles of the abdomen, showing a small opening in the pubic bone.
That should be similar to the reproductive structure of dolphins, which only sprouts when they mate with their partner, the same condition that human (male) do with their piller.
But does merfolk have the same reproductive system as humans? Are their breeding processes(sexual intercourse) similar to humans?
The curiosity in my heart couldn't Stop the urge, so I took out my flashlight that was in my lower back pocket and planned to do a simple examination right here right now.
However, just as my flashlight passed over his head, and just when I was about to lean over, he suddenly moved. Though it just a small movement, I immediately retracted my body with alert as Rhine moved to stand in front of me in case of any sudden attack.
But there was no big movement, just a slight tilt of the head, wet hair sliding from his face so that one could see half of his facial appearance. Under his eyelids, there was a layer of eyelash-like hair, but it was light like a fish's spine, while the pupil was dark, deep and measurable, like a dark current floating in the deep sea, without any focus.
But I know very clearly that he is staring at me, so much so that it feels like he is sizing me up.
I suddenly felt my blood ran cold. Based on my experience as a biologist, I am sure that kind of meaningful look is basically.... regarding me as a prey.
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