@miya-sugar-star @aoi-sensei I hope u guys like this! It is different from your original idea, so I hope that is ok!
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He couldn't give up..! There was no way! Not if he, Aoi, the most feared prince in the entire ocean, had anything to say about it! Even if the feeling of stared at by a seemingly endless array of eyes prickled his scales to no end, he will not shrivel up so easily!
"I already told you!" He shrieked with a violent flap of his tail against the hard wooden tub keeping him imprisoned. "There is no treasure in my oceans! You're all wasting your time! I am Prince Aoi, the feared killer of ships! Now let me go, and I promise I won't sink this ship immediately."
Humans were so dense! All they cared about were shiny things and destruction... Disgusting.
Even more so, the human in front of him was as dense as an overcooked pearl. His gaze was sharp and stared at him as though he were just some weakling, a poor little guppy who could barely get out of its shell. When it fact it was the opposite!
He was strange, dressed in dark clothes, a ridiculously fancy hat and... An even weirder white cloth across his nose.
"I know you are keeping something from me, my dear," the captain chuckled haughtily. "As such... I think that pretty thing on your head counts as treasure, hmm?"
His tiara... He had gotten so used to having it there that he had nearly forgotten! It was... All he had of his mother. They could not take it!
"I'm warning you," he hissed. "Let me go. Or this ship is doomed, along with all of the other pathetic humans."
This was bad. His threats above water were meaningless. If only he could somehow get back in the water..! Then he could show these heathens where they belonged on the food chain!
The captain sighed and slowly began to walk closer to him, smiling all the way. He held a deep curiosity in amusement in the way he smiled, and a cold shiver went through him.
"Are those pearls?" He asked, ignoring the threat. "Oh! And gold! My My, if I knew such a beauty like you was carrying that on you I would have caught you sooner!"
Quickly Aoi swiped it out of reach before the captain could get any closer to him, shoving it Into the tub and into the now freezing water. Now he was but another merman, trapped in the grasp of another human. The tiara gave him power. Power that was now useless.
"Go choke on the sea, that way you will be useful."
With a tsk the captain gave him an eerie stare and then a strange grin.
"Men! I think our guest is getting a little cold," he laughed and earned himself a few agreements. "What say you we make him a little warmer hm? I think that tub of his has definitely overstayed it's welcome."
They all agreed even louder, responding with laughs and eerie grins. And when the man seemed to be satisfied with his answer Aoi was nearly gasping in horror. The man quickly and roughly placed his boot in the edge of the tub, causing the water to splash around and his body to rock to the side.
"Don't you dare," Aoi growled weakly, now shivering. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Oh, wouldn't I?" He laughed and then leaned in, So that their eyes finally could meet. "I think you'll find that as a human, I could care less about what you want. I, on the other hand, always get what I want."
Then Aoi was being toppled over, and with a violent painful lurch he was slamming into the hard wooden deck as water rushed past him from the tub, over the wooden planks, then with a splash it was all back in the ocean. Air rushed out of his lungs and he couldnt breathe.
Pain shot up his side from where he hit the wood and he gelt his tiara stabbing his tail. His ears rang and his vision swam from the sudden fall.
"Mmm I can see your lovely tail in all its shining beautiful glory," the captain laughed down at him as he writhed in pain. "But I've seen plenty of mermaids in my day. So I know that won't last long. So you might as well get used to that feeling."
More pain began to go down his spine, and his tail felt like it was starting to split apart from his fins. A scream tore from his throat as in the agonizing seconds of his last few seconds if being a Prince, he could see the man now leaning down next to him, sliding his fingers along was what now pale smooth flesh. Legs. Human legs.
"Oh, and... While we're getting introduced, dearest friend," he murmured to him, smiling as his hands found the tiara and slides it from Aoi's too weak grip. "You can call me Reita. Welcome aboard my ship. Prince Aoi."
