Mermay 2021: 5

 Aizawa had a problem.

He knew humans didn't give each other Gifts exactly the way they did. He asked Yagi and Hizashi, the two that knew the most about them from his circle of friends, about their culture. He learned they many used rings to signify marriage -  that meant they were mated -- but jewelry was given as gifts in general from interested parties. Gifts were given to friends, too, however, and he knew the pretty human had only meant to bridge the gap between them when she gave him the shell.

Still...

Aizawa wanted to get her a true Gift. That meant it had to be rare and flashy (like the shell). The harder to get and the shinier an item was declared exactly how you felt, and he needed to top her present. That would be difficult as the shell she'd given him was from a rare species that was all but gone from the ocean.

He sighed.

"Foolishness," he muttered to himself as he tossed away a shimmering pebble from the ocean floor. There was a heap of such items behind him after hours of searching.

<i>Nothing is good enough</i>.

He wandered over to the edge of the sea floor and glanced down into the trench that cut deep into the abyss. The jagged mast of a ship stuck up from the depths, a shipwreck from the humans that had dared try to cross the ocean a long time ago.

That's when he remembered an old tale passed around his kind for generations. Mating Gifts of exquisite beauty could be found in these, but they were almost always guarded by sea monsters and villainous mers. Many were said to never return from such a trip, so nowadays mers eschewed them in favor of easier - and less life-threatening -- items.

Aizawa waited a minute, then plunged down into the twilight sea.

His eyes began to glow red as he dipped lower, enabling him to see better in the much darker waters. The shipwreck was a dark shadow stuck I the side of the trench, so he angled himself to cautiously approach.

Within five feet the shadows swirled, coalescing into a myriad of large arms and dinner-plate eyes that eerily resembled his. He barked in alarm and jerked backwards, watching in dismay as a giant squid unfurled itself from the wreckage to face him.

"I'm not here to hunt. I need to get into that ship," he called out.

The creature chattered angrily with an enormous beak at him.

Aizawa bared his teeth at the giant cephalopod but kept his distance. "I need to pass," he hissed once more.

No.

A huge tentacle whipped out and he quickly dodged it with a low grunt. There was absolutely no way he could fight something this big, so he didn't try - instead, he caught up a nearby fish and hurled it at the gaping maw. The squid snapped it in two without a thought and more tentacles flew at him, some catching on his chest and tail.

Gnashing his teeth in pain, he bent and tore a chunk off those holding him captive. The suckers on giant squid have rows of razor-like teeth, and these neatly dug flesh out of him everywhere they gripped. Blood swirled in the water and he gathered his strength and bit again, twisting, struggling to make himself a liability the creature wouldn't want to risk.

The tip of one struck him across the eye and his vision blurred. Desperate, he concentrated on one tentacle, chewing and ripping until he separated it from the body. The squid squealed unhappily and jerked back, eyeing him in thought for a moment. And then it pulsed away into the deep, fleeing to nurse its lost arm.

Aizawa spat the wretched thing out with a grimace. He was injured and bleeding trails through the water as he swam, which was very dangerous. More disturbing was the large deposit of bones he soon came upon, all picked clean and white, on the cracked deck. He gave it a wide berth and continued until he reached the cabin area.

"Where..?" He grasped drawers on cabinets and rummaged through rotten chunks of wood and debris with all the haste he could muster. The squid might be gone for now, but there were other dangers that lurked in the deep.

<i>That</i>!

A strand of pearls lay gleaming in as many colors as the shell he wore around his neck. In the center of the necklace was a purple gem, the exact color of her hair!

"It's perfect." He picked it up and checked it for damage. It really was perfect.

"What have we here?"

Aizawa spun around warily, the necklace clenched tightly in one fist.

A female mer was swimming up to confront him. She seemed young, a teenager most likely, with platinum blond hair twisted up in strange knots and glittery red eyes.

"I love it here," she gushed happily. "Only the strongest mers get past my cute little friend. Always men, always looking for the most special Gift. So romantic! Is she pretty?" Her mouth had a distressing circular shape, filled with row upon row of teeth. Aizawa recoiled.

<i>Lamprey</i>!

"I'd better get going."

The large cache of bones below now made sense. The squid most likely wasn't seeking mers for food - the mer herself was cannibalistic. Aizawa wrapped the chain more firmly around his wrist and tensed himself for a second fight as more squirming creatures rose up out of the darkness beneath her.

"You can't go now. First you tell me how <i>wonderful</i> your would-be mate is." A few of the lampreys had curled themselves around her arms as she faced him and she stroked them like they were her pets.

"And then?" He kept a careful watch in all directions, his stomach twisting in a knot. There were too many of them.

"<i>And then you die</i>."

"OH NO HE DOESN'T!" Hizashi's thunderous clicking erupted from above. He pulled his claw back, and a deafening jolt erupted, a water bullet of pure sound and speed. The lampreys recoiled, the little ones and their leader blown back into the abyss. "You moron!" He yelled at his friend even as he grabbed him and started swimming away as fast as he could.

Aizawa didn't answer; he had finally passed out.