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Towa Town's residents knew the woman whose cottage sat on the edge of a cliff as Touko Fukawa, a reclusive author of romance stories. Most knew she lived there with her family, comprising of a tall, blond man and a cherub-faced baby boy. Fewer were aware of her frequent visits to the nearby beach, where she collected driftwood, seaweed and whatever else the sea washed up.
None of them, as far as Touko could tell, had any idea that she was also a witch. A powerful one at that.
To perform magic, most witches needed to drink a particular potion and say a certain word or phrase, but not Touko. She needed to when she was younger, but now she just had to think what spell she wanted to cast and it would happen.
Potions and speaking aloud helped focus her mind, though.
“Concado,” Touko said, exhaling as the picnic basket slowly lowered onto the sand.
“Coco!” little Aloysius piped up from the carrier strapped to his father's chest. Byakuya shook his head.
“One day, he may end up casting a spell,” he remarked.
“That would be a feat,” said Touko. She hadn't shown any magical inclinations until she was a few years older than Aloysius was now.
For all they knew, he was incapable of magic. Still, to be safe, she made a mental note to cast spells nonverbally when around Aloysius. At least until he was old enough to understand that when regular humans saw people do genuine magic, they freaked out. And when that happened, they often lashed out. Hurt witches. Killed them. That was why there were so few witches around these days.
“Touko, can you lay out the blanket?” asked Byakuya.
She stirred. “O-Of course!”
The blanket had been packed last, so Touko only needed to open the basket, take it out then spread it flat on the sand. Once she had done that, Byakuya let Aloysius out of the carrier so he could help Touko set out lunch.
While his parents busied themselves, Aloysius sat contentedly on the blanket, buzzing his lips. No one beyond Touko's small circle visited this section of the beach. There were plenty of better spots further along the shore, closer to the town and various facilities, rather than by a cliff that a cranky old woman fell to her death from more than a decade prior. Though, strictly speaking, no one had been able to confirm her death. Touko had watched her fall from the cliff one stormy night. Had witnessed the sea sweep her mentor's body into its depths. No human could survive that, not even a witch, but Touko had never seen her body afterwards to know for absolute certain.
To think that this calm sea had been ferocious enough to consume her mentor whole and leave behind not so much as a crumb. Touko’s gaze hovered on the horizon for a few seconds more before turning to her son. His sea blue eyes were wide as he took in his surroundings. Then, something on the blanket caught his attention and he crawled over to it. He grabbed what turned out to be a lemon slice.
Before Touko could react, he bit into it. Almost immediately, his face scrunched. Touko cooed at him.
“Just like your father,” she said, scooping Aloysius into her arms.
Byakuya folded his arms over his chest and pouted. “I only did that once.”
Touko lifted Aloysius under the armpits and bounced him. A delighted giggle left his beaming lips as he kicked his legs. While she could have used her magic to suspend him in midair, her powers couldn't replicate the feel of her son, and she didn't want to risk something going awry. Aloysius meant far more to her than a picnic basket, and she wouldn’t forgive herself if she harmed something, someone, so precious to her. What if while using her magic, her concentration broke and she dropped him?
This section of the beach was quiet, chipped only by the distant song of seagulls and her son's babbling. There should have been no distractions. They should have been okay. They were alone...
Or being watched.
It was a preposterous thought, but when she glanced over at the sea, she froze. A pair of eyes dipped beneath the surface.
Seconds passed. She couldn't see any more movement. Maybe it was a trick of the light. Maybe she saw two seashells bobbing. Or maybe it was something else. Around ten years ago, something similar happened over the course of a week, and the eyes had belonged to Byakuya.
He wasn't in the sea now, though. He was next to her.
Her heart quivered.
If it wasn't Byakuya that she saw, it could have been an aswang, readying to pounce and suck out Aloysious's insides with its proboscis tongue. Perhaps she had glimpsed a black and white bear driving a motorcycle, armed with a whip. Touko cringed as she imagined sirens emerging from the water, shooting a harpoon at Aloysius's head.
Or worse: what if her father had stumbled upon them?
Her arms buckled slightly. She could feel her skin burning, as if it didn’t belong to her. By holding Aloysius, was she burning him too? Did everything she touch burn to a crisp sooner or later?
But then Aloysius giggled, smiling gummily, and Touko stirred. Breathing shallowly, she focused on Aloysius, his weight, his realness. Aloysius was hers. Byakuya was too. And they had defeated the aswang, Monobear, the twin sirens and the ghosts within the shapeshifter that lived by Sonia Nevermind’s cottage. Afterwards, Touko had lived here with Byakuya, then with her son too. And her friends often came to visit ner. They were hers too. Her friends.
She breathed again. The invisible fire flickering across her skin started to wane, and she lowered Aloysius onto her lap.
“Touko, you summoned a cage of fire around us for a few seconds,” said Byakuya casually.
“I d-did?” blurted Touko, looking around frantically.
“It's gone now.” Byakuya was frowning at her.
“I didn't realise. I... I...”
“I remember something similar happening when you touched my lips prior to our courting, and I raised my voice,” said Byakuya calmly. “You were afraid. Are you afraid now as well?”
Touko's brow scrunched. Her hands were still tremoring.
“I thought I saw someone spying on us from the water,” she said, though she saw no signs of anyone lurking there. Not anymore, at least.
Byakuya looked over now. “It could be Asahina or Oogami.”
Sakura Oogami wasn't the sort of mermaid to creep around for fun, and her girlfriend would have been too impatient to stay hiding in the water for a surprise arrival. They both also knew that Touko wasn't a fan of surprises or tricks, as benevolently intentioned as they may have been.
A sigh heaved out from Touko. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. Instead of letting herself get rattled by imaginary fears, she should have been making sure she wasn't endangering her real family.
“I could have burned you both,” she mumbled. “What a bad mother and partner I am...”
“Nonsense,” said Byakuya. “Those flames appeared because you sensed a threat. You were protecting us. Touko, when I'm with you, I feel safe.”
She sniffled and withdrew her hand from her eyes. A faint blush had settled onto his features. He looked down, tracing his finger aimlessly against the blanket before balling it into a fist.
“How we're raising Aloysius is different from how I was brought up,” he said. “My father was uninvolved, and while my mother oversaw my upbringing, my butler is the one who primarily interacted with me.”
“And I should hope there won't be any bloodbath competitions between him and his siblings,” Touko piped up, mustering a thin smile. Aloysius grabbed her index finger and squeezed it.
Byakuya had told her about his childhood a long time ago. The massacre, his aloof parents, how he had been created not from love but to carry on the Togami legacy. Before meeting her, he had never heard of romance, and even then he had to be told it wasn't just a genre of books. Their upbringings had been different, yet despite how hers had burned her, despite how his had frozen his heart, she felt that they could understand each other.
“No, there won't be any of that,” replied Byakuya, glancing at Aloysius before fixing his eyes on Touko. “This is different, but... I prefer how we are. I wouldn't change it.”
If Aloysius hadn't been on her lap, Touko would have thrown herself at Byakuya and cried into his chest. For most of her life, she had been unwanted. By her parents, by the world. But now she had friends, a family. She had Byakuya.
“Me neither,” Touko croaked, and when Byakuya smiled, she smiled back wider.
Yes, this was perfect. This was their happily ever after, the one she had craved for so, so long. This was -
“Young Master!”
Touko whipped her head around and gasped. The eyes she had thought she glimpsed were back, but this time they did not flit out of sight. They bobbed along the swaying surface of the sea, on a head boasting swept back white hair. But it wasn't Sakura. No. Their hair was shorter, a small cloud that went no lower than their ears, paired with a beard and thin moustache. Also, while Sakura was around Touko’s age, the stranger's face was wracked with wrinkles.
A person in the sea, looking like that, could only be one thing...
Heart racing, Touko scrambled to her feet, almost overbalancing as she clutched Aloysius to her chest. He grumbled and wiggled, which only made her hold him tighter.
“S-Stay away, pervert! Or... Or I'll t-turn you into a slug!” Touko snarled at the stranger.
“Wait, Touko.” Byakuya touched a hand to her upper arm, on his feet now as well.
She hesitated. The intruder swam over to the beach, remaining on his stomach as he heaved himself forward onto the sand with his arms. Her eyes darted along his body, where she discovered he didn't have legs but a tail. A mermaid tail. Dark silver, with lunated fins at the end.
This wasn't the first time a mermaid had approached her out of the blue. It was how she met Byakuya. Still, the first time had been extraordinary enough by itself. Mermaids were endangered. Elusive. And yet another had just presented themselves to her.
Byakuya took his hand off Touko and held his arm out horizontally in front of her, like a shield.
“Code word?” asked Byakuya, staring intently at the stranger.
“Polaris,” said the stranger. “And yourself?”
“Selina.”
For several seconds, neither stirred, until the stranger placed a hand against his temple and blinked. “Blimey. You really do have legs now, Young Master.”
“And you look exactly the same,” said Byakuya.
“You know each other?” asked Touko, though when she looked at the stranger again, she thought she recognised him from somewhere. She didn’t know where, or how. The only mermaids she knew were Byakuya and Sakura. Perhaps she was misremembering and thinking of Kazuo Tengan, who had captained the ship they took on the way to visit Sonia.
Byakuya turned to her and waved an arm toward the stranger.
“This is my former butler, Pennyworth.”
Touko's eyes widened. Of course. While she hadn’t met him before, when she and Byakuya had fought the shapeshifter, one of the forms they faced had resembled Pennyworth. According to Byakuya, the last time he had seen the real Pennyworth was when the Pirates of Hope slaughtered the rest of the Togami clan with their submarine. To allow Byakuya to escape, Pennyworth had stayed behind to fight the submarine, with his fate left unknown.
Until now, apparently.
“How did you survive?” asked Byakuya, staying at Touko's side. Little Aloysius peered over at Pennyworth, curious. “Where have you been all this time? How did you know I would be here?”
Pennyworth pressed his lips together. He might have been smiling, but it was hard to tell as he seemed to carry a permanently stern countenance. “It’s a long story... that I am sure you no doubt possess as well.”
“Hm.” Byakuya continued eyeing him. “Start with an explanation about your reaction to me having legs now. You didn't seem too surprised.”
This felt more like an interrogation than a family reunion. Touko chewed her lip, bouncing Aloysius gently. She couldn't say she disagreed with Byakuya's wariness: the whole situation was bizarre. The two had been separated for years, and going by the code words and questioning, Byakuya seemed to suspect Pennyworth may have been an impostor.
They had met shapeshifters before. It wasn't impossible.
“To explain my reaction, I must start with your departure. Despite my best efforts, the monster that attacked us overpowered me. But I was prepared to die.” The almost smile stayed crusted on Pennyworth's lips, while his eyes took on a gleam. “I had lived a long life, and most importantly I had protected you, Master Byakuya.”
Except Pennyworth appeared to still be alive... assuming his body hadn't been reanimated.
“Y-You're not a zombie, are you?” asked Touko, hugging Aloysius closer. He whimpered and buried his face into her. It was unlikely he knew what zombies were, or even understood much of the conversation at all, but he wasn't dumb. Could still sense the tension crackling in the air.
Pennyworth looked toward him for a few seconds before shaking his head.
“No, I'm not a zombie. I expected the monster to end my life... but instead, it captured me in one of its metal claws and whisked me away... I was caged and bequeathed to some sort of faculty. It was like a collection, but instead of valuables, it housed creatures in small enclosures.”
She stared at Pennyworth, even when Aloysius tugged on her hair. “Like... a zoo?”
Touko hadn't been to a zoo before, though she had seen them in books. Happy nuclear families visited them and laughed and awed at the animals on display. Her parents had preferred to keep her in dark closets and if given the chance, her mentor would have never left her cottage. Trips out for pleasure were inconceivable back then.
She needed to go to one at some point with Byakuya and Aloysius. And her friends too, if they happened to be in the area.
“I had my own enclosure to live in, where scraps of food would periodically feed in through grates in the wall,” Pennyworth continued. “For company, there were humans with faces painted black and white who worked there, who would periodically come in and check on me, and I would regularly be visited by a group of four children who would taunt me and whack me with sticks.”
Before Touko could respond, Byakuya spoke first. “Those were the Pirates of Hope. They operated the monster you dueled, which was really a machine.”
Pennyworth cupped his chin, while Touko shuddered. She had not seen the self-proclaimed pirates since they escaped in their submarine.
“I see. After some time, the children stopped visiting,” said Pennyworth. Touko suspected this coincided with the defeat of their idol, Junko. Hopefully, without her influence, they weren’t out there slaughtering mermaids anymore. “I do not know if ownership of the establishment changed, but my daily routine changed thereafter. Sometimes, other creatures would stay temporarily in my enclosure, or I would visit others in theirs. I'm not sure of the purpose, though I suspect it may have been to do with a dark window that was installed into my enclosure after the visits from the infants ceased.”
“A dark window?” repeated Touko, wincing when Aloysius gave her hair another pull. Byakuya gently pried Aloysius off her and scooped him into his arms.
“Could it be similar to the glass in sunglasses?” asked Byakuya. “The wearer can see adequately, but when someone else looks in, they can't so easily see the wearer's eyes.”
“Y-Yes! A one-way window. That must be it,” said Touko, flashing a grin. She remembered when she had once crafted sunglasses for him to wear. Mermaids’ eyes were more sensitive to light than regular human’s. Maybe that was partly why Pennyworth was squinting - it was the middle of the day, the Sun shining down on them.
Pouting, Aloysius whined and patted his hand against Byakuya’s cheek.
“Young Master, I apologise if I am speaking out of turn, but I believe your young one is hungry,” said Pennyworth.
“Ah!” Touko’s hands leaped to her chest. “W-We were just having lunch before we arrived.”
“I am most sorry. I did not mean to interrupt all of you.”
“It’s fine,” replied Byakuya. Aloysius didn’t seem to think so, continuing to grumble and wiggle. “Pennyworth, would you mind if we continued your story by our picnic basket so our son can eat?”
Pennyworth cocked his head. “Picnic...?”
Though Byakuya had told Touko that Pennyworth taught him a lot about humans, picnics didn’t appear to be included in that. Byakuya led them to the blanket and sat down, with Touko sitting next to him. While Touko unscrewed a jar of homemade baby food and started feeding Aloysius, Pennyworth dragged himself over. A variety of foods were laid out: savory-sweet tamagoyaki, crisp potato croquettes, fried tofu pouches and different green vegetables.
“Help yourself,” said Byakuya, gesturing to the picnic. He himself didn’t begin eating, however. “As we were saying, in regards to the dark glass in your enclosure, it seems it was there so you could be observed covertly.”
Touko grimaced. “It was either a zoo, or a creepy love hotel.”
“Young Master, I did my best to escape, but the walls imprisoning me appeared invincible.” Pennyworth didn’t acknowledge her remark. “I couldn’t leave so much as a scratch on them. At the beginning, I attempted to track the passage of time, but it became more difficult as time went on. Years passed, blurring together. I feared that I would spend the rest of my life there. But then... one day, a human was placed in my enclosure with me.”
“A human?” said Touko, staring. Aloysius pulled the spoon she was holding into his mouth.
“There was a small island she could sit on in my enclosure. During the first few visits, she spoke little. I suspect she may have been newly procured. I didn't push for conversation. But then she started asking questions. How long had I been here? Was there really no way out? Slowly, we got to know each other more. I told her about myself and my old life, while she spoke about her home, full of books and knick-knacks that she considered her children. ‘I have a talent for acquiring unwanted trash, but I don’t mind. It’s all precious to me.’ Then, during one visit, she told me she could free me.”
“How?” asked Touko. "How could a regular human think to...?”
“She wasn't a regular human. She was a witch.”
Touko’s eyes boggled. Most witches had been executed following sham trials, with the rest choosing to hide away from the rest of the world to survive. They were almost as rare as mermaids.
“She wrote in the sand so we wouldn't be overheard. She said this place was at the bottom of the sea, and she need only blow a hole through the bottom of the enclosure for me to escape.” Pennyworth looked down. “I asked what of her, but she said she would not be able to escape with me. She couldn't breathe underwater. She said one of us escaping was better than neither of us escaping, but she added that she had one request: I check on her student.”
A chilly breeze swept through Touko that none of the others tensed at, as if only she could feel it. Her mouth was dry.
“She said her student lived in a cottage on a cliff by Towa Town, with a mermaid she had turned into a human. She said the mermaid was you, Young Master. I could barely believe the coincidence, but I had little to lose from following her lead. That is why I wasn’t too surprised to see that you had legs. She had informed me about it already.”
“T-That’s impossible,” said Touko, shaking.
“Indeed, I had thought it impossible for a mermaid to be turned to a human.”
“Not that.” Touko’s jaw clenched. “That witch... was my mentor. B-But she drowned more than a decade ago... How can this be?”
“Apologies, she spoke little of her past.” Pennyworth reached over the blanket to finally grab something to eat. “She cast a spell, created an opening and I fled... This was a month ago.”
“A month?”
That didn't make sense. Touko clutched her head and shook it, trembling. For a few moments, it was as though her mentor had come back to life, but as Pennyworth's tale came to an end, she felt like she had lost her mentor for a second time. The sea had regurgitated her, then swallowed her once again. Her eyes burned. So did her throat.
Aloysius tapped his hand against Touko’s arm.
“Mama, Mama,” babbled Aloysius, rousing her.
Despite losing her mentor, she still had Aloysius. And Byakuya. And her friends. And now they had Pennyworth, who if he was family to Byakuya, then he was family to her too. She breathed. She smiled softly.
“Mama’s here,” she murmured, before feeding him another spoonful. “Mama’s okay.”
Her heart fluttered as Aloysius giggled and sucked on the spoon. He was beautiful. She would have looked at him for longer had a yelp not snatched her attention.
“W-What is this?” asked Pennyworth, holding up a bit of lemon, juice dribbling down his beard.