[This is from Cheese! by Sakurada Hina. The title in Japanese is 魔女になった人魚 which means the mermaid that has become a witch, according to babelfish. I like this person’s art and I think this tragic story is pretty good. It is, of course, somewhat based on the Little Mermaid.]
Girls throughout the world would always cry and grieve over the mermaid princess but there is another part of the story that people don’t know about and it is something that cannot be just casually be told. Once a upon a time, there is a mermaid who had fallen in love with a prince. They always meet at night until morning to confirm their love for each other.
The mermaid wished to have legs like the prince and soon, this longing made her heart ache. Her beautiful song has become a sad one because she loves the prince deep down in her heart. But one day, she is attacked by a shark which disfigured half of her face. Still longing to see the prince, she exchanged her hair for a pair of ugly legs because she doesn’t want to exchange her voice for a pair of beautiful legs.
With thoughts of the prince telling her that she’s cute and wanting to hear her beautiful singing voice, she wakes up and goes to see the prince. She opens the bedroom door to find the prince in bed with another woman. She realizes that the prince only liked the mermaid who looks beautiful on the outside.
Seeing her disfigured face, almost hairless and ugly legs, he shouts, “Monster!” This made the mermaid cry in anguish that she kills the prince. She vows never to love anyone again and heads back down into the deep sea. After a hundred and so years, a mermaid says, “Hey, granny witch, please use your magic..and grant me legs just like humans.” The witch shouts for the mermaid to not call her old.
Narration: "It turns out that the transformed mermaid before has nowhere else to go so she ends up living with the witch who gave her legs. She doesn’t know when but she ends up learning some magic. Then, when the witch whom she lived with, died, she is now all alone again. As time passes, the eccentric mermaid has fallen to become an unreasonable, cruel witch."
She asks her client mermaid if she has fallen for a human so she wants to have legs and she will help her grant her wish. She tells the mermaid to swim near the beach before the sun rises and drink the potion. Just as her tail becomes legs, she will also lose her voice. The witch tells her that she will be in pain when she starts walking on legs that used to be a tail. “There’s nothing to be afraid..even if you cannot speak, you still have your beautiful appearance that you can captivate any man.”
The witch says that is the 32th female fish [what she calls mermaids] who wanted to have legs. Outside her cave/house, there is a sign ‘making your dreams come true’. The witch giggles as she exclaims how cruel for that mermaid was turned into a sex slave. She always watches the lives of those mermaids [in her crystal ball] until their last moments. She feeds her hungry eel and happily says that being alone, she lives such a carefree and happy life.
She is surprised when someone screams out loud. She peeks out to see a young handsome merman asking for help since a shark is attacking him. When the merman sees her, he lets out another scream. The witch looks stunned and asks if she is that scary that he would scream upon seeing someone’s face.
The witch thinks that if she looks young then he wouldn’t have screamed like that but on the other hand, she also hates sharks. After killing/driving away the shark, she goes to the young man and asks what bring him to that place to see a witch. The man winces in pain while trying to say something that she realizes that his fin is injured from the shark’s bite.
She says that the fin is a fish’s life so he’s quite pathetic that it is torn. She thinks that she really hates guys like him who judge people based on their appearances. She smiles and tells him that before hearing his request, they should fix that injury. She thinks that this kind of male fish [merman] should be made into feed for kewpie [her eel].
She holds out her hand to him but to her surprise, he ends up hugging her. He apologizes and says that he couldn’t quite swim and that granny witch is really a good person. He says that he heard of bad rumors about the deep sea witch but then, rumors are just rumors. He apologizes for screaming like that a while ago for he is really frightened that the shark would once again attack... He looks at her in surprise to see her blushing.
Before swimming away, he looks back and smiles to say, “Thank you.” She berates herself for unexpectedly palpitating when she is just touched by a young man. “This feeling is the world’s first nonsense.”
Later on, while the witch is eating some wakame [seaweed], the young merman comes back and shouts for the witch to think of a way since her pet eel kept on following him. The witch looks at him in surprise and asks why he is back. He brightly smiles and says that he has a purpose now and yesterday, he just got lost while playing hide and seek with his friends.
The witch then asks, “So, what is it?” As thanks for the medicine yesterday, he brings an anemone which can bring her luck. He looks surprise again to see her blushing. He says that he thought yesterday that granny is such a shy person that he thinks she’s quite cute. The witch shouts if he is blind for how can he call her cute upon seeing such an ugly face like hers.
Letting the anemone float, he says that she is hiding her face so much that he cannot see it clearly. He tells her to put down that hood of hers. As she tries to tell him to stop, he has already pulled down her hood. Narration: “While the witch is still a beautiful mermaid, the witch had a grave injury on her beautiful face and it is because of that, her beloved prince left her.
So, the witch vowed never to let anyone see her face again.” She is surprised when the young man kissed her scarred face. He tells her that he doesn’t think it’s ugly, not one bit. The witch starts crying and hugs him. He hugs her back. And so, the witch who had given up on love has started to gradually find her heart again and spend her two years like that.
The witch asks how much he knows about that girl. The merman exclaims that even if he doesn’t know, he still likes the princess and he couldn’t sleep the whole night because he is thinking about her. “This is the first time I have this kind of feeli..”
The witch holds on to him and shouts that he couldn’t, for there is a huge difference between humans and mer-people. She tells him not to want to become a human just because he is infatuated. She warns him that as a useless guy who doesn’t know the ways of the world, and humans won't treat him nicely with only good looks. “Humans are very filthy, that person is also a slut!”
She cries that he still cares about physical appearance but then, why would he treat an ugly old woman like her so kindly. The witch is totally shock when the man tells her that it is because he feels that she is so lonely, being alone by herself. The witch drinks something. When the merman asks what it is, the witch kisses him and gives him the potion through the mouth.
She is surprised when the merman holds her hair. He kisses it and sadly thanks her. This flustered the witch that she shouts that she really hates a guy like him. The merman swims away then gives one sad glance at her. The crying witch touches her lips and mutters that she really hates..
Narration: “And later on, how many months had passed? The time that flows on the surface and deep in the waters isn’t the same. In the sea, it is a year but on the surface, it is ten years. Deep in the sea, the witch always watches that merman [in her crystal ball]. Whenever the merman is treated harshly, she would think that he deserved it. That is how the pitiful witch watches on.”
The scene has changed to an almost naked bald old man lying on the beach. The witch mutters that he unexpectedly became very old [from age] and ugly. She tells him that she has seen that he is already dead in her crystal ball that she decided to see him. “You’re also dirty, smelly, haha, disgusting. Even if at first, you were doted on but for someone who couldn’t speak, walk properly, and doesn’t know anything about the world, she will quickly treat you coldly...
As a stranger beside the princess, for the princess’ reputation, you have become a nuisance whom they would want to throw away yet they couldn’t. The older you become, the harsher they treated you that you ended up as a miserable man who is already dead yet no one cares..”
The old man turns toward her. The witch asks if he is still alive. The old man stares at her. The witch asks what’s with that look. “Hate me? Isn’t all of this caused by your wish? It’s fine if you wanted to hate me! I also..” She stops when she sees him smile like he used to when he was young.
He holds out his hand to her as he mouths the words, “Thank you, granny..” She quickly holds his hand and holds on to him. Her tears won’t stop falling as she cries out loud. “Uwahhhh..I love you..I love you I love you, I love you..” Narration: “Stupid witch..pitiful witch, sobbing for a very long time as she goes back into the deep sea...” The end.
Comment: It's so sad just like the original Little Mermaid story. She let
herself gloat that he deserved his fate but in the end, she still loved
him and obviously, this ended with a lot of regrets on her part. She
should have helped him earlier on and perhaps they would have been
happier but she is still vengeful that he left her. Well, hope you like
this story ^^ Scans by wdsjznl/玉 in billwang
No comments:
Post a Comment