Nathan Mitra was on his last leg in his career. He had spent five scientific years of researching, experimenting, and traveling, though he had not turned up, in the lovely governing words of the colony, “any useful products for the fleet”. It was complete and utter nonsense to Nathan. He had brought forth countless new reports of bacterial life forms on other planets, and even some leads on other possible, more intelligent lifeforms—and yet the committee had denied every request to further investigate. In other words, the fleet was only interested in finding information on planet resources. That was all the fleet was ever interested in, unless Nathan's life form studies could cure every disease in outer space.

There was one last planet he was assigned to see if it obtained any useful substances, it was boring, but Nathan had to do it or else the government took away the funding to everything...and that included his ship, his supplies, and lab. Not to mention his job, of course.

Nathan arrived at the planet, which had a name that just consisted of numbers, with the proper gear and equipment for testing in his backpack. It was mostly surrounded by water so Nathan landed in what looked like a mountain, which the radar signaled was a cave. Nathan had been walking for about an hour, taking some samples along the way, when he finally noticed the sound of running water. Though he really shouldn't be doing it, he wanted to take a sample of the water in this planet and check for any bacterial life, though the entire cave was fairly dark. He held a flashlight up to his bag in order to make sure he could see his equipment and make sure he didn't fall into the water. Nathan settled by a small stream and prepared to take some samples, completely unaware of any other surroundings besides the water.

If people said something or utter a single word about demons, it would be a nasty, and scary things. About how wicked they are, or how horrible their appearance would be. But, in this planet, it's completely wrong. They demon they said would be creepy or horrifying, actually took shape of a normal human in teenage age. Probably with a weird colored hair and eyes, as their surroundings affected their appearance quite a lot.

Mizu, a water demon, sat quietly under the water with his eyes closed. He could hear everything in this planet he owns. Another demons fighting for food, a small creature trying to hide from its hunter, OR, the human that stepped inside his cave without his permission. How dare a mere mortal went in and peek around his house. He should probably scare him off for good. Because lately, they keep coming over and over, taking some stones or water from this planet for samples.

His pale colored fingers traced at the long, cut mark around his neck. Some guy tried to kill him by cutting off his neck, but no, he could grow even his head back and moving on. Though it would take a lot of time to heal, since it's his very, vital part. But aside for that, he need to shoo away this human, making sure they won't come back anymore.

So he surfaced from the water, and he saw a man's back from where he is. That man looks too focused to do his work that he was completely unaware about Mizu's appearance by the water. The blue haired demon slowly went to the ground, and with a swift movement, he wrapped his arms around the man's neck.

While feeling a sudden violent pull on from behind his neck, Nathan jolted. Though he lost the equipment he'd held, hopefully not in the water, Nathan struggled to first release himself from the foreign grip. It was strange, his radar didn't detect anything moving about...could it be a person? Or maybe a creature? The thought of finding some kind of alien life form gave him more of a fighting spirit. He had to see what it was!

Nathan had finally wrangled enough to get himself free of the grip, though he felt exhausted and needed to catch his breath. Even though he had been trained in basic fighting skills, he probably should have paid more attention in class. He frantically patted the ground in search for his flashlight, but found his pocket knife instead. He kept the knife in one hand, backed away and continued to search for his flashlight. Just when he thought he lost it in the water, his hand bumped into it. It was now or never, Nathan couldn't be killed by this creature. He stood up with his knife in one and hand and held the flashlight in the other, in a quick moment he fumbled to turn it on—but then he studied the silhouette. It seemed almost...humanoid. Nathan faltered. Even if they were human, there could still be a chance they could be one of those criminals left to die on random planets...so he still kept his distance.

“Hey, listen, I mean you no harm...” He wanted to see if reason could work, and if things didn't go as planned...well there was a second option, and he didn't want to die.

This man gave quite a fight and Mizu gritted his teeth as the man get away from his grasp. He could here a metal clattered against the stone, so he stepped back. This man is armed, well, with a knife, like the other guys who came here the other day.

He covered his face as the sudden light hit his face, and he grunted in annoyance. The man told him that he brought no harm. "Well, everyone who came here told me that. It was an old story." He tilted his neck to show the man his scar. Just to scare him for a bit.

"What do you want here? If you're looking for something out of ordinary, you got the wrong place. Creatures here lived peacefully until your kind mess this place up." Mizu's blue colored irises turned a bright red for a split second as anger surfaced through his mind.

As the silhouette came more into the light, Nathan could see that his enemy looked like a human, not too old in age either. The man showed him an interesting neck scar that looked like it must have hurt, or better yet, how did the guy survive that? It was then he noticed the man mentioned “creatures” and “your kind”—the guy wasn't human? The more Nathan stood baffled and stared, he noticed the man's eyes shifted to an inhuman color, and he was just a bit more convinced. He was amazed and glad that the being could understand him, it was so much to take in, if this creature was really inhuman.

“My apologizes, I was just here to take samples of the water—I wasn't going to stay here long.” Nathan cleared his throat. More questions began to rise in him, wondering exactly how often this planet had been visited and what exactly travelers did here. The colony gave him missions with very little information, and God knows what they'd do to this planet if Nathan did manage to find some kind of resource. Hoping he wouldn't anger the being further, he carefully placed his knife on the ground and briefly flashed the light on it. With his foot, he slowly slid it out of arms reach.

“Like I said...I'm not going to hurt you. I'm more of a doctor type of guy, actually.” He chuckled just lightly, then continued to study the man, but kept the same distance. “You're not...of my species?”

Somehow, the tension lifted a little bit and Mizu don't know why he let his guard down. He got no idea about it. He sat down on the rocks, still staring at the man who introduced himself as 'A Doctor'. His blue eyes flickered in curiousity and he let the man finished his sentence.

"Wouldn't want to be your species." He replied with a bit raised brow. He thought that was completely visible that he's different from any of the human he found. At least, Mizu doesn't need to wear the funky head gear that looks terribly heavy. "Name. Did you humans have name?" He asked. That's what he learned a bit from some guy who came here earlier. They have a lot of funny names like, Phil, Wil, Jack. Or....something like that.

When the being seemed to trust him a bit more and sit down, Nathan didn't want to completely show it, but he was really excited. Finally, after five years, he finally found something—a being that wasn't a mere microorganism or an occasional strange crab...it was an intelligent being who he could interact with!

Nathan hastily took a seat a good bit away from him, but couldn't help but move closer. “Ah, my name is Nathan. Do you call yourself something?” Nathan began shining the flashlight over the man's (well he looked like a man, sort of) arms and torso, just to get a closer look at everything. It was so strange how similar he looked to a human, but he didn't want to bombard the being with too many questions...yet.

Mizu saw how the doctor, who called himself Nathan sat down not too far from him. The excitement flowing out of his body and Mizu could sense it clearly. Human is such an open book. "Mizu. That's how everyone here called me." He replied when the man asked for his name, and he moved closer. "Can you tell your kind to stop destroying this place?" He asked, but more like, begged.

Half of this planet already empty and destroyed because some humans came here for they so called experiment. They just, took everything that they wants or need, and that means everything in this planet. Mizu eyes glanced over the bottles filled with some samples, that he believe was Nathan's. "Why are you collecting them too? I mean, what will that does for you?" Mizu opened his mouth to ask questions, but he quickly closed them again. He heard something coming.

"Sir Nathan! We are from rescue team that deployed by sir Jean's order! Are you inside?" A male shouted from the entrance of the cave, making Mizu covered his ears and moved a bit away.

Nathan looked up and paused. The being who introduced himself as Mizu seemed like he was really pleading with him, of course Nathan would love to help the first creature he'd ever seen, but he wondered if there was really anything he could do. He began thinking of all the possible excuses to give headquarters, and he was so deep in thought he didn't hear Mizu's question. He was about to ask what he said again, but there was a sudden voice echoing in the cave, and Mizu started to retreat.

“Shit.” Nathan's mouth twisted at the thought of Jean. Cocky bastard, he wasn't even gone for an hour and Jean was already hoping he was dead.

“Don't worry, I'm fine! Stay out of the cave, I can maneuver out of here myself!” Nathan yelled out to the rescue team, hoping to bide the both of them some time for a bit.

It was such terrible timing, and worst of all was the fact that Mizu might run away, he couldn't just pass up a good opportunity like this. He had to think of something quick. As quickly as he could, he rummaged through his bag and found his spare mask and held it. Nathan turned to Mizu and lightly grabbed his arm.

“Mizu, I know how I can help keep your planet safe...and I can answer all of your questions,” Nathan's voice lowered to a whisper. Nathan raised the mask so Mizu could see it, but didn't put it on yet. “On one condition—If you pretend to be one of my kind and stay with me for a bit. I'll bring you back, you have my word.”

Mizu's ears rangs as the two humans yelled at each other inside the cave, and he winced visibly. Noisy creature. His body relaxed at the sound of people stepping away from the entrance, thus silence came back to him. He noticed the mask that Nathan held, and listened very, very well to what he said, about saving this planet from complete destruction.

Should he trust this man? More like, can he trust Nathan enough to let the human take him to somewhere that he never went? He lifted his head to look at the scientist with a bit mixed emotions, but he emitted an aure of sincere and Mizu, could tell that this man bring no harm. Not like the other. So, he nodded. "What should I do then? To become like your kind, I mean. The people outside might be very suspicious if you came out with..me." he asked, completely at lost about what he should do.

He saw some of the bottles that Nathan put on the ground and took them. "I want a very detail explanation after this." He said. Mizu's face turned serious all of sudden. Sure, he would love to save his planet, or something but, he just can't jump on things that he didn't know.

Nathan smiled. He could tell Mizu was warming up to him, he really, really was going to go back with him! He had so many questions, so much research to do...and well of course, convince headquarters not to touch the planet. The latter wasn't as exciting, but hopefully he would have to explain everything at a later time. For now he could just focus on smuggling Mizu in as a human.

“You'll have to pretend to be very ill...and sluggish—so don't say anything. You'll just have to lean your weight on me.” He carefully attached the mask to cover Mizu's face. He smirked as Mizu took the bottles from the floor. Nathan opened his bag and gently took him from Mizu's hands and into the bag. “Promise. First thing once we get settled, I'll explain it.”

Outside of the cave were only three of the crew members, and upon seeing the strange man leaning on Nathan, they all tensed up in shock, unsure of what to do.

“What are all of you gaping at? I've got a wounded man here from the first landing—it's a miracle he even survived. Hurry up and get us on board!”

The men all chanted “Y-Yes sir!”, while two hesitantly opened the ship gate and another held Nathan's equipment for him. After rushing the “patient” to Nathan's infirmary lab, he ordered the crew members away, snatched his bag, and closed the door. When he was finally at ease, he removed his mask and sighed with relief. Those sure got uncomfortable after awhile. Nathan searched his cupboards for something particular, took out a gas tank to connect it to the mask. His hands roamed a button on the mask, but paused and turned to Mizu.

“Alright...I'm going to take your mask off, but I'm going to check to make sure you can breathe our oxygen. If not, tell me okay?”

He slowly began taking the mask off and could feel himself sweating with anxiety. Boy, he hoped Mizu could adapt to their atmosphere, he didn't know how much of that specific gas they had on hand. Surprisingly though, he didn't look so sluggish or very effected by the atmosphere, so there was a very good possibility he was adaptable.

It feels weird when Nathan placed the mask on his face. It's suffocating and he couldn't see anything clearly. When they're ready to get out, Mizu make sure that his body went limp and he leaned all of his weight to the taller man, who immediately helped him. He also heard the man talking with the guards when they came out of the cave.

Mizu tried hard not to tense his body, or they cover might blown and he will be shot on where he's standing. Even with his regenerative power, he could still feel the pain and he hates that. Though, when they get inside the so called ship, he couldn't help but to feel weird at the metalic sensation on his bare feet. It feels...strange, that the floor is slippery and cold, comparing to the rough, and rocky ground back at the cave.

He was led into a room and everything went quiet. Mizu covered his ears in panic, but he gave a relieved sigh at Nathan's voice. He could feel the doctor's fingers around the mask, and he nodded. After that, Nathan took his mask off and Mizu couldn't help but to held his breath.

Cold. Bright. And...suffocating.

He exhaled, then inhaled, but at the sudden change of 'oxygen', he coughed violently. The small demon could feel tears filled his eyes, and he covered his mouth. After a few minutes, his coughing finally calmed down. He could breath a bit normally at the foreign atmosphere, well, at least he tried.

After seeing Mizu immediately burst into a coughing fit, Nathan grabbed his shoulders and was prepared to put him back on the gas, but then noticed his breathing ease up. He let out a sigh of relief. Nathan quickly reached over to grab some lightweight slippers and began putting them on Mizu's feet. Instead of a scientist or a doctor, he was feeling like he was some kind of nurse now. “Sorry, If you're feet are still cold, I could give you some socks, maybe pants to wear under your clothes...Just let me know, if you feel uncomfortable.”

Nathan turned away to grab the bottles from the equipment bag, and showed them to Mizu. “Like I promised, I'll answer any questions you have...so I suppose you wanted to know about these bottles. You see, our people no longer live on the planet we come from. Unlike your kind, we can't easily adapt to things and our bodies are fragile, so we always need resources for our ships and for ourselves. We need resources for everything, actually, it's pitiful. We can test different planet's materials to see if they have what we need, but the water I took...” Nathan sighed and started writing labels on the bottles. He then placed them in a refrigerated cabinet along with plenty other samples. “I take them of my own volition. For years I've been looking for other kinds of life, things that used to be on our planet. Little things like fishes or organisms, but I never thought I'd meet a being like you...but I just don't know what you are...”

Nathan had many questions, and he wanted to ask Mizu what exactly was he, but first thing first was any questions he had. He cleared his throat and leaned against one of the counters.

Mizu stared at his feet, and moved his toes around the slippers. It feels nice actually. But, pants, he barely know what it was. Maybe some kind of stuff that humans wear, perhaps Nathan have 'pants' on his body. He actually felt comfortable enough after the coughing earlier, the ship are cold and he likes it a lot. Mizu hates hot and humid places, that's why he stayed in the cave for a long time.

He listened when Nathan explained about the bottles to him, and he raised his eyebrows. Well, just because you lost your planet, doesn't mean that your kind can destroy another planets like that. He wanted to say it but he kept it to himself instead. When Nathan said that he doesn't know what kind of creature he is, Mizu pulled up his yukata sleeve and turned his hand into water. The liquid floated on the air where his hand was. "I am a demon." He said.

"A water demon, to be exact. My body can turn into a water, or bring water from my planet. Though I never tried it from another place." He shrugged and turned back his hand to his original shape. He traced the scar around his neck with his fingers and sighed. "Some of your kind cut off my head few days ago. But, I am somewhat...immortal. I could grow back all my lost body part." He stared at Nathan, waiting for his reaction.

At first Nathan thought he had misheard something when Mizu said “demon”, so he turned around with a weary smile and was going to ask him to repeat his last statement...but found the mans hand had literally turned into water! Nathan let out something of a low scream and clumsily lost his balance, but picked himself back up by grabbing onto the counter behind him. “A d-demon? For real?” When Nathan thought demon, he thought of something supernatural, something with a goat head and a lions body or something...but in reality it was a pretty general term that could have meant different things. Nathan was completely in shock that a creature from another planet was something totally different from what he thought an alien life form would be. He adjusted his glasses and got up closer to Mizu to hear him out.

“No way...a demon?” After Mizu had finished, Nathan was amazed. He took a seat beside Mizu and continued examining him with a smile. “Tell me more about your kind, Mizu...do you know any more of your kind? Is this your true form? Have you ever...left your home?” His questions didn't feel like they had any correlation to each other, but he just asked whatever popped into his mind.

He was veeeeery amused by the reaction. Usually, humans tends to see demons as a menacing, scary and harmful creature. But not with Nathan. He just, went out straight to ask about his own curiosity. Such an interesting human. "Well, I am the only one of my kind so.. I'm not quite sure about it." He answered with his shoulders slightly raised.

"But, I can hear well when I am under the water. My ears a bit hurting when I'm outside of it." Now, come to think of it, his ears doesn't hurt since he came to this room. "I also.. don't need to breathe in water. And I have this, semi-fast regenerating ability. Though the scar won't fade that much." He began talking with a smile on his face. It's nice to talk with someone that could understand about his, harmless behaviors. Why would he hurt someone when they completely did nothing to him? That doesn't even make sense.

When Nathan asked him about his true form, he looked away from the scientist face. He was feeling uncomfortable. "Well, I don't really wanna talk about my.. 'true form'. It's ugly, and scary. Many creatures has been afraid of it so I don't want to remember. I know I am just running away but.. it's better than having to use my form again, and scare anything off." Mizu was a really, sociable demon. He loves to talk with the creatures on his planet. "I never left my 'home'." He whispered, barely audible.

Mizu opened his mouth to talk, but a knock on the door made him close his mout again. Tsk, always. Humans really have their timing to disturb him when he's talking, not Nathan though.

Nathan's eyes were glued to Mizu while he listened to him answer his questions. he had a true form, which explained Mizu's humanoid form. And as far as Mizu knew, he was the only one of his kind...an immortal demon with extraordinary powers. It sounded a bit lonely to him, the more Nathan thought about it. He'd have a write down a full account of everything later, when things winded down. Suddenly they both heard a knock.

Ah, shit. It was none other than commanding officer Jean here to stick his nose in Nathan's business. Nathan let out a sigh as he confirmed the smug face through the answering monitor. “Dr. Mitra, I'm here to check up on this... “survivor” of yours. That's an order.”

The guy had a habit of omitting “sir” and his first name, just to show off his status. Nathan clicked his tongue and quickly turned back to Mizu. “Mizu, don't speak to him, just let me do the talking.” He then cleared his throat and hesitantly opened the door for Jean. The guy strode in passed Nathan and took a glance of the setup. “Hm. This place is a disaster as usual. Can't believe this is what the colony's tax dollars are going towards.” the man shook his head and then noticed Mizu. While he stared him down with a glare, Nathan came in front of Jean's view and waved his arms. “Don't bother interrogating him here, he's still in shock. He's a survivor of the first landing, probably.”

“Possibly from the first landing? Are you screwed up, Doctor Frankenstien? You're telling me you let an unidentified man on my ship?”

“He's completely unarmed and isn't showing any abnormal signs. You can question him when he gets better...but not right now. Even when we're not in the colony, that's the law.” Nathan crossed his arms. “You can take your leave, Sir Jean.”
The man's face twitched and he scoffed. “Well fine. That's not all I came for, however. We don't have enough beds so your little patient will have to either sleep in here or in your room. Lastly, we're reaching the Cloris 59 outpost in three days. You better have something good to show to HQ...” The man smirked and started walking towards the door. “Well, I certainly hope you don't. Worthless 'scholars' like yourself are wastes of time. The colony has better things to do than to be entertaining mad scientists.”

As soon as Nathan heard the door close, he slid to the ground, completely forgetting Mizu was there.
The bastard planned this. He sent that damn rescue team to get him off the planet just so he wouldn't be able to do proper research. And he might have had legal justification for it, too. Nathan had nothing good to show for HQ, and couldn't even think of anything to make up. Maybe the good part of it all was maybe they'd leave Mizu's planet alone, but...maybe they'd send another team just to do another check? Nathan groaned and ran his fingers through his hair.

Mizu don't like this guy called Jean. He emitted some hateful atmosphere around the demon and Mizu tried hard to keep his mouth shut. He doesn't want to get Nathan into more trouble than this. And how Jean stared at him with a glare, that made him quite uneasy, as if the man was trying to pry a secret from him.

As the commander left, the demon saw how Nathan slid down to the floor in a dejected manner, and Mizu approached him. The blue haired demon sat on the floor, right in front of the scientist. "I can help you with your research." Mizu muttered loud enough for him to hear. Hope Nathan didn't forget about him being a demon slash creature from another planet. Maybe it's a plus point that he's immortal and could regenerate quite fast.

Mizu turned his head to look around the room, and he found a wilted plant with a label on the pot. He assumed that it was from another planet, and Nathan was trying to make it live in their atmosphere. He pulled himself up and walked to the table, where the plant sit on it. The demon picked it up and blew on the leaves.

Bubbles coming out from his mouth and surrounded the plant, and as they popped, the plant looked fresh as new. Mizu smiled and went to approach Nathan once more. "I can help you with reviving the dead plants or gather any water samples. But, I need to figure out if my power could do that from here or not." He explained while placing the pot on Nathan's hand. Mizu really wants to be a help to this man.