The next day, when I woke up in the morning, Saotome Seiko looked at me with a weird expression in her eyes. But that awkward, kinda flirty atmosphere got broken pretty quick when El showed up.
Doraemon and the rest of us were soon led by El into the prime minister's workspace, which was basically the heart of this underwater country. The place was decked out with these obvious underwater-themed flags everywhere—stuff like a harpoon surrounded by two fish. We followed those double-fish flags down the hall until we reached a big door.
Pushing it open, we stepped into what looked like a grand assembly hall. The layout reminded me of those courtrooms I'd seen on TV, with a judge in the middle and a jury off to the side. From my perspective, this didn't feel like a normal meeting between underwater people and us land-dwellers. It felt more like they were putting us on trial.
The hall was already packed with people, mostly a bunch of old guys who held all the power in this country. But when we were brought into the central hub, there was no warm welcome like I'd imagined. Instead, it felt like we were suspects sitting in the defendant's box at a trial. And yeah, that's exactly what it was—a trial.
Three old men sat in the judgment seats. The one in the middle was the prime minister of the Mu Federation, wearing red clothes that stood out from the green ones the other old guys had on.
The prime minister in red spoke first. "'Welcome, land-dwellers,' I'd like to say that, but honestly, you're uninvited guests! But since you're here, there's nothing we can do about it!"
"The important thing is, you've crossed our borders and learned of our existence. For that reason, we can't let you leave."
"Of course, consider yourselves lucky! We're generously granting you citizenship, allowing you to live in this country. From now on, you'll live here peacefully and never leave."
The Mu Federation's prime minister looked down at us with this superior attitude, like he was some big shot.
Then he continued in that high-and-mighty tone: "Also, two of you won't get citizenship. After the mental scan the day before yesterday, one has violent tendencies, and the other has a habit of lying. So they'll be arrested."
"What? Who are you calling violent?"
"What? Who are you calling a liar?"
Suneo and Giant shouted in unison, totally pissed off, like, "Are you implying that's us?!"
"We don't want your citizenship! We're going home tomorrow."
"And you're the ones who forced us here! You think we wanted to come?!" Doraemon was fuming at their attitude, like it was all our fault.
"Land-dwellers, you're being insolent!" The two old guys next to him got mad, as if their authority was being challenged by us detainees daring to speak up.
"They should be arrested for contempt of court."
"You land-dwellers massively overfish, dump factory waste and radioactive materials into the ocean, and shamelessly plunder deep-sea resources."
"Prime Minister, for the future of the Mu Federation, I demand they be sentenced to death."
The other old guys in the jury seats started chiming in with their nonsense.
"According to Mu Federation criminal law, crossing the border is punishable by death."
Another old guy flipped open a book of Mu Federation laws and said it all serious-like.
"What? Prime Minister, how can you do this? This is way too extreme!" El was stunned too, like, how did it suddenly turn into a death sentence?
This was ridiculous.
El couldn't stand it anymore! His sense of justice wouldn't let him just watch without doing something.
"Why use a moldy law from 10,000 years ago to sentence a bunch of kids? Isn't that utterly absurd?"
El was trying to stop them, even if they were biased against land-dwellers, they couldn't just execute us! That would make them no different from the worst land-dwellers.
"Alright, alright, order!" The prime minister spoke, and the whole room went quiet.
"To maintain the principle of a fair trial, I'll give you one chance."
"Prime Minister!" El thought he'd actually be fair.
"I won't pursue the contempt of court if you hand over those two criminals and agree to never leave here, as per the deal."
He acted like he was doing us a huge favor, expecting us to be grateful.
But that just pissed off Doraemon and the rest of us.
"Who are you calling criminals? We're not criminals!"
"What are you even saying? We're leaving this place."
"And we're not abandoning Suneo and Giant! They're our friends!"
Doraemon, Suneo, and Giant shouted in protest, and even Shizuka and Saotome Seiko were so mad their cheeks turned red with anger.
You could tell how infuriating those underwater people's baseless accusations were.
Seeing Doraemon and us daring to talk back, showing no remorse, the old guys got even angrier and started yelling to execute us right away.
The prime minister frowned and was about to call in guards to take control.
That's when I couldn't hold back anymore and started cursing!
"Old geezers, I've been annoyed with you for a long time!"
"You damn old bastards!"
"Acting all high and mighty, huh? Don't think I don't know the truth about you underwater people. What's with this 'underwater supremacy' crap? Pretending to be pure little angels?"
"You're always fighting with the Atlantis, and you've been at it for nearly a thousand years—way more violent than us land-dwellers."
"And talking about pollution? Don't tell me your underwater tech skipped straight over steam and electricity to what you have now, with zero pollution? Then why hasn't your tech taken off like a cow flying to space? Why stick around in this crappy seabed?"
"Plus, blaming the whole group for a few people's pollution? I didn't get any benefits from the riches, but I have to bear all the blame? You're just bullying the weak!"
"And what kind of bullshit laws are these? Have they been recognized by our countries? You just judge us?"
"You only pick on us kids. If you're so tough, why not go judge the big countries on land? Bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong."
"You underwater people! You're trash! Worse than trash!"
I blurted out every curse word from this life and my past one all at once.
Man, that felt amazing!
The whole room went dead silent, like you could hear a pin drop.
Not just the underwater people—even Doraemon and the others didn't expect someone to straight-up start cursing.
And it was all dirty words, no repeats.
Even Suneo and Giant had just shouted back; they didn't dare actually curse.
After all, insulting all the leaders in a national assembly? Who'd be crazy enough to do that?
It was like stomping on the country's face.
Who knew the biggest rebel was among us? The usual pushover?
But Shizuka and Saotome Seiko thought I looked really cool right then.
Of course, the cursing felt awesome.
And cursing out the authorities in court? Like a fearless warrior standing up to power.
Their eyes were sparkling as they looked at me.
The prime minister was shaking with rage—someone had insulted them in court, and he couldn't even think of a comeback.
"You're insolent!"