When the machine found the incident he quickly went in, and when the bullet was about to hit her, he stopped time for everyone with the exception of himself and queen Otohime.
She was frozen with shock and sadness, she almost looked like she was also frozen in time, so Ars had to get her attention. He got closer to her and said calmly.
"I know that being so close to death sucks, but do you mind giving me a few seconds of your time?"
She nodded, absently minded.
Ars then started explaining.
"As you see, you are about to die, so I came here to give you 2 options. The first you stay here and die, nothing will change, and for you everything ends here. The other, is you come with me and sign a confidentiality contract that will forbid you from, reveling your true name to anyone i don't authorize, revelinnnng how you got back to life or my association with it, and finally forbids you from talking about any of my skills, but you will live. So what's your choice?"
She, still shocked, returned a question.
"Why would a fishman kill me?"
Ars realized why she was so shocked, until now he thought that she was just shocked she was about to die, but instead she was shocked that she was going to die at the hands of a fishman, someone she never expected to be killed by. He didn't know how to comfort her, so he answered quite directly even if it sounded brutal.
"Simply put, not everyone wants the same as you, and that fishman especially hates your goal, so he stopped you by getting rid of you and blaming it on a human."
She looked at Ars and nodded.
"I accept."
The moment she uttered those words a different body was in her place, and as they were living she saw that body falling on the ground, lifeless, and murmured.
"So I still died."
The moment they got out of the machine Ars commented, trying to cheer her up.
"I know it must be hard, but we gonna start with changing your name, do you have any idea?"
She was still a bit shaken and denied having any idea, so Ars thought about it quickly and said.
"Since your original name was Otohime, that kinda translates to princess Oto, lets call you OtoJoō, that can be translated as queen Oto."
She nodded and before anything else was said she asked hopefully, with almost tears in her eyes.
"Can I see my children and husband?"
Ars thought about it, she could see them, but they couldn't know it was her, at least not yet. So he told her of that option.
"You can but they can't see you as you are and nobody can recognize you, so your appearance will be changed quite a bit..."
"I don't want to be a stranger…"
Ars wasn't mad he got interrupted, and he decided to delay the trip to fisherman island for a few hours and call Denn to talk.
He took her to a private room, and asked one of the maids to go call Tom and his guest.
Shortly after they arrived, Ars explained the situation.
Finally Den asked Ars.
"Didn't you say she could meet them as long as very few people knew of who she was, as long as those people were trustworthy and that after meeting her again they would need to keep living their lives like she wasn't back?"
Ars nodded. But before anyone said something he asked.
"And do you think a hooded figure can reach royals in any place easily?"
Ars then added.
"The moment she approaches she will be seen, by almost everyone present, because if she isn't seen, she will most likely be killed by the guards to protect the royal family the moment they spot her in disguise, the moment she forces her way to approach them she is most likely dead or arrested, and neither of those options end well for me and for her at the same time. So she has no choice other than to change her appearance, and see her children from afar at least for now."
She started weeping and she said between sobs.
"There must be a way, I want my children, my husband, my friends and my citizens to recognize me in the future."
Ars answer was simple.
"Yes, yes, maybe if they are close ones and no. No matter what you do, most likely your citizens with a few exceptions should never know you are back from the dead, that would only cause problems for me, you and your family… Maybe way down the line, you will be allowed to but for now, it is a no."
She sighed, she understood now, why Ars was denying her request. In short, revealing that she was back, put a lot in the light for everyone to see. And that was something Ars wouldn't allow.
Kuina, who was waiting with Tom and Den, to go to fishman island had come along, and she proposed a possible solution to the problem.
"Why not grant her one ability, I know you have been working on an ability called dual form for the future, that's supposed to allow fluid transformation between 2 races. That way she can keep her mermaid appearance as it is, and you can just transform her human form. And she will only appear in her human form in public."
Tom was curious about this skill, so he asked Ars about it.
"What is the skill she is talking about?"
Ars was contemplating that possibility, it would indeed solve the problem, he decided to explain and see their reactions before making a final decision.
"You know how a user of an Akuma no mi of the zoan type is capable of changing freely between human form, hybrid form and full beast form?"
They all nodded and he continued.
"Then you also know that while fishman and humans don't share the same race, they share the same blood types?"
They all nodded again. Ars then finished his explanation.
"So after researching for a bit a realized that fishman and other races, have very similar DNA to humans, is just that humans are missing some of those parts of the DNA that give the other races their unique appearances, you can think of it this way, human DNA plus x gives you a fishman, but the same human DNA with y instead gives you a giant. I simply gathered that with the research on the transformation of zoans, and I created an ability that is capable of suppressing those x and y, and transform the user between their race and human form freely, according to the user's wishes. It's very similar how a zoan works"
Everyone was looking at him confused, so he simplified.
"It's an ability that allows any race with a few common points with humans to freely transform into human and back to their original race when they wish to."
Tom then simplified it even more, much to the displeasure of Ars.
"So it's a half assed zoan that can only change your appearance."
Ars was quite angry about that rude remark, but he decided to confirm it.
"Something like that… But it also affects some racial abilities."
He refused to try to explain again...
Otojoō considered her options, and decided to go with this one.
"So, what do I need to do?"
Ars just smiled and commented, you just need to give me your hand. Kuina and Tom knew what was coming but Den and Otojoō had no idea that she was about to be teleported.
The moment her hand touched his, they disappeared, leaving Den with a bewildered face.
Once inside he called over the computer so she could get abilities. But before they started Ars asked.
"Do you prefer painless but it takes days or painful but it takes minutes?"
She said seriously.
"Do it fast."
He nodded, took a sample from her and went to the injection machine, after a few minutes he created an injection for her.
He gave her the injection and she looked at him, like she was asking what she should do.
So he told her with a serene smile on his face.
"You just need to inject it in any place of your preference."
She just stabbed it into her arm and in just a few seconds, she was flailing helplessly on the ground from the horrible pain, screeching loud enough that he fell that the glass on the laboratory would break.
Ars just stood there watching and drinking tea he had taken from the previous room.
After close to 2 hours of pain the pain subsided and she got the skill to transform, now she only needed to learn how to control it properly.
She took longer than expected to even transform once. And her appearance didn't change much, her roundish face slimed down, but not by much, and the only thing that was very noticeable was that now she had a pair of human legs.
She tried to walk, but she was not used to them, and took her close to an hour before she could walk decently, after that Ars looked her up and down, which made her ask.
"What?"
He replied calmly.
"Your appearance barely changed, and does it take effort to stay in this form or it's like a switch that's only hard to transform but then it takes no effort staying in that form?"
Otojoō realized he was just curious about how the skill worked since she was the first to receive it, and he was also a bit worried about her appearance not changing enough. She returned a question, before replying with a kind smile.
"Since I'm a human right now, they probably will just think of me as a doppelganger, no? And it's the second option, it takes absolutely no effort to stay in this form."
Ars started looking at her up and down and then commented.
"Are you sure you don't want to change anything about your body? It's not like nature gave you very good assets, other than a decently cute face, I could give you a few extra curves so you would stop being a plank… Wait, maybe you're straighter than a plank… "
She just looked at him with half closed eyes and said very slowly.
"I like it this way."
Ars raised both his hands in an act of surrender. Then he grabbed her and gave her the contract for her to sign.
After confirming that the contract was nothing bad for her, besides the punishment for breaking it, and the rest of it, Ars had already informed her, so she signed it off.
Then he said to her.
"For now practice your transformation, until you can switch freely."
She nodded, and was going to start straight away, but Ars grabbed her and teleported them outside, it was now night and everyone was asleep.
He signaled her to follow and she nodded, when they arrived at the dining room, Elia was awaiting them.
"Do you wish to eat now?"
They both nodded at her, and she went to prepare a meal that suited the mermaid tastes.
When she came back with the food she realized that Otojoō was practicing her transformation, since she was now back to her mermaid form.
She smiled at her and put her food in front of her, and then the same type of food in front of Ars. Who just sighed. Then he remembered… He had forgotten to accept the mermaid cook's apologies.
Then he decided that he would accept them… If he remembered.
The next morning, Ars got up and went to search for Otojoō. She had a bit of a dark circle over her eyes, so Ars asked confused.
"Did you not find your bed comfortable?"
She looked at him and replied a bit exhausted.
"It wasn't that, I slept for 1 or 2 hours but had a nightmare, and woke up… Then I spent the rest of the night practicing my transformation. Now I can do it almost instinctively."
Ars nodded, this skill was supposed to be easy to use, since in short terms, it was a switch, and the hardest part of it was transforming a few times at first, from there it only got easier. He nodded and told her.
"Let's have breakfast and after that we will go to fishman island."
When they arrived at the dining room, everyone else was already here.
They ate and once done, Ars took Kuina who was ready from the previous day and Otojoō, to go meet Tom and Den, near the former's house.