He sees what she's trying to do, so he crosses his arms, standing his ground. He listens to her speech, not liking it, and when she finally asked if he was with her...he finally says everything he's feeling.

"I've had humans afraid of what I was my entire life, I know what fear does! And I've seen people who use that fear on purpose. It got him what he wanted for a while, but people were always trying to defeat him, then they did. As for me, that fear only ever got harpoons pointed at me, so I'm really not seeing the benefits there. And sure, if you're living in the human world there's the money thing, but..."

He pauses, thinking about it. Aside from winning money for the vespa, he didn't really think about money all that much. As the air begins to dry his scales, skin once again replaces them.

"I still don't know how money works other than that you can win it in contests and sell fish for it, so I can't really comment on that. But I just...I don't even know you, why are those my only choices?"

Because being with someone or being their enemy seems a little extreme when he knows pretty much nothing about this girl.