Ship in a Bottle

by Timeandtimeaga1n

Summary:

Senior year, Sara agrees to go on a beach trip with her friends. She wants this trip to be the first step in living a more enjoyable life. She gets more than she expected for a “first step”.

For the first time in her life, Sara was preparing to go on holiday with only her friends as company.

 

At the end of their final exams, the group of friends she’d made during her time in school had agreed that they’d all take a trip to the beach. Raiden Ei, the one Sara had known the longest of the group, mentioned in passing that her parents had a house along the coast that they’d offered to let them stay at for a few weeks if they wanted to get away before they went on with their lives. A few of them, namely Thoma Ragnvindr and Shikanoin Heizou, had absolutely jumped at the chance. Despite being childhood friends with Ei, Thoma had never been to her family’s beach house. And Heizou loved the idea of getting to go on a trip with his friends since it gave him the opportunity to try out new hair to fit the experience. He’d been having fun dyeing his hair ever since he was allowed to, and he’d announced it would be a fun surprise when they left for the trip what he’d done with it.

 

Ei, Thoma, and Sara had all gone to the same school growing up, and then Heizou joined the trio when they all started the same secondary school at the same time. With her, she brought Kaedehara Kazuha Kazuha, her own school-friend-from-a-few-years-back into the mix. The last member of the group was one of Sara’s own friends, Kuki Shinbou, who had no idea that she’d become friends with everyone in the way she had. Especially not to the point where she’d be invited along for the trip.

 

Then again, she wouldn’t be the only surprise guest. Thoma had also told him last minute that his parents would be busy for part of the time and wouldn’t be around to look after his little half-sister, Klee. And so, along with Sara’s own close friend, they had the addition of a 12-year-old girl with a deep adoration for animals coming along to study the wildlife as much as she could in their natural home. Luckily everyone loved Klee like their own family, so she was more than welcome.

 

“Do you think it's okay for us to take big suitcases?” Sara threw the last of the clothes she’d dragged out of her wardrobe into the bag and sighed. She’d brought out the larger suitcase that her family offered, but now she was packing it she wondered if she needed this much luggage. She really didn't want to be the one to bring too much.. “I mean, how big is yours?”

 

“You’re fine, Kujou.” The voice of Shinbou came through the speaker of her phone, less exasperated than her words let on. “It’ll be a good two weeks - you’ll need some stuff.”

 

Even with the encouragement, Sara groaned. She finally looked over everything in her bag - and her room - and decided she’d likely packed enough. It wasn’t even that she’d left this to the day of leaving, she’d just kept panicking and changing her mind until the last moment possible. Now Ei was on her way to pick her up, and she had approximately five minutes to do her last minute checks before she’d be there. So, no pressure. Which reminded her... “Are you almost here, Shinbou? They’ll be here soon.”

 

“Hmm, I’m about...” She trailed off, and the doorbell rang almost a moment later. “Here.”

 

In the time it took Sara to zip up her bag, as well as shove a final clothing change in there, her parents had already let her into the house and called for her to come down. She lugged the suitcase down the stairs to greet her and her, thankfully, similarly-sized bag to hers.

 

“Good to see you.” Smiling, she hung up the phone at last and slipped it into the pockets of her shorts. She was absolutely not dressed for the beach. Instead, she’d chosen her regular appearance of knee length shorts and a shirt in varying shades of beige, along with an overly-thick. “Ready to go?”

 

She nodded, patting her suitcase one last time before making her way out of the room to say goodbye to her parents. They were both home at the same time for once, specifically to see her before she left. It was a quick conversation, since it was cut short by Shinbou yelling that she could see an unfamiliar car outside of the house, and so she made her way out the front of the house. She was, admittedly, grateful for them letting her go away for two weeks on a trip. If it wasn’t for the fact she’d known most of them for so long, they likely wouldn’t have agreed as readily. So she savored every moment of freedom while bringing her belongings out to the car.

 

The side door of the car, which was much bigger than the one Ei usually drove, slid open before she managed to get to it, and she smiled when Heizou leapt out of the seat to help open the back of the car. Which he really didn’t need to do, but seemed so excited that neither Sara nor Shinbou could say no. And it didn’t take long for Sara to notice what he’d clearly been so secretive about.

“Heizou! I love your hair!” She exclaimed, and Heizou practically beamed at her. His previously all-red hair had been mostly dyed a vibrant blue, except for the front strands, which had been left the same color as before, creating a striking contrast.

 

As they climbed into the car, Kazuha gave them a gentle wave from his seat across from Heizou. Sara and Shinbou took their places at the back of the car, with Klee seated in the spot between them. She then proceeded to throw herself at Sara before she could even grab her seatbelt, and pulled her into a death-grip of a hug.

 

“Hey, Ei! Is this a new car?” Shinbou called up to the front, where Ei was sitting in the driver’s seat.

 

She looked over her shoulder, shaking her head. “It’s my dad’s. He takes it when he has a solid number of people to drive around, or if he needs the extra space. Luckily he said it was free, or we’d need another car to take everyone.”

Sara laughed silently. Trust her family to have a car this big. 

 

Without any further delay, they pulled away from Sara’s house. Klee almost automatically pulled out her phone to show her the latest development on one of her games, and the group fell into their own regular discussions or, in Thoma’s case, dramatic performances of whatever songs were coming on the radio. Eventually, everyone began joining in, and they ended up enjoying the typical roadtrip vibes they’d hoped for.

 

The journey was thankfully feeling a lot shorter than she’d expected, most likely down to the company she was with. She watched through the window as the roads slowly shifted from long motorways to winding paths along the countryside.

 

“I spy, with my little eye....” Kazuha peered out of his window, finally getting the excitement of being the in-game spy. He thought for a moment. “Something beginning with...”

 

“Sea!” Heizou eventually called out, and everyone shifted to look out to where he was pointing. Sure enough, the ocean could be seen out in the horizon. Some lingered at their windows more than others, even after Kazuha mentioned how that wasn’t what his choice was going to be. It wasn’t long until he managed to complete his turn, at least.

 

A few rounds later, when it came to Ei guessing correctly, she chose that she spied something with the letter ‘B’.

 

Some guesses passed, but it wasn't long until they completely exhausted any options they could think of, and the group admitted defeat. She threw a look over her shoulder, smiling to herself as she guided the car down one last turn before pulling over. “The answer is.. the beach house.”

 

Sara looked out at the building in awe. The walls of the house were all either painted white or decked in floor-to-ceiling windows, and it was undoubtedly larger than she’d expect a holiday home to be. It was two stories, surrounded by a wide space of grassy garden at the front and a small fire pit around the side. By the looks of things, the property lines sat at the edge of a small drop, lined with a short, glossy white fence, where the ground became sand and extended toward the ocean. And it was gorgeous.

 

Everyone else clearly thought so, too, as they all stared out at it. The first to get out was Thoma, and the rest of the group scampered after him.

 

“Damn...” Kazuha muttered, grabbing the first of the bags out of the car. Everyone began to help him out, claiming what they'd brought from the trunk and any of the extras they’d bought. “Nice place.”

 

Ei led the way up the path to the front door, unlocking it to let everyone inside. “Thoma and I are taking the main room, Klee’s got the room next to us so we can keep an eye on her, and then it’s up to the rest of you where you guys want to go. There are two rooms down there,” she said, gesturing down the hall past the kitchen. “And then there are the two free rooms upstairs now.”

 

“I’m happy to stay down here!” Heizou piped up. “It saves me having to take everything upstairs all the time.”

 

“Me too, I’m good with being on the ground floor. I’m up earlier than most of you so I wouldn’t want to wake you up all the time.” Looking out of the back window, Kazuha stared out across the ocean. “It looks lovely from here.”

 

Ei agreed to show them to the two rooms, while the others decided to save time by throwing their cases upstairs while they waited. It wasn’t long before footsteps raced up the steps to meet them.

 

“Thoma, our room is at the end there. And Klee, your room is the one to the right at the corridor.” She gestured loosely down the hall, letting Klee bound down to her room. A decisive ‘woah!’ sounded, and from the clanging Sara could only guess she was having a fun time unpacking. “The two rooms here are yours! One of them is slightly bigger, and the other has an en suite, so it’s between you two which one you’d rather take.”

 

The two of them looked between each other, and the decision wasn’t a hard one to make. It was obvious that Sara would likely need the bathroom time a little more than Shinbou would. Especially if they were swimming, she’d need the space to sort her hair out without it getting too uncontrollable.

 

Sara made her way into her designated room. Even if it was smaller, it was by far a generous size. There was a double bed close to the furthest wall, and chest of drawers parallel to the end of it. A small desk sat beside that, with a bendable lamp perched on the top. She dropped her case onto the bed, unzipping it and placing all of her clothes away where she could. It was strangely nice to get to lay out everything she’d brought with her neatly into the drawers. Her sketchbook found a home on the desk, and then most of the rest of her things were either electronics or to go into the bathroom. The only remaining things were a small pillow she liked to take with her, as well as some comfort plush toys.

 

And so, with their sleeping arrangements decided and sorted, the group rejoined downstairs. Ei explained there was also a communal bathroom both upstairs and downstairs, as well as a double garage that currently housed her car, and two tables for pool and ping pong. Those in particular gained a favorable response from Heizou and Thoma, who’d always been competitive with games. Kazuha and even Shinbou were excited to try them out. Klee, however, was already fixated on the back of the house.

 

“There’s a pool? Right next to the ocean?”

 

At the words, everyone made their way to look. Sure enough, there was a curved pool with a hot tub built, slightly raised, beside it. Sara turned to Ei in disbelief. “How on earth does your family have this?”

 

“We just do.” She laughed. “You know they’ve always been heavy on working, particularly making as much money as they can, and this is the result. He originally bought it to rent out as a villa for tourists, but got way too attached.”

Silently saying ‘oh’, Sara shot a quick look outside. “Maybe we should all go explore! It'd be nice to check out the beach.”

 

Her friends agreed, once they finished putting away the remaining food from their drive. They’d luckily brought lunches with them, even though they’d mostly eaten snacks on the journey, so they finished off what they had. It at least meant they only had one meal to worry about that night before they’d have to go to a shop the next day to buy some supplies for proper meals. And the first night was the designated takeaway night anyway.

 

It was late afternoon by the time everyone had gotten unpacked and settled, and pretty soon they decided their time would be better spent exploring the shoreline. They had plenty of time to check it out, but Klee was already way too excited to wait for too long. Not to mention the rest of the group.

 

The first thing they did was decide to stick together and scour the beach for what sort of activities they could do. Thoma wanted to find the ‘ideal burial spot’, whatever that meant, as well as the best places for him to climb and create a home. Which, in turn, meant Ei wanted to follow to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. Heizou and Klee had a joint plan of finding the most interesting animals and shells possible, so the water-based jewelry that he’d envisioned could finally take off. Most of what Kazuha hoped for was finding the best places for them to rest and possibly play games, which didn’t take long. They’d also stocked up on board games if they ran out of physical games to play. And Shinbou was just focused on swimming as much as possible which, incidentally, was fairly easy to do in the quiet of the shore.

 

Although it wasn’t a private beach, it was around the edge of the coastline that was accessible from the ground. No one really came down this way, as beyond it there were mostly just cliffs. According to Ei, who had spent most of her childhood vacationing at the beach, anyone walking through mostly did it as they left the nearby market. And even then most people didn’t come closer to the house itself. That just left Sara, who was happy going along with the other plans.

 

It often got her called a pushover, but she genuinely enjoyed watching her friends get excited about things like that. And she had all the scenery she could appreciate while she was there.

 

They wandered along the edge of the water, taking it in turns to see who could skip stones the furthest. Which was Ei, without any competition. She turned out to be the only one who was fully able to do it, and so she spent a bit of time showing the rest of them how to get them to skim properly.

 

By the end of it, Sara found herself feeling pretty confident in her abilities. She picked up one last stone, tossing it out toward one of the rocks out in the distance. It bounced nicely, stopping a lot closer to her than planned, but still causing a grin to spread across her face.

 

She almost didn’t notice the sudden shimmer that flickered in and out of the surface of the water. At first she thought it could have just been an odd wave, but the distinctive white color was a dead giveaway. Plus, it was too harsh in the way it splashed down to meet the waves again to be naturally occuring.

 

“Are there dolphins out here?” She caught Thoma by the arm, causing him to look between her and the water. “I mean.. Could there be dolphins?”

 

He thought for a moment. “Yep, could be. They’re actually pretty common in the summer around here. Why?”

 

“I just thought I saw one.” Sara cast another glance out. It wasn’t in sight any more, at least, so she couldn’t check to see what she saw. “It couldn’t be a shark though, right? If it’s a shark then we really shouldn’t be swimming out here, especially further away from the shore...”

 

“You’ll be fine, Sara! Shark attacks are so rare, and they haven’t happened unprovoked in so long. Movies and the media really ruined how they’re portrayed and dangerous sharks haven’t been recorded here. And if it does make you feel better, we can all go swimming together.” Smiling, he draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into an awkward, Thoma-style side hug. “What do you say?”

 

Admittedly, it didn’t fully dispel the feeling in her stomach. But when she looked out at the ocean, there was no crushing panic that hit. Instead, she felt something spurring her on. “I think we can make that work.”

 

As a whole, the beach was much larger than they’d expected, and so it was easy to kill a few hours walking around and back to the house. There’d been no other sightings of dolphins, or other sea creatures she hadn’t expected to encounter, and so it slowly became a worry of the past.

 

They’d luckily spotted some nice-looking takeaway on their journey, so they knew roughly where they could order food. The final decision was to get pizza, which they could share amongst themselves. Big orders meant benefiting greatly from the family deals, which they loved more than anything.

 

As always, it was put down to Ei to handle the phone call to order, since of the few who volunteered to handle the job, both Thoma and Shinbou would have ended up changing the orders ever so slightly to mess with everyone. And Kazuha really didn’t want to deal with another pineapple pizza like the last time it happened.

 

The living room was just as lavish as the rest of the place, with a decent sized TV nestled into a cabinet full of old DVDs. The group had begun settling themselves down on the L-shaped sofa, except for Klee who had found home on the swivel armchair to the side. She’d spent plenty of time being spun around by Shinbou, to the point where she really needed to stop unless she wanted to risk being sick.

 

“Hey, since it’s the first night, why don’t we eat outside?” Heizou dropped herself down on the sofa beside everyone, followed shortly by Ei. “The ambience of having the fire lit outside would be really lovely!”

 

“That does sound really nice!” Klee piped up.

 

It didn’t take long for them to unanimously agree that the atmosphere of sitting beside the beach was the perfect welcome to the house. And if losing time earlier was simple on the beach, it was second nature when it came to talking together through the evening. They finished off their dinner eventually, even with the heated debates that had sprung.

 

“Pineapple is fine on pizzas.” Shinbou argued, sinking further into her folding chair. “It shouldn't be as big a deal.”

 

“You literally don’t even eat the crusts.” Sighing, Kazuha gestured pointedly at the box at the side of Shinbou, which was empty except for the crusts of the slices she’d eaten.

 

Thoma, on the other hand, was enjoying swooping down to go through the boxes in the end. “They’re the best parts! You can dip them in any of the sauces and they can be anything you want.”

 

“Can we all just agree that sweet pizzas aren’t good?” Heizou weighed in. “I’ve heard of people putting fruit on them.”

 

Laughing, Ei nudged her empty box away from her feet. “Pineapple is a fruit.”

Heizou was attempting to explain herself further, but the ordeal continued to fail miserably. A few verbal games later, and countless marshmallows being either roasted or sacrificed to the flames, Klee was getting tired enough to sleep, so she made her way to bed while the others stayed out.

 

“I’m surprised KLee was allowed to come.” Sara leant closer to Thoma, who was poking one of the logs further into the flames. “I mean, I’d never be able to come on a trip, even if I had an older sibling like that at her age.”

 

He paused for a moment. “She is almost 13, and she has all of us! Plus, you’re, like, the sensible one in the group. Nothing crazy is happening when you’re here.”

 

“Me? What about Ei? Or even Kazuha! They’re better at being sensible than me.” Racking her brain, Sara tried to think of a way she could prove that she wasn’t on the same level as them, but…

 

“Ei’s got that laid back attitude but she’s also sat on a traffic cone! And Kazuha...” He laughed, trailing off as he turned to face the white-haired boy. “Well, he can be a bit of an ass. So he doesn’t count.”

 

“Hey...” Despite the serious tone, Kazuha began to chuckle as well. “It’s true, though. You’re the impulse control here.”

 

Sara looked over at Heizou, who was busy hiding across the firepit to avoid the conversation. And Shinbou was no help, laughing to herself at the way things were going. It was strange - she knew she’d always been one who talked things through with people mostly and stopped the really bad, split-second decisions that they wanted to make, but hearing people say it made her want to be more impulsive.

 

“Well, by the end of the holiday, I’ll do something impulsive!” She said, gaze flitting between everyone around her. “I’ll prove that I can at least do something no one would expect.”

 

After a few looks shared, and one murmured response from a certain white-haired boy that technically it isn’t impulsive if it’s already been planned, her friends seemed encouraging. And Sara had her homework for the summer set out in front of her.

 

She just hoped it wasn’t as bad as her usual schoolwork. If it was, she’d be screwed.

As she laid in her bed that night, Sara could hear singing. It was that same singing, barely more than a hum, that she’d heard earlier. More than likely someone having fun on their own holiday, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes.

 

She must have fallen asleep at some point, since the hum had faded out to nothing more than wind whistling through the crack in her window. She seemed to have forgotten to close her curtains as well, as now that the sun was almost rising in the distance her room was lit gently in an orange glow.

 

This light would never let her get back to sleep anyway.

 

Sighing, she stripped the covers off of herself, peering out of the window to take in the beach. She was lucky - her room was at the back of the house, and so there would be a clear view of the ocean as the sun began to lift over the horizon if she looked at the right time. For now, it was just about too far down to notice. But the sky itself was beginning to paint itself different shades of yellow and orange, that special way it only seems to do when you're away from home.

 

And all she wanted at that moment was to be outside with it.

 

Strange as the sudden feeling was, she couldn’t shake it. Even tearing her eyes from the window didn’t help, leaving her staring emptily at her bed. So instead, Sara let herself quickly change clothes and slip out of the house, grabbing her camera before she left. It was 5:30am as her phone stated, and if she was up at this criminally early hour, she would be making the most of it.

 

She thought about letting someone know that she was going, but there were very few people that she could risk waking. Everyone available would either be hellishly grouchy - sorry, Ei - if woken too early, or likely wouldn’t ruse themselves enough to understand what she was saying. Settling for leaving a note was better for her safety. She wanted to go take some nice pictures of the sunrise, and she wasn’t sure how long it would last.

 

The grassy garden was surprisingly cold against her bare feet. Not quite enough that she wished she’d brought shoes with her, but enough to encourage her in keeping her steps light and fast until she could get used to the sensation.

 

Truthfully, photography wasn’t her go-to medium. There were so many tiny details that cameras so rarely picked up... the curls of clouds, feathers on birds, dew on each individual blade of grass... Still, it was admittedly a comfortable thing to do. Calming. All she had to do was look around and press a button to capture the moment entirely.

 

At some point, the sun began leaking over the sea enough for her to see another flicker of what was unmistakably some sort of tail. She began to move closer to the garden edge, poising herself lower to the ground. Maybe she could even catch a dolphin soaring out of the water if she was lucky. She watched for as long as she could stand, holding the camera up to the area she'd first seen the movement, but nothing surfaced again. All she could hear was waves crashing against the sand, and the humming once again.

 

And in that moment, she couldn’t stop herself. She wasted no time in racing off to the end of the garden. She was grateful for the drop to the beach only being a couple of feet, so she didn’t have to stop as she made her way, and fast, over to the shoreline. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if it would be able to stop her if it was a larger drop. She felt like she was being drawn on a hook toward the sea.

 

The first thing she noted to herself was that, as expected, wearing jeans in the water was not a pleasant feeling, even as the waves only crashed around her ankles. She wished she could have thought about that in the first place. But this was supposed to be spontaneous for once. All she wanted to do was get over to one of the rocks out by the horizon, then she could rest for a minute and turn back. Just needed to see what kept surfacing there before giving up.

She was glad that she liked swimming so much. The tides were stronger than she’d expected, so by the time she was deep enough to swim properly, it was already carrying her further from the shore.

 

One strong wave in particular pulled her under, and it took a few kicks to break to the surface. Another crashed down directly above her, and she lost her composition entirely as she struggled in a breath.

 

With that wave, she was spun so many times that she didn’t know which way she was supposed to swim. She was pretty sure ‘up’ was the right way, but her internal compass didn’t exactly seem functional enough to work that out. Opening her eyes just showed a blurry mess. All she could really tell was that she was underwater, and needed to get back out.

 

When her vision adjusted more, she could tell she’d been pulled down a lot further than expected, but there was still the sunlight dancing on the surface near her.

 

As she looked around, she saw a different sort of flickering. This one was blue, similar in color to the blur of the water but just dark enough for it to be noticeable as it weaved in and out of view. The way it swished through the water... That was more natural than anything she’d seen.

 

And that was when the movement mostly stopped, and the form began to watch her. Just for a moment, but she could see that it wasn’t a dolphin or anything like that. The way it swam appeared to be some sort of sea creature, with a swishinging tail trailing behind, but it wasn’t anything she’d ever seen before.

 

Before the thought fully crossed her mind, it darted away and out of sight, and Sara finally remembered she needed to breathe. She forced herself to move, trying to get up one more time. The weight of her jeans was trying to drag her back down. Eventually her head broke the surface, and she opened her mouth to scream for help, before being met once again by the harsh waves. It was fast, way too fast, and her mouth was filled with saltwater before she knew it.

 

The wave crashed down with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs. At this point she regretted not knowing how to open her eyes in salt water more; her eyes were stinging almost as much as her chest. And by now, she was tired. Her legs were cramping, and her head was becoming dizzy from being thrown around. There was one sentence in her mind. ‘I might just die here’.

 

But she couldn’t manage much of the thought before she felt something gently slide along her shoulder, and her heart dropped as something swam around to face her.

 

The figure was slowly bobbing in the water, causing what she could make out to be light hair to dance around her. There wasn’t much else visible in the haze of the ocean, but when she looked down she could see blue. The color extended up the torso, and down further than she could see clearly. By then she could barely have her eyes open.

 

Sara began to wonder if maybe she was mistaken on thinking this was a sea creature. Perhaps a diver? Whoever it was rested too close for her to make anything out, anyway. Something traced along her cheek, brushing softly against her lips, and then cupped firmly over her nose and mouth. And then she was tilted slightly in a different direction, and whatever was holding on to her began to push through the waves.

 

She thrashed against the hold. It wasn’t like it was going to suffocate her, since she was doing a good enough job of that on her own, but the grasp was harsh and set off every fight-or-flight instinct in her body. Another hand kept her in place though, snaked around her shoulder to her back in a firm hold.

 

Weirdly enough, the humming was back, this time drifting through her ears like it was coming from her own head. It was soft but much clearer than before, and seemed to push a current through her blood that made her limbs slacken. That peaceful feeling, like nothing was wrong. Maybe it meant she was dying. She’d always heard people say death was supposed to be peaceful. If this was it, then that shouldn’t be too bad.

 

And, when Sara physically couldn’t hold her breath anymore, she felt herself gasp.

 

There was air. Actual air like what was above the water. It felt like she’d taken her first breath in days.

 

She fought the urge to open her mouth again and breathe as normal when the hand was removed from her face, and instead let herself cling on tighter as they cut through the water. The pain in her chest had already grown lighter as her head broke the surface and she was met with a bright sky.

 

Her skin slowly made contact with sand, wet and compact from the waves, until all she could feel was the waves rolling underneath her. It was hard to open her eyes, and they still stung from the salt water. She could barely raise her voice above a whisper, and the words ‘thank you’ were more than likely lost before they’d left her throat.

 

Something brushed across her forehead, soft and slow, and the last thing she remembered was being dragged further out of the waves, and a distant voice calling her name.

 

When she came to, she was greeted by the face of Shinbou.

 

“What the hell were you doing out here, Sara?” She helped her sit up further, keeping a hand on hernback to steady her. Sara was struggling to stay upright with everything spinning as much, and she spoke between shivers.

 

“I just... I went into the water. To swim. Someone helped me out." 

 

“Yeah, I saw you pulled out of the ocean and-”

 

Sara's heart skipped a beat. “So you know what they look like? You need to help me find them, and thank them..”

 

“Sara…”

 

She tried looking out around the rock again, but nothing was there. “They’d have to be here somewhere, if you help me look we can-”

 

“Sara!” She spoke sharply, holding her shoulders to stop her from standing up. It made Sara face her properly for the first time. “I saw you get pulled out. And the thing that got you wasn’t human.”

 

She listened to her for the first time, properly, about what happened. Shinbou had looked out the window, and noticed something being pulled through the water, and once it reached the shoreline she recognised it as Sara. Whatever was hovering over her was looking frantically around and, once she made eye contact with it, she began to race down to help.

 

Apparently she was right about the light hair, and the blue color wasn’t a diving suit. Instead, as she got closer she could see that they were scales, traveling from the higher part of their torso to the bottom of their tail.

Whatever helped her had a tail . A real tail that dissipated up their torso into their skin. 

 

She couldn’t get too close, as by the time she got to the back door, Sara’s savior was leaping back into the water. But she could also say there were two sky-coloured fins around where their ears would, assumedly, be.

 

Sara didn't know what to say, and Shinbou didn't press into it any more. They both had the same idea, and it sounded insane to say out loud.

 

But she could think it. And what she kept thinking about was if it was even possible for mermaids to not only be real but swimming close to the shores of Inazuma. She'd probably accuse Shinbou of lying to her - it wouldn't be the first time by far that she tried to see how gullible she was - but she wasn't the only one shaking after the encounter. Shinobu wasn't looking at her, instead staring at the ground as they quickly made their way back to the house.

 

At least no one seemed to be up yet, so the two decided to slip back into their respective rooms. Sara thought to wash the saltwater from her body, but couldn't quite bring herself to do more than tipping her head over the bath and rinsing the remnants that were in her hair. She'd had enough of the water for now.

 

And as she sat on the end of her bed, gently squeezing the water from her hair, she glanced back at the ocean. She kept reliving that moment, when she felt what she now knew was skin against her face. Not only had she seen a mermaid, what she'd believed were fictional until less than an hour ago, one had touched her. Even saved her life. Who knew what else was hidden out there in the dark, further out and deeper down than she'd ever see.

 

It was hard to look out at the waves in the same way after that.

Sara barely rested in the few hours before the first of her friends started leaving their rooms. Instead, she decided to give herself time to scroll through her phone as a distraction from the events of last night.

 

And when that didn’t work, she found herself online.

 

As it turned out there are more forums on mermaid encounters than she’d have thought. Most were short, detailing sightings of swimmers underwater who’d come across beings identical to humans, up until the tail, and a few had claimed to have gotten pictures. But they were most too blurry to make out anything of note. And the others would have easily passed as human, apart from the scales shimmering in the lowlight of the ocean. What Shinbou had described was barely human.

 

In fact, it took almost three hours for Sara to come across a single account near the area and, to her surprise and horror, it matched what he had described. The extra fins, the scales along their icy skin, the fangs... it was all there.

 

There was a diagram below recreating the creature, but Sara couldn’t look for too long. It was maddening to think that something like that would have saved her when the drawing had a widened, crazed look in its eye that could only be described as bloodlust. She wished she could have seen it for herself to know exactly what this mermaid could have wanted from her.

 

Still, there was one thing that stopped her from giving into her fear entirely. Whatever it was that found her had saved her. It had actively dragged her onto the shore. Something like that couldn’t be that dangerous.

 

That was what she’d choose to believe.

 

Eventually she had to stop reliving those moments as she heard noises from downstairs, and decided it was best to get up and join them. It beat looking through the same stories over again, or possibly finding something she didn’t want to read.

 

By the time Sara got changed out of her pyjamas, everyone had already made their way to the bottom floor, and it was a carnage of Ei and Thoma attempting to make pancakes together while everyone else “set up the table”. Which seemed to be code for Klee bossing everyone around and trying to delegate seats to everyone. Shinbou even tried to sit purposefully in the seat that Klee had chosen for herself, and only moved when Ei gave Klee permission to hit her with a towel if Shinobu didn’t move to her own seat.

 

Sara was, surprisingly, just about noticed as she stepped into the dining area of the kitchen, and was asked to take one of the chairs between Shinbou and Heizou. There was barely any time to catch her bearings before Thoma dropped a plate of food in front of her, almost knocking over her glass of water at the same time. She would have chastised him for being careless if he hadn’t helped with most of the cooking. Ei unfortunately wasn’t the most experienced chef, to say the least.

 

“I bet you’ll get some great shots these next two weeks!” Heizou added, nudging Sara’s arm slightly. “There’s lots of caves and pretty rock structures around. We should go out this morning to find some places to photograph.”

 

Sara fought the urge to groan. She hadn’t thought about it until now, but her camera was out there with her the night before. Which consequently meant that she’d definitely left it somewhere outside.

 

She prayed no one would find it before she would.

 

“I think some ocean pictures would be good.” She agreed. 

 

“Though I’d have probably waited until after swimming to have a shower.”

 

For just a moment Sara stopped. She didn’t have to check her hair to know it was still damp from a few hours ago. It probably still smelt of salt as well, but luckily no one seemed to have picked up on it. Or if they had, they hadn’t said anything.

 

“I might not go swimming.” Forcing a laugh, Sara took a drink of the water glass next to her food. “At least not straight away.”

 

“Come on, you were so excited to swim before we left!” Thoma, sitting across from her, tapped her leg under the table with his foot. “You didn’t shut up about it for days.”

 

All Sara could do was shrug. The truth is she was excited to swim, and she had undeniably talked Thoma’s ear off before the trip about how she’d be able to swim in the ocean for the first time in years. But she still didn’t know how she felt about going into the water after coming so close to drowning.

 

“It’s better to get some photos into the trip first before all that.” Shinbou pitched in, and Sara had to hold herself back from thanking her. “I know that was your main priority, right?”

 

Before Sara could agree, Ei shot back, “she can still take pictures and swim on the same day.” 

 

“Maybe she just doesn’t want to do both?”

 

“Then she can decide that for herself.” Ei shot a look between the two of them, and Shinbou slumped back in her chair. “If I didn’t know any better I’d say something is going on between you two.”

 

The idea of it made Sara laugh out loud, as did a few other people at the table, and with it most of the tension had dissipated.

 

She wasn’t fully sure what possessed her to say it - perhaps it was just the sudden good mood in everyone, but it was out before she could stop them. “I almost drowned last night and I think I was saved by a mermaid. So I, uh, don’t really feel up to swimming right now.”

 

Big mistake.

 

The room went so silent that Sara wondered for a moment if time had stopped. In fact, no one moved for a moment either.

 

“Okay, maybe what I said was a stupid thing to insinuate.” Ei shook her head in defeat. “But you don’t have to make stuff up like that. Trust me, it’s hard enough to imagine.”

 

She looked at Sara, and her smile disappeared as the girl couldn’t meet her eyes. Her heart was pounding in her chest.

 

“Are you saying you’re being serious?”

 

“I’m not saying I’m lying.” She knew she’d likely need to repeat herself after how gracefully she’d managed to word it the first time. “Besides, I was passed out for most of it.”

 

A hand patted hers, just for a moment. “I found her on the beach.” Shinbou added, and Sara could have hugged her at that moment. “Something with a tail dragged her out of the water, and it left when it saw me.”

 

Ei looked between the two of them, as did the others, albeit more inconspicuously. She took a few awkward breaths, coming close to opening her mouth on some of them, before nodding once. “Okay, are you being serious right now? Because this is hard enough to believe, even without it coming from someone trying to prove something about herself and,” she paused to gesture loosely at Shinbou, “her.”

 

It was hard not to laugh slightly. “I’m being absolutely serious.”

 

“Why don’t we go looking for them?” Heizou perked up, eyes darting between the friends. “We could go diving or snorkeling and try to find a mermaid!”

 

“I think someone would have noticed a mermaid if they were that close to shore.” Eyebrow cocked, Kazuha shook his head. “Plus, I don’t think we have any of that gear.”

 

“Oh.” Silently slumping back down in his chair, Heizou took another bite of his food, chewing his lip a bit in the process.

 

Sara flashed a look across the table, where she could see Klee kicking her feet together, eyes wide and looking expectantly back at her. “I think I’d be happy to go looking.”

 

She grinned back at her.

 

Surprisingly, the mermaid hunt wasn’t at the top of their priority lists, as by the time they’d been out of the house for twenty minutes, Klee had come bounding up the sand, proudly announcing that she and Thoma had successfully relocated the burial point, and had left Thoma stranded and buried up to his neck there.

 

What made it much more important was that this supposedly perfect spot was definitely not far from the shoreline, and Thoma was extremely close to being submerged under the water when it rose. Klee was too tired from digging the hole to then rescue him. Either that, or she was enjoying the situation too much.

 

From her constant smile, Sara had to assume the latter.

 

Luckily, Thoma had begun yelling for help the moment the ocean had started to come within two feet of him, and so locating him was an easy enough task, and he was freed before the water could claim him this time.

 

Although, the glare Ei gave him seemed to make that the more appealing option. From there he agreed to be chaperoned by her.

 

The sun was beating down on them all, heating the sand beneath their feet as they combed the beach. A few of them attempted yelling into shells, or throwing them into the water. Heizou had convinced them all to try speaking whale to the horizon, which turned out to be more fun than productive as they practically yelled to nothing for ten minutes, erupting into multiple laughing fits along the way. Best of all, everyone was helping her chase this insanity.

Sara placed a foot into the water, just for a moment, but the shudder down her spine made her step away quickly.

 

She couldn’t help but stare out into the distance, where the ocean met sky miles from the shore. Part of her wondered if it was real. Shinbou wasn’t past joking with her about something like this.

 

She probably would have given it up by now.

 

Besides, when she closed her eyes and imagined herself there again, she could feel the gentle brushing of the mermaid’s fingertips against her skin; could hear the soft humming she’d been hearing since she arrived there. Almost more vividly than when it was happening.

 

They spent a few hours making their way across the beach, stopping to peer around large rocks and into coves as they explored. Some had ventured into the water itself, under the guise of looking around, but Sara watched them as they began to splash each other or grip onto each other’s legs - poor Thoma had been targeted and dragged under six times before he begged for mercy - and she knew they hadn’t found anything of worth. Klee stuck close by her, offering to take the place closest to the ocean to keep her safe from drowning again.

 

“Do you think they’re a nice mermaid?”

 

She looked up expectantly at her, and Sara forced out a laugh that pretended she hadn’t wondered the same thing. “Of course, I was rescued, after all! I’m sure an evil mermaid would have pulled me under, instead.”

 

Klee hummed in thought. “I’d fight them off if they did. No one is hurting my family.” 

 

“You don’t think I could fight them?”

 

The girl didn’t answer, except for a little glance from the side, which was all the response she needed.

 

“I think we’d be a good team.” Sara nudged her as they walked, nearing closer to the edge of the beach that slowly faded out into paved walkways and stores. Without hesitation, Klee was asking if they could pick something up, but realized quickly that the two of them couldn’t carry enough for everyone. Which was lucky, as Sara hadn’t brought any money out with her.

 

When they eventually walked back to their friends, they concluded they’d done all they could. There was no sign of Sara’s rescuer, or anything of the sort, and so they opted to go and get lunch together. Enough excitement for one morning.

 

Sara could tell that there was some disappointment in the air. It was surprising to think that she’d managed to say something as outlandish as she had and, apart from some initial pause, she’d been believed. Even more so that they’d come out looking with her.

 

“Maybe they’ll come back another time.” Heizou nudged her arm gently, and she couldn’t help but smile back. “We’ll find them. If they’re still here, we’ll find them.”

 

They killed a few more hours around the beach, slowly moving on to play a few board games that Ei’s family kept stashed in one of the cupboards in the back garden until they decided they’d had enough of making up their own rules. Some of them were about as sore about losing as they were competitive.

 

That was one bonus about playing on the ground outside - no one could flip the board as easily.

 

It wasn’t until the sun had long since gone down, and everyone was allowing themselves to fall asleep, that Sara had an awful realization.

 

She shot up from her bed, practically throwing herself out from under the covers to go outside. It had started to rain, almost as soon as she made her way out of the door, and so she hurried down the garden to the beach as it got heavier.

 

Although she tried, she found it hard not to be annoyed at herself. When she was busy running to her almost-death, she’d managed to drop her camera somewhere, and completely forget about it for a whole day.

 

Heizou had even brought it up to her, and she had definitely made a mental note to get it at some point later, but after that it didn’t cross her mind.

She followed the path she thought she’d taken, and eventually found a little black object slightly buried under the sand, and sighed loudly in relief.

Sara knelt down in the sand, brushing the loose grains off of the screen, and made sure to check its status. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any damage, most likely due to the fact that she’d seemed to have slipped the lens cap back on as she’d ran out to sea. God, it was a stupid decision for her to abandon it outside alone.

 

She took a quick test shot of the sky. It didn’t seem like any of the grains had damaged the lens.

 

Another shot slightly further out to sea. The faint rays from the moon that danced on the ocean surface weren’t coming up as streaks of light, at least.

One last shot of a cove further down the beach. Even dark patches were coming up solid enough, so there couldn’t be any irreparable damage. Buying a new lens would have been bad enough. If she’d managed to leave it outside in a storm, however…

 

“ Psst, Sara!”

 

She turned around at the harsh sound, and was met by a strange duo of Shinbou and Heizou, who were jogging toward her.

 

“Why are we whispering?” She responded, stepping to meet them halfway.

Heizou laughed to herself. 

 

“I’m not sure. We snuck out after we heard the front door close. Thoma had to stay behind, otherwise we know Klee would never let him hear the end of it. So...” He clasped his hands together at his chest. “Are we on a mermaid hunt?”

 

“What? No. No, I was just out here to get my camera.” Sara held up the device as proof. “Besides, we’ve already scoured the beach. As a team. If we were going to find the mermaid we would have by now.”

 

“Maybe they’re nocturnal?” Shinbou shrugged. “I think it’d be pretty fun.”

 

Sighing, Sara looked around. The rain was starting to come down harder, and the winds were picking up. Pretty soon, it would be almost painful to be out in it. “Guys, my clothes are soaked. I’m cold. And I really don’t want to go looking around a beach for a mermaid that may or may not exist like this. You can do it without me, though.”

 

To further emphasize her point, a large wave came crashing down onto the beach. She stepped away as its remnants chased her feet, having to steady herself at its pull

 

The two others looked at themselves in defeat. “You wouldn’t want to?“

 

Sara chewed her lip. “Of course I do, just... not right now. Maybe we can come back out tomorrow in the evening?”

 

She heard murmurs of agreement, and they began to turn back toward the house as another wave came down, not too far away from them. This time they got caught in it as it traveled, and watched it as it turned back toward the sea a few feet in front. It definitely didn’t seem safe to be wandering around, even as a trio.

 

Before Sara could say anything, she saw Heizou glance over his shoulder, and all he could do was yell, “run”.

 

For a moment, Sara met his eyes, widening with sheer horror, just in time for Sara to turn and witness what seemed to be the largest wave she’d ever seen. And it was coming straight toward them.

 

They took off along the beach to get to the house. They hoped if they could make it up the slight incline to its boundary, it would be enough of a catch to stop the wave from reaching them. She hoped even more that this was the worst of the waves.

 

Luckily, they managed to reach the garden and hop up onto it, spinning around in time to see it crash against the sand not far from them. Another wave, even larger than the last, followed quickly after, slamming down hard before retreating.

 

They did nothing but stand and watch it in silence. Sara didn’t think she could move away if she tried. The more she watched the ocean, the more she wanted to be near it.

 

She closed her eyes, listening to the roaring sound of the waves dissipate slowly. The sand stuck to the bottom of her feet were more and more noticeable, but she couldn’t make herself move to brush any off.

 

And then she heard it. Along with the last of the waves, much smaller than the ones that had chased them away, was the gentle humming she’d heard since she got there. She watched the wave as it stopped, the worst of it crashing further along the beach. It seemed to be where the cliff side met the sand, and seemed to keep running.

Her heart either skipped a beat or dropped. She couldn’t quite tell the difference.

 

“Let’s go looking.” She finally broke the quiet, running her hands through her hair to pull it from where it clung to her skin before pointing to the cliff. The wave had only just begun making its way back. “Let’s just look down there, and come back.”

 

Shinbou looked at her for a moment in curiosity, but Heizou simply jumped down to the beach and started on his way.

 

Sara gave her friend a little shrug. “You convinced me.”

 

She didn’t hold herself back from running along the sand. The ocean had calmed dramatically, although the rain was far from stopping. Her sights were set, and she knew she wouldn’t stop herself now.

 

She had to know if she was right.

 

Heizou slowed to a stop first, with Sara a little bit behind him. As she caught up, she saw what Heizou was looking up at.

 

He was holding up his phone as a torch, illuminating how the cliff side had been worn away, creating a small, sheltered cave in its remains. The sides of the rock glistened with water as the light caught on them.

 

Sara glanced behind herself. There were no more killer waves behind them, which inste gentle swaying of the shoreline.

 

She turned back around and stepped into the cave with a splash. There was a little drop, where a foot of water was trapped between the rock at the entrance and the cave’s slight incline. She was glad that this meant there was less for her to wade through as she walked further.

 

It was a much larger cave than the entrance had let on, almost taking on a bottleneck shape as the edges stretched on. The rock was hard to see in the dark, even with the torch light, but she could see how it sloped down slowly around the back of the cave. And, apart from where they entered, there were no other ways out.

 

“I bet Klee would like coming in here.” Heizou’s laugh echoed as he spoke, walking further through. Sara followed, with Shinbou stepping in behind them.

 

Sara pulled out her own phone as an extra light source, but almost dropped it as she shone it around. She had to choke back a shriek as she made out what was very clearly a figure, slumped unmoving in the corner.

 

Part of her wished it was a monster of a fish that she saw. As she moved closer, it became clear that what she saw was almost human. Almost. If it was only the scales that gave away the truth - dark enough to blend into the wall behind them, then maybe she could convince herself that she was looking at a slightly odd-looking person. Or even just an extremely long fish that had been thrown too far from the ocean. But Sara couldn’t fool herself if she tried. She made her way along to the back end of the cave, and as she drew closer she saw what was undeniably not either.

 

For a start, the scales only reached part way up their torso, fading from blue to what was clearly skin above the collarbones. And whatever she’d found was sprawled on its stomach, head dangerously close to a particularly jagged rock.

There was no red tinge on it, nor was there any on the creature’s light hair, and Sara sighed in relief as she brushed her fingers over the wall. She knelt down in the sand, careful to place a hand on their shoulder to gently pull them onto their back.

 

Footsteps began making their way over, but they sounded almost muffled to her. The body in front of her was oddly cold, and she was almost afraid to look at them. She wasn’t sure whether she was more worried of finding a corpse or the creature Shinobu described to her.

 

At least a dead body wouldn’t be able to attack her.

 

But she wasn’t met by fangs or claws, or anything that she’d read about that morning. Instead she saw a soft, very human face, with closed eyes in what appeared to be sleep. Sara found herself brushing away a thin braid that had been plaited through their hair while she looked for anything else out of the ordinary. If it weren’t for the gills along their neck, contracting strangely against the air, and the slight ridges along their ears that appeared to be the remnants of fins from Shinbou’s description, she wouldn’t have thought any differently.

 

But no, this was very clearly not human by far.

 

Her eyes slowly trailed down, desperately trying to identify who was laid in front of her. No matter how hard she tried, she could barely remember her time under the water. She just about recalled blue, which at least matched the supposed mermaid she was looking at, but this one had small shimmers of pink against their scales as she shone a light across them. It was more apparent at the fins, which were more of a pink by the tips. The gradual change did nothing but make it harder to pinpoint where exactly the pink began.

 

She turned around as Shinbou dropped beside her, hesitant to say anything. Her eyes were busy examining what was in front of them. Something she couldn’t exactly blame her for.

 

“I could have sworn they looked different.”

 

There was a lump in Sara’s throat as she muttered almost to herself. “Is this who saved me?”

 

Shinobu looked at her, and back at the figure, before chewing her lip for a second before looking back between them. “I honestly couldn’t say.”

 

”So they kind of look the same?”

 

”What saved you looked like you were close to being a meal.” The two of them locked eyes. “I think if they hadn’t pulled you out of the water, we’d have found you torn up a few days later. Fangs, claws, very frantic eyes. And the way they moved when they dragged you across the sand... it looked like a horror movie. My heart went cold when I saw them, Being seen by them... I was paralysed. Then I heard them singing something, and it was like I was moving on my own.”

 

Sara nodded silently as she listened, as her attention was drawn back. She couldn’t stop looking at them, couldn’t stop imagining if they had saved her. They didn’t look dangerous, not by far. If she had to make a guess, she’d have assumed this was someone around her own age. There was no telling how a mermaid would age, though. They could already have lived more years than she’d ever see in her lifetime, and not have made a dent in their own.

 

It was that thought that made a horrible realization creep into her mind as she stared at the unmoving figure on the floor.

 

“They might need water.”

 

She quickly grabbed them the best she could below the arms, and attempted to drag them along the floor to the entrance before anyone else had any time to respond. It felt painfully obvious now that this was something she should have done a long time ago - the contracting of their gills had gotten more and more labored.

 

It wasn’t easy, even as Shinbou and Heizou caught up and helped pull them along, but the adrenaline seemed to do the most for all of them. They were dead weight, made worse by how their scales were extremely slippery to hold onto, but soon enough she was dropping them down into the water.

 

For a minute there was no movement, and Sara couldn’t tear her eyes away. Being closer to the outside, there was more of a light from the moon illuminating the cove.

 

Other than what she’d originally noticed had differed to Shinbou’s recount, Sara could see a bit clearer that this really did look just like a human, apart from the obvious tail and gills. Their hair was two toned, and it looked like there were pink highlights. And she could now see the small fins at either side of their tail, which swished slowly under the water. Sara took that as a good sign.

 

“What do we do now?” Heizou whispered.

 

“I guess we wait. Unless you want to leave.”

 

Sara didn’t want to leave yet. She was so close to a literal mermaid, and she would never let it go if she left now.

 

There wasn’t long to wait, as only a few silent minutes passed before she heard a strange, gasping sort of noise, and was suddenly splashed by water.

 

Their assailant, very clearly awake by now, was trashing in the puddle, though she wasn’t sure if it was on purpose. Shinbou reached out, possibly to calm the situation, but was slapped hard by a tail before she could try.

 

“Hey, it’s okay!” Sara felt herself rock forward, shuffling onto her knees before deciding to move back a bit to give them some more space. Heizou did the same. “We’re not going to hurt you.”

 

There were a few more fighting seconds, before their eyes locked with Sara’s and went still, albeit still pulling away from her.

 

“I’m Sara. And you’re safe, it’s okay.” She paused for a moment. “I don’t even know if you can understand me but...”

 

“Kokomi.” A raspy voice echoed through the cave, before she heard the sound of a throat being cleared. “My name is Kokomi. I understand.”

 

Kokomi introduced herself briefly, studying the others as they did the same for her. It was surprisingly easy to carry the conversation - she seemed to know enough to respond to what she said, and would at least nod along to the others. They got some information, that she had been caught up in one of the large waves, and had seemingly been knocked out in the process.

 

“Do you need help getting back into the ocean?” Heizou offered, sharing a look with the others. “We got you over here a bit awkwardly, but I’m sure we could-“

 

“No.”

 

She didn’t answer as they asked why.

 

Sara thought for a moment. She wasn’t sure if the cave would dry out overnight, or if someone would come exploring and find her there if she was left. “Can you be seen by other humans? Like us.”

 

Shaking her head, Kokomi shuffled to pull herself up. “They can’t know. I shouldn’t be here.”

 

“I’m guessing you need to stay in the water? Salt water, probably.”

 

“Unless you want me dead, I need water. Like this.”

 

Sara didn’t know what she meant by ‘this’, but didn’t dwell on it long with everything else on her mind. An idea came into Sara’s head, and she didn’t know what else to do. “So if we took you to our house, as long as you were in some water, you’d be fine?” At Kokomi’s puzzled look, she continued. “Um, the house is where we are staying, or living and sleeping at the moment. I’m sure we have somewhere we could fill with water for you.”

 

“Like a paddling pool?” Shinbou asked. Heizou’s face lit up. “Or a bath!”

 

And to Sara’s surprise, Kokomi’s head shifted in a nod. “Anything but into the ocean.”

 

“Okay, so we’ll need to get you over to the house. Can you go a few minutes without water?” A nod yes.

 

“We’ll need the others to help. It’s not far, but I don’t know if we could do it quickly enough otherwise. And we’d need something full of water to keep her in, too.” Shinbou laughed to herself. 

 

“A few of us have baths in our rooms, right?” Sara offered. “Plus there’s the communal one. We’d just have to pick who’s room she stays in and-“

 

“You.” Kokomi tapped Sara’s knee, but didn’t make eye contact.

 

She agreed, albeit awkwardly, and slowly made her way to her feet. “Heizou, can you watch over her while we go? Shinbou and I can go back and wake everyone up. We won’t be long.”

 

Sara wasn’t sure which she was assuring with that last sentence, and didn’t wait to clarify as she and Shinbou made their way out on what had to be the strangest thing she’d ever done. She wasn’t sure how exactly to prepare for a non-human guest to sleep in her bathroom, but she was going to do her best.

 

The first thing Sara did when she made it back to the house was do the unfortunate task of waking Ei up. Her question of whether the house had any buckets or the like was met with an understandably groggy confusion, but her explanation of what had just happened seemed to clear the matter up quickly.

Ei had leapt out of bed, followed shortly by Thoma, as she went through everything the house had that may be enough to carry some water over. Namely there were a few buckets in a little shed outside of the house, otherwise they’d be stuck with the dishes that they were supposed to eat from which no one was particularly keen to do.

 

Through the commotion, Klee had slipped out of her room, eagerly coming to see what was going on that woke her up. Sara apologized for disturbing her sleep, though she didn’t seem to care when she realized that they’d found a real, living mermaid. They had to practically hold her back from racing out of the house to go and look for herself.

 

A few of them took the job of running back and forth from the sea to the bathroom, where they continued to pour water into the tub. Meanwhile, Sara located a spare towel that she could soak in water to lay over Kokomi as they carried her over. Any extra hydration on the trip over would likely help, which she confirmed when she finally made her way back over. Plus, it could be used to hide her tail if anyone happened to see a group of teenagers carrying a body over to their house.

 

Sara was just thankful that the house didn’t have any nearby neighbors.

Eventually, Ei left the group that was preparing the bath to help Sara and Heizou in carrying Kokomi across, along with Kazuha. They could hear the others yelling and laughing to each other as they ran back and forth across the beach.

 

By the time they made it to their destination, the four of them were glad to lower her down, before Sara stopped them at the last minute. She shot an apology to them as she rushed down to the cabinet in the hallway, where Ei had mentioned keeping some extra blankets and pillows.

 

“I thought you could use these - the bath is pretty spacious but kind of firm. Is that okay?” She looked between both Ei and Kokomi, who both nodded in unison, before she took the towel off of the latter’s tail to lay that flat first. After the addition of the blanket, it felt a bit more comfortable. And once she laid down, she was given the pillow to rest her head against.

 

“It’s not perfect, but it’ll do until we find something better for you.”

 

At Sara’s words, she swore she could see a hint of a smile flash across Kokomi’s face.

 

It wasn’t long until the rest of the group gathered in the doorway of the bathroom, and Sara realized that some of them hadn’t actually seen Kokomi before. She quickly introduced them to each other, but there was very little response from their guest past that.

 

Sara crouched at her side, careful not to get too close. “Are you tired?” After a short stare, Kokomi slowly nodded.

 

“We need to get changed, anyway. And one of us was supposed to be asleep an hour ago.” Thoma tapped Klee’# shoulder, who whined in protest. “We’ll let you get some rest.”

 

The group slowly filed out of the room, closing the bedroom door behind them. Voices dwindled down to nothing, and Sara looked back at Kokomi.

 

“Do you need anything to help you sleep?”

 

“Don’t think so.” Kokomi’s tail swished slightly in the water. “It’s different on land.”

 

Sara felt a breathy laugh creep out. “In a good way or bad way?”

 

She seemed to consider her answer. “Both, I think.”

 

“I can imagine it would be a bit weird.” Sara tapped the side of the bath with her fingers. “If you need anything, just shout out to me, okay? I should answer if I hear my name.”

 

Rising to her feet, Sara took a few steps toward the door before turning back. 

 

“Do you miss your home?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Then why did you not want to go back?”

 

There was no response. Kokomi had turned away, sliding further into the water.

 

Sara made her way out of the room, but paused as she reached her bed. She grabbed one of her little fish plush toys - one of her favorites, actually, with the odd crinkly tail that she loved to fidget with absentmindedly - and went into the bathroom again.

 

“Would you want some company? This is Ms Fin, one of my toys from when I was younger.” She knelt back down, holding out the peach coloured fish. “She could keep you safe if you want. She’s old, but she’s tough enough to be in there with you.”

 

Silently, Kokomi’s hand emerged from the water as she gently wrapped her fingers around the plush. She watched it for a moment, as if expecting it to do something, before she pulled it closer to her in what seemed to be a soft hug.

 

“Get some sleep. I’ll be in early morning, okay? Goodnight.”

 

She heard a mumbled ‘okay’, and took that as her queue to leave. She hovered over the light switch, before asking if she wanted darkness to sleep. At Kokomi’s nod, she turned off the light and began to close the door.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Sara stopped at her words, looking back over at Kokomi one last time with a smile. “No problem. Take care.”

As the sun began to rise, Sara was awoken by shouting. At first her heart dropped, worried that something had happened to Kokomi, but once she forced herself out of bed, she realized the sound wasn’t coming from inside the house.

 

She peered outside, and she noticed that the yelling was laced with laughter. It turned out that a few of her friends were running along the back garden, carrying bags to and from the pool.

 

Before she did anything, she peered into the bathroom, where Kokomi still slept. She could hear the soft rippling of water and, once she was certain everything was fine, she opened her window to keep an ear out and made her way downstairs.

 

“What’s going on?”

 

Thoma was the first to hear her, jogging over with his empty bag. “We didn’t think Kokomi would be comfortable in the bath for long. Can’t watch over her properly there, you know? So, we noticed the pool hadn’t been filled in yet. We started it last night, and are just finishing it off now.”

Sara looked from him to everyone else, before leaning over to take a look. Sure enough, the pool was now full of water. A hose was positioned on the side, where water had likely been flowing through.

 

“So what are you doing with the bags?”

 

He held out the plastic in his hand, which had a strange name Sara didn’t recognise plastered across it in bold writing. “It’s some sort of chlorine stabiliser for the pool. Fast dissolving so we’ll hopefully be able to swim in it soon. But just as a warning: those,” he said, gesturing across the path to a pile of empty bags that Heizou was stuffing roughly into a pile in his arms, “are salt bags. It’s not a chlorine pool, apparently. Ei’s family are way too fancy for that. It has this weird filter that converts salt into chlorine at lower levels.”

 

“It helps sometimes to have parents scared you’ll develop issues swimming in chemicals all the time.” Ei nudged past with her own bag. “And we thought it would be better for Kokomi. Hopefully it counts as salt water.”

 

She nodded along. “I don’t even know if she gets what it means. At least we’ll find out.”

 

Sara watched as the others seemed to clear up around the pool, chattering amongst themselves about something she couldn’t quite hear. It seemed everyone was most excited about sorting out a place to swim that they hadn’t realized it was nearing midday and they hadn’t had breakfast yet.

 

Her mind began to wonder what sort of things Kokomi would eat. Or what she could eat. There was so much about her that they didn’t know.

 

They eventually settled on calling up a delivery, as in the two days they had been on their holiday, they hadn’t actually gone shopping apart from the few things they’d brought along with them. Ei just knew too many good places in the area, and none of them wanted to cook for themselves if it wasn’t going to be a fun meal.

 

Within the hour, they were laying their long patio table with an assortment of foods from a local store, which Ei had proudly named ‘the world’s absolute best breakfast place, no competition’. She had ordered everything she used to eat as a child from there, and even with everyone there, it was a mountain of food none of them were sure they could manage.

 

That included their newest addition, who was tentatively sitting on the steps of the pool, too uneasy to lower herself fully into the water.

 

Sara made a plate for herself, going straight to the tamagoyaki before the others could take it all, then moving over to a couple of the fruit-filled croissants Ei was demolishing. She added some cubes of fruit for good measure, before she let her eyes wander back over to Kokomi.

 

She was walking over to the pool-side before she realized she was even moving, and crouched over the edge as she placed the plate down. “Do you want to try some food?”

 

Kokomi seemed to be caught off-guard, despite Sara knowing she’d looked over at her a few times. There was no way she wouldn’t be on high alert. Even waking her up was a struggle, as she’d reverted back to thrashing around the moment she seemed conscious.

 

It had taken Sara ten minutes to convince her they still wouldn’t hurt her, and another twenty to allow them to bring her downstairs. She wouldn’t be surprised if she jumped at her from the way her blue eyes were glaring at her.

 

Instead, Kokomi broke their gaze and reached out to pull the plate toward her. “What is it?”

 

“Um, well this is fruit.” She pointed at the chopped pieces of melon, kiwi, and whatever else they seemed to put into the fruit salad. It had never really crossed her mind to pick things she knew. “It’s more natural, so I thought it would be easier on your stomach than some of the other stuff. They grow on things like trees and bushes, which I guess are like kelp?” She looked around, eventually pointing out a distant tree for emphasis.

 

Kokomi tentatively poked at some of the chunks, as if expecting them to move, before picking it up and staring it down an inch away from her face.

 

Sara was about to talk again when it suddenly disappeared into the mermaid’s mouth.

 

“‘S weird.” Kokomi said between chews. “Doesn’t... taste like much.”

 

The two of them didn’t speak much as she tried some of the others. She seemed to be going for different things, pulling odd faces at the particularly sweet or sour fruits.

 

Eventually, Sara moved on to explain the strawberry croissant, cut perfectly in halves, which Kokomi had cautiously picked up. It seemed to have some sort of cream inside, which she hadn’t warned her about. And as she bit down slightly too hard, a large dollop of cream had squeezed out of its place and dropped unceremoniously onto the rough floor under them.

 

Sara had to hold back a laugh, as Kokomi’s eyes watched it almost sadly, and she got back up to pick up some napkins to clear it up. As she was at the table, she noticed an identical plate had been made for herself, and was sitting at her place. Shinbou looked up at her, suppressing a smile so poorly she wondered if she was actually trying.

 

She didn’t say anything, but she lifted the plate up and handed it to her. “At least show her it’s not poisoned.”

 

Thanking her, Sara took her own food and went back to the pool, where she wiped the floor and almost went to clean Kokomi’s fingers, where some of the filling had also managed to escape, when she pulled back harshly with a hiss.

 

“I just wanted to get rid of any on your hands,” she began to explain, before shaking her head and folding the napkin and holding it out for her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep.”

 

Kokomi looked her up and down, still holding her hands close to her chest, before she extended them back, holding them flat out in front of her.

 

After getting over her brief hesitation, Sara helped to gently wipe her hands.

 

“So, what do you usually eat?” She asked, not looking at the mermaid. It felt oddly intimate, or just very weird, to be doing this for her. But she’d likely never even seen anything like it before. It was just a way of helping, she told herself.

“Fish. Seaweed, too. Whatever we find.” Kokomi clicked her tongue. “Humans, if they get too close.”

 

Sara’s heart dropped, and she couldn’t bring herself to move. It was hard enough to breathe after hearing that. Humans? Why was she letting herself be so close, then? Here she was, dangling her feet in the pool, when she could be killed at any point.

 

“I ain’t serious. Just joking.”

 

She snapped her head up to see Kokomi was almost smiling, though she wasn’t looking at her. Her eyes were slightly off to the side, not particularly looking at anything.

 

All Sara could think was thank god.

 

“‘Ain’t’?” Looking over at her, Sara picked up some of her own breakfast. “You know slang?”

 

“Someone taught me a bit.” Kokomi stopped for a moment, dropping her voice to a mumble. “Other mermaids... they don’t talk like me.”

 

“Ah.” Sara moved her food around. “How, uh, do they talk?”

 

She seemed to consider her answer. “Formal. My brother learnt Japanese from our parents, and the rest of our family, but he’s stiff when he speaks. I was taught by a human.” 

 

“You have a brother? Didn’t you learn the same way he did?”

 

Kokomi’s eyes widened, just for a moment, and her breath caught in her throat. Instead of a response, Kokomi slouched further into the water, until she was fully submerged. It seemed a good way to cut off the conversation, at least for the short few seconds before she resurfaced.

 

She didn’t seem to be gasping for help, or struggling in any way, though Sara wasn’t sure what would happen if the water wasn’t right for her.

 

“This water is fine. Feels different, but fine.” Kokomi declared, and went to grab more of her food, before her eyes drifted to Sara’s. “What's that?”

 

Sara followed where her finger was pointing, which brought her to another croissant. It seemed that they’d run out of the strawberry ones, and she’d been given what looked to have small chunks of pale yellow cubes and shavings sprinkled through the inside as a replacement.

 

“Oh, it’s like yours, but has lemon. It’s a sour fruit.” She picked up one half, and placed it onto Kokomi’s tray, swapping it for the remaining whole strawberry that Kokomi had yet to go back to. “Are you good to share?”

 

Kokomi nodded, taking the new addition to her food in her hands to try as Sara did the same with hers. She could see why Ei had insisted on ordering from there - the pastries didn’t crumble the way the ones bought at a supermarket did, and they seemed to be dusted slightly in a sweet powder that clung to her tongue as she ate. Even the fruit was fresher than she’d have expected for something so simple.

 

And she wasn’t the only one enjoying it. Sara found it hard to pull her attention from the mermaid sat a couple of feet away from her, slowly and awkwardly eating. It dawned on her just how weird this whole situation was, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to feel strange about it.

 

“You should try this one, woof!”

 

In the corner of her eye, she saw a figure approach and drop down to the side next to her. Klee was holding a piece of another croissant, this time dipped in chocolate, out over the pool edge. She didn’t give much of an explanation to what it was, evidently causing more pause on Kokomi’s part, but she eventually accepted it.

 

When she took a bite, she looked like she’d seen light for the first time in her life. It was followed quickly by another bite, and another, until she’d demolished it entirely.

 

“What was that?”

 

Klee grinned at her, kicking his legs softly in the water. “Chocolate! Bet you don’t have that where you come from.”

 

She looked between the two humans staring at her. “Does chocolate grow on trees, too?”

 

“Sort of - it’s made of a few different things. Cacao beans are one part, which do grow on trees. Sugar also comes from sugarcane, which grows on its own. And sometimes it uses milk which comes from cows. Usually, anyway...” Sara trailed off, knowing she’d have to explain cows as well. “I guess they’re like...”

 

“Like a black and white manatee!”

 

Kokomi stared incredulously at Klee for a moment, as if she’d spouted another head as she spoke. “How would a manatee move on land?”

 

“We’ll, I think they would have to bounce...” The girl seemed to be lost in thought, having not finished her sentence out loud. She was quietly whispering to herself something that Sara couldn’t quite hear.

 

“They’re not exactly like manatees, just similar. They’re animals, and they have legs instead of fins so they can walk. I’ll have to show you a picture sometime.”

 

Sara was glad that Kokomi seemed to take that as sufficient information, as she really didn’t want to get into the method of how milk is taken from a cow.

 

There wasn’t much time for her to ask, anyway, as Klee had snapped out of his conversation with herself to start questioning Kokomi on the logistics of mermaids. A lot of them were things that Sara hadn’t even considered asking.

 

Some were easy, such as how she could breathe on land as well as underwater, which turned out to be as simple as she has a respiratory system similar to humans as well as gills, so as long as one is fully functioning she can survive. Though breathing air was harder for her, as she had to do it more consciously. Luckily she had gills further down her body, so she could sit out of the water without suffocating.

 

She seemed fascinated by asking harder questions, too, and Kokomi seemed to enjoy her company from the soft smile she had when talking to her. They seemed to work out that mermaid gills were more complicated than a regular fish, as they would likely not be able to survive in a pool that wasn’t the same type of water. She also didn’t need the condition monitored quite as much, and had known mermaids who’d experienced water that didn’t come from the sea, which they had taken to mean lakes that had made their way back to the ocean. They hadn’t lived in them, of course, but had come across water that didn’t quite feel the same as their homes did.

 

Kokomi had never been in shallow water until recently, so hadn’t seen it for herself.

 

“Do scales make it easier to swim,? Have you ever had to escape something attacking you and got away because of your scales? I know fish use them for protection.”

 

“I think so. And nothing’s attacked me, far as I know.”

 

“Is it weird having scales only up to your collarbones?”

 

There was a short pause. “What?”

 

“It’s interesting that you don’t have scales all over you, like a fish.” Sara added, and she received an enthusiastic nod from Klee in return. “I’ve seen some people talking about mermaids describe you as, well, different. More scaley and kind of...”

 

“Terrifying?” Kokomi looked at her. “I’ve heard that before. Some of us have scales all over, some of us don’t.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Why does it matter?”

 

When Sara didn’t have an answer other than her curiosity, she decided not to go into it any further - an idea that Klee also seemed to share, as she excused herself shortly after to retreat back to the table with the others. As she left, Kokomi watched her go. She was still hard to read, which was to be expected at this point, but she looked almost surprised that she was walking away.

 

She wondered if she ever would be able to read her.

It took her a moment to realize she was being looked at back, and when they finally locked eyes, Sara was hit with a glimpse of a figure in the back of her head. Specifically, the one she saw when she was about to die.

 

“I want to ask you something.” She was talking before she realized, and took a shaking breath to make herself continue. “The other day, I was in the ocean. I think I saw a couple mermaids. One of them dragged me out of the water because I was kind of drowning. I couldn’t see them since everything was so blurry but... was it you? Or do you know any mermaids with blue tails who hang around the surface?”

 

Sara didn’t register that she’d begun picking at the floor, and pulled her hand back into her lap. Meanwhile, Kokomi’s expression had shifted - her brows were furrowed together and she seemed to be considering speaking. Every time she chose against it.

 

They sat in silence for what felt like forever, and Sara’s heart dropped when she finally answered.

 

“No. I don’t go into shallow water.”

 

She couldn’t bring herself to respond straight away, instead opting to feel incredibly silly for coming to the conclusion on her own. Of course it wouldn’t be her, there were probably thousands of mermaids out there, and Kokomi didn’t even look the same as whoever had rescued her. “Right. Sure. That makes sense.”

 

“Plenty of them hang out around the shore.” Kokomi’s hand swished under the water, and she focused her attention on watching the ripples dance over it. “It could have been any of us.”

 

“Wouldn’t they get caught?”

 

She shook her head, and reached back over to her plate. “Our pod - symphony, we call them - has a sorta truce with the humans who live here. We help them, they help us. Though I don’t know what, since it’s not my business to know the details.”

 

At that point it was clear enough to Sara that she wouldn’t get much more out of the conversation, and she was too busy going over who actually could have pulled her out to spur their talk further. Instead, she went back to explaining the tamagoyaki that Kokomi had suddenly become interested in - this time not waiting for her to go through what it was before trying it.

 

It was strange to know that so many of the people at this town likely knew about mermaids, but was even stranger that Kokomi had been so adamant to not be seen when she was found. If they knew about their existence, why try to hide so hard? There was still so much that Sara didn’t know, and may never know.

 

Still, she was trusting her a little bit more, and that was a start. 

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of College AU