Miyako Diaries 16: Puella Piscina

Today Chihaya decided on doing some offshore diving along the northwestern shores of the Island. The sea was a bit rough and foamy, with intermittent rain gently hitting on the surface above. A perfect day - for drift diving! Now, four or five meters beneath the waves, Chihaya's body was completely relaxed, except for very occassional kicks and crawls to keep momentum and stay with the current. It was fun to watch the sprinkles of rain from down here, and her lungs felt very light, even after several minutes of breathhold. The strain was very different from when diving thirty or forty meters deep, staying there as long as she could, and then coming back up. Not that Chihaya didn't "enjoy" the thrill of the ultra-deepwater diving, it was soothing she felt like she could hold her breath here forever.

Then  she spotted something in the rugged roots of the shore - an array of window panels several meters tall and across. The panels looked very thick, and Chihaya  could now make out people inside them. Wow! It's like an aquarium, she thought, only with people inside them rather than fish. She smiled and waved. There were children - giggling, pointing and showing something to their parents - and also men and women, whose mouths were agape and seemed to be in some plain shock. Some were fumbling to get their smartphones out. Hmmm, what was going on? Chihaya wondered, and swam the full length of the array and back. There was now a cloud of people gathering behind the windows. Chihaya smiled and waved again, occassionally blowing out bubbles, and hovered and dolphin-kicked about for a good three minutes more before finally deciding to go up. After a few meters, her head popped up among the waves and, with a gush, she took in the fresh moist air. Ah, it's good, she thought, but would have been better if she could stay out more.

The next day, the Miyako Island Underwater Observatory's SNS account was peppered with photos and first-hand accounts of a beautiful long-haired "mermaid girl," with  an extraordinary swimming ability and who apparently didn't need to breathe at all. Loads of tweets and retweets followed, and visitors to the Observatory was a solid quadruple of the norm for the remainder of the week. Chihaya had no idea of this, as she was busy with helping with the Inn and teaching Aya her math for the next few days.