Vacay (self-insert #6)

Chapter 3

"What did you do, little girl?" Bou-san called across the room.

"I...might have done something."

"Huh?"

Red faced, Mai explained her dream, not including the parts with Naru. "—and then, human souls were being summoned from the sea into the cave. They turned to spirits that looked like fish."

"Fish spirits?" Bou-san demanded, not hiding his skepticism.

"I know, it sounds crazy! But it's true." Mai protested before turning to Akifumi, who'd been looking pretty dazed the entire time. Poor guy had probably assumed she was a normal girl. "If they're 'fish' maybe they're still alive. Right?"

"There really is a cave as you described." He admitted. "Salt-drenched corpses would wash ashore there. People who died in the nearby sea would float into that cave. Not just people, but large objects too, including that hokora shrine. Our house dogs washed ashore there too since this is where their souls were apparently summoned."

They couldn't really ignore that, so it was decided that the others would go take a look at the cave while Lin and I remained behind. I stared at the picture of Gene, thinking hard. "So." No reply, aside a slight pause in clicking. "What should I do?"

Lin eventually stopped typing. "Naru had originally planned to take a trip to the local library, but I think it's best for all of us to stay here. Anything could happen, and our first priority is the client." He said slowly. "Is there anything else you remember him planning?"

"If you don't know, what makes you think I would?"

The are you serious stare made its comeback.

I clicked through my laptop, thouroughly chastened. "I wonder what he was thinking when he was going 'I see'." I said, just to make small talk.

Small talk became microscopic talk when Lin turned back to his screen. Even though our relationship had gone from 'I'm not your stinking babysitter' to 'distant relative from another universe', he had a tendency to revert back to the former. I wasn't sure how normal that was so I just left him alone and harassed my brain cells into giving me a straight answer.

It felt like multiple eons had passed before Bou-san and the others returned. As they were resting from the long walk, Bou-san spoke up. "Say, everyone, shall we put some monitoring equipment down in the cave?"

"If we can resolve the seawater issue, we'll set it up, but where do we get electricity...one battery can only last two hours." Lin paused, then turned in his chair. "Although I did bring along some interval timers."

"What are those?"

"A device that switches power on and off at preset times." He explained. "For example, say we want to record only ten minutes out of every our. At that rate the batteries could last us half of a day. The point is that they give us the ability to switch the equipment on and off to conserve power."

I tried to do the mental math to confirm it, then promptly gave up. Lin knew what he was talking about more than I did.

Bou-san nodded decisively. "Gotcha. Oh, any idea how high that cliff is?" He asked, directing the question at Akifumi.

"About ten meters."

Lin did some more mental math. "Maybe we could drop a cable from here. That is, if you're sure you have enough energy to carry the equipment down." He glanced at me, probably about to offer my help, but the silently pleading look on my face must've been enough to change his mind. "Nira will be replacing the tapes while you two are busy."