[GrayGriffin]

After Sherlock had made his initial report and contacted some of the investigators he knew, he'd eventually sent Arion and Akegane-sama back into the ocean to continue their investigation, with more specific instructions. Not only that, but he'd sent Natasha along with them.

Of course, she was taking her mermaid form. As she put it, it was much harder to be considered a delicacy when you were this size and had arms to punch someone with.

[GrayGriffin]

Another advantage of the mermaid form in general was the simple fact that it had arms and hands. Sherlock suspected that whatever they were looking for would require delicate work, and while Arion's bandages could help and Akegane-sama had plenty of experience doing fine manipulations with her teeth, she doubted that she could work as well as actually having hands.

Lacking proper diving equipment for Sherlock, Natasha had been the best bet. Not that diving equipment would probably have been very helpful for the depths they might have to plunge to.

[GrayGriffin]

"Don't worry Natasha, we'll look out for you!" added Arion as they swam downwards. Natasha's presence was always able to cheer him up-she was so cheerful and eager to help at all times, after all. And he wanted to make sure she'd get out of this safely.

"Aw, that's sweet of you!" she exclaimed. "But I'm sure we'll be fine. You said you didn't find anything, right?"

"At least when we first examined the place," noted Akegane-sama.

[GrayGriffin]

"Well, I don't hear any sounds of giant abyss monsters coming up to eat us, so I think we're fine," said Nathasha with a giggle. Arion wondered how she could joke about that so casually. Was this because of how different their experiences were? She'd spent most of her time with Sherlock sitting comfortably in his office, after all, with the worst she ever had to deal with being a slightly unruly customer.

He was even more surprised when Akegane-sama laughed as well.

[GrayGriffin]

"That's true enough, Natasha," she chuckled. "Your hearing's quite good even underwater, isn't it?"

"Yeah!" she agreed, wriggling her fluffy hamster ears. "My nose isn't as good since most of the time it just gets filled with salt smell, but sound actually travels pretty well underwater too!"

Well...it was certainly true she was the only one with ears that could move and swivel like that. She was probably the best at picking out and locating sounds, with how they acted.

[GrayGriffin]

"So let's go investigate!" cheered Natasha, lifting and pumping a fist. She flicked her tail and started hurrying even more ahead of everyone, Akegane-sama's tail flicking similarly as she followed. Arion took up the tail, hurrying as fast as he could, still wondering how safe they truly were. It was likely there were creatures that could evade mortal senses somehow, after all.

And no matter how he looked at it, Natasha was very much a mortal.

[GrayGriffin]

Once more, they reached that spot that had stumped the duo when they first encountered it. Nathasha immediately dove towards it, hands sifting through the silt as she also tried to hunt down the source of the glow. However, after a bit of digging, she stopped, head tilted slightly to the side.

"Hey..." she asked. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Akegane-sama, immediately interested. Arion felt a slight shudder of worry go through him-what exactly was she hearing, and was it hostile or not?

[GrayGriffin]

"It's...some kind of humming, I think," she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "And it got louder when I started digging-wait." She started digging again, a bit more purposefully this time.

"It's definitely tied to that glowing somehow," she said. "When I dug around in places there wasn't any glowing, there wasn't any reaction..."

"Try digging some more," said Akegane-sama, swimming closer to Natasha. "Don't worry, we shall look out for you."

"Yeah!" said Arion, swimming closer as well.

[GrayGriffin]

In truth, he was much more nervous about this than Akegane-sama seemed to be. She did probably know more about what kind of thing would be making that sound, but what if she was wrong, or it was something she'd never seen before? Or what if she just thought they could handle it, and they actually couldn't?

"I...I can hear it even more clearly, now!" exclaimed Natasha. "I...I think it's someone singing. They sound...so sad..."

[GrayGriffin]

"Sad?" asked Akegane-sama. "I suppose if it's the one I'm thinking of, they might be sad in some way..."

"You know what's causing this? Like, precisely and exactly?" asked Arion, swimming closer to glance at Akegane-sama with confusion in his eyes.

"Yes, I am quite sure by now," she agreed. "It must be-"

"They're calling to us!" exclaimed Natasha. "They-they want us to come to-"

As she spoke, the glow intensified, and in a brilliant flash it swallowed all three of them.

[Wild Pet Found]