Jotou's hand already hovered above the hilt of her blade, although she didn't feel shocks in her hair, "You speak of it like you're familiar with it," reservations even in her tone.
Father Keel grinned, "Are we jumping to conclusions again?"
"If I made up a conclusion, I think my sword would already be out."
"Fear not child, I am familiar with this one whale. Calm your nerves, I'm not some spy," his tone did not waver one bit, remaining low.
Hotaru's sunhat unfurled in her grasp as the blonde stood up, moving her hand away from her weapon, "Then do you mind explaining to me?"
"Of course, it's your duty to interrogate the surroundings to find our target. I just could sense your head was not clear for that task yet," Father Keel looked to the sea.
He pointed to the edge of the beach; people were beginning to leave upon the oncoming dusk. "That's where a whale was beached early this morning.
About ten or so metres and the lifeguards found it. They quarantined the area and got it back into the sea. A few minutes later when they tried to spot it to check its condition…
They were introduced to a shadowy form with ruby red eyes that swam away; and word travelled. I was not allowed near to heal the poor thing."
"Heal the whale?" Jotou's eyebrow raised.
"I tried to, but they sent me away so, I could only watch from afar these events. One thing I could notice were the shark bites across the underside of its body.
Ones that I had already healed once before. This was the same whale I healed a few weeks ago, heaven knows why it came back, but I could recognize the scars I didn't heal and new ones alongside it."
Jotou shook her head, "Sorry, you just brushed past the fact- Why were you healing a whale?"
The priest chuckled, "It breathes the same breeze across the sea, doesn't it? Regardless, there's only so much a man with a pure healing affinity can do around here.
I've helped countless sea creatures that washed up on shore over the years; giant squid, shred-lobsters, alum fish, I can go on for a while. I've been blessed with water, could say I'm right at home here."
"Okay… you're the fish whisperer. But you saw the same whale again and saw it turn into a velatos? Was the whale dead before? How did it transform?" Jotou asked one after the other.
"I didn't quite catch it; I was far away. It went into the water and came back up covered in shadow. As for was it alive or not, I couldn't check that from a distance."
"What if the velatos were dead to begin with? Come to think of it, every velatos I've faced turns into a dead fragment. Layla Princely came out of a grave…
No wonder everyone thought I was a velatos when I came to life, but wait a minute; if that's common knowledge, why hasn't that been brought up before?
Surely, they can't just say it's not undead. Even the Ordinate said they have no clue… If I of all people can figure this out, surely, they can?
Or they just can't confirm it yet and would prefer not to tell… Oh," Jotou looked up to the priest, "Sorry, I'm making up conspiracies like a certain detective I know.
Can you tell me anything more about it? Or better yet, could you, 'revive' it?" Jotou came up with an idea.
"Healing like that takes a lot more and I don't think I can do that," he chuckled. "That requires healing of the soul itself to convince it to come back to the living. That's beyond me."
"Well, you said it may not be dead. Maybe healing can do something," Jotou pondered as the screams of people broke her out of thought.
For once now, Father Keel widened his eyes in shock, looking to the beach. The people were beginning to run, the lifeguards were ushering people out all of a sudden.
The clouds did not cover them yet, but a shadow loomed over the seashore; dark clouds approached, and with it, shadowed fins were visible in the distance… "Shit."
_
"Sea dandelions!" Asobi threw a handful she found drifting about; onto Hotaru who was peacefully enjoying just floating.
Hotaru closed her eyes as they splashed onto her, wiggling her ears in response, "Asobi, you don't have swimming clothes." The magician swam in her usual- only attire.
A purple headband glimmered as it floated across the water, before, "Hya!" Fumeko pounced out with a chop onto Hotaru's shoulder, "Nice distraction Asobi! She's been assassinated!"
"Yay!"
Hotaru's eyes glazed over, "Yes, I'm dead…" she looked up to the Sun going away. Her ears felt a twinge, "It's gonna rain. Let's get back to the beach."
"Achoo!" Fumeko sneezed as she walked onto the sand.
"Someone's talking behind your back," Hotaru teased.
Asobi glanced over, "There's no one behind her. Oh no! The ghosts are talking about you Meko!"
"Very funny," she wiped her nose. Her hair was drenched as she watched Hotaru draw out the water from her own hair and tail, drying herself up. "Hey, dry me too!"
"I'm not a towel," Hotaru approached, "I can only take away bit by bit, so don't whine when I can't take it away all in one go," she stated before summoning water into her hands.
"Should we go find Jotou?" Fumeko asked.
"I didn't want to bother her, but it has been a while. I am getting worried, but Jotou can handle herself. She'll be back before the velatos comes out."
She flicked away the water into the sand, doing it again and again. It was a slow process, but the sudden shriek from around caught all three of them off guard.
"Hey look! It's the velatos!" Asobi pointed to in the distance as the winds picked up and storm clouds drifted in. A tail fin made of dark shadow waved by.
"What was that about Jotou coming back?" Fumeko mumbled.
"Our gear's in the basket, let's go!" Hotaru ordered.
_
Jotou ran out from the church, bumping past shoulders against her. She groaned, having to slow down to not get buffeted back.
She looked to her left, barely able to make out the railing that led to the beach below. 'Am I really gonna jump?' She hesitated for a moment, before she swiftly pushed through the chicken scramble of noise and speech around her.
She got herself up on the wooden beam, the mob now behind her. She looked down, "That's not too far," the wind howled past her hair.
She sat down on the rail, tying her hair back in the gust whilst holding onto Hotaru's sunhat. She peered down again—cross-beams were aligned down the pillars. 'Why does the sand suddenly look further somehow…?'
Jotou sighed as she looked out to sea; her heart began to race. She spotted tape being stretched out and vaguely… three figures arguing with someone?
"Who else would it be?" she shrugged. "Time to go down!" She stared down… "Very… carefully…"
With a massive inhale, she hung onto the beam and reached her foot down below, able to step onto the wide cross-beam, "Ugh," she let go and landed.
"Two more- No!" she lost grip on the sunhat, now taken hostage by the wind. "I'll buy her a new one," she focused back on the task.
"Sir, you need to understand, we're with the guild, that's why we're here," Hotaru spoke, complete in her adventuring attire.
"And what's your party? I've never even seen any of you. We can't let reckless bystanders play hero, we gave a warning to everyone today and it's time for evacuation so move along."
"What? You want official documents or something!? It's a commission!" Fumeko exclaimed.
"Hey," Jotou rushed over, hearing the tail end of their argument. She unsheathed her sword, "Thundering Blade, move aside."
"…Oh," the lifeguard stared… "Well, I guess," he threw his hands in the air and moved aside with a groan.
"Jotou! Where have you been? See any cool things?" Asobi giddied.
"Later! Jotou, are you okay?" Hotaru checked her face.
"I'm completely fine; I owe you a new hat, but I came because of that!" Jotou pointed to the creature fast approaching the shore, covered in shadow.
"Okay, we couldn't kill a plant, how are we going to stop whatever that is?" Fumeko tried to figure.
"It's a whale and I think I may have a solution. Hotaru, you need to try and heal it."
"Heal it!?" Hotaru thought her ears deceived her from the wind swirling around.
"Cause it's undead!" Fumeko supported.
Jotou nodded, "Exactly, theory anyway- Wait a minute, how do you know that?" her eyes fixated on Fumeko.
"It's a guess duh! We used it for the centicrab with rejuvenate. Only then, it didn't affect it, but undead are damaged by healing magic, aren't they?" Fumeko faced Hotaru.
Hotaru squinted, "Rejuvenate's a support spell not a healing one! Have I taught you nothing!?"
Fumeko was taken aback, "Heh? Oh yeah, I remember you saying something about that… Did that somehow slip my mind?"
"Enough, we need to be planning. That thing's coming to shore and I'm worried about what it can do on land of all things. We need to be ready.
Guess what Hotaru, you're our secret weapon now," Jotou stated as they got closer to the area, jogging and planning an attack.
_
"Someone's probably already calling the Ordinate," Hotaru affirmed.
"Okay, then failsafe is covered. I'm done using information from the Ordinate and the guild. Meko, blink around and see if you can find a weak point.
Hotaru, once it beaches, try to heal it the best you can, if that doesn't work, we move out. It all hinges on Asobi's ability to distract that gigantic thing- Asobi?" Jotou searched.
The magician stopped running a few steps away, squinting as she observed the rain dripping down, "Water babies!" Asobi yelled.
"What!?" Fumeko shouted.
Asobi pointed and the rain dripped down, forming into puddles instead of sinking into the sand. The water formed and materialized into distorted, human-like shapes.
They stared with their mouth agape, "Well then… Time to revise…"