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“A fishing trip?!” Chris shouted.
“Yes,” Genjuro assured, “A fishing trip.”
The girls of SONG were cloaked in long, yellow fishing coats. Elfnein sat at the side of their boat, scanning the water through her tablet while Miku quietly observed her. The lake water looked as blue as Tsubasa’s hair and was covered in bits of algae.
“What the hell is this for?” Chris poked with her usual aggressiveness.
“Cool off,” Genjuro handed her a fishing pole. “You girls have been working hard as of late and ol’ Genjuro wanted to spend a bit of time with his favorite nieces!”
“We’re his nieces?!” Kirika spoke in awe.
“We’re like that to him.” Shirabe replied.
Their boat sat in the middle of a lake. Waves kissed the boat’s sides, which slightly rocked it. Genjuro pulled out a long fishing rod with a huge hook at the end. Afterwards, he pulled out a long piece of bait, attaching it to the hook. He then casted it into the water, to which everyone patiently gazed.
“Big deal, gramps!” Chris laughed. “We all know how to fish!”
“Just wait,” Genjuro held his hand up. “We haven’t gotten to the best part yet.”
Everyone sat in temptation of what was to come next. Genjuro patiently kept his eye on the water, then he felt something snag the rod. He gripped the lever with all his strength, the boat rocking back and forth as something gigantic began to brush up against it. The girls stumbled as Genjuro got into a massive wrestling match with the mystery beast before he finally, in a climactic pull, pulled it out of water. A massive shark flew into the sky, the girl's eyes glistened at the sight of such a mighty beast being pulled from the water. Then, with a mighty thump, it fell onto the boat.
“Voila!” Genjuro gestured to the white shark as it hopped around in a futile effort to get back into the water. “Do you girls think you can catch something this big?”
“Certainly!” Hibiki eagerly clenched her fists. “Miku and I will-”
“Let’s shake the teams up a little, shall we?” Genjuro picked up a plastic cup full of popsicle sticks. “Huddle around and I’ll give you a stick.” He instructed.
Genjuro lifted his fingers from the cup, revealing the popsicle sticks to have colored highlights for each girl, their names written on the front. Orange for Hibiki, red for Chris, pink for Shirabe, you get the gist. He began passing them out to each. Hibiki was given lime green, Chris got silver, Tsubasa got pink, and Miku got gold.
“I hope you’re satisfied with your partners,” Genjuro nodded. “Be sure you two fish up something comparable to or around that shark’s size.”
“What do we get?” Kirika spoke with a tinge of excitement.
“To know one another better!” Genjuro spoke with a hearty laugh. “Go to one of the boat’s sides and begin fishing with one another.” He pointed to several fishing rods, bait, and buckets lying on every side of the boat.
“Aye aye!” Hibiki waved, pulling Kirika in by her side. “It’s time to fish up a nice meal for Miku!”
“I could get Shirabe a nice fish too, dess!” Kirika sounded mildly competitive.
As the girls went to their sides of the boats, Genjuro sat back and let out a yawn, relaxing into his sunbathing chair. Team building exercises were a rare occurrence for the girls. At least ones that didn’t involve fighting holographic Noise or Genjuro himself. Still, he couldn’t help but keep an eye on Hibiki and Kirika.
Hibiki and Kirika’s fishing rods sat in the water, they were both waiting for a juicy fish for their loved ones to make for dinner. Their eyes darted at one another as they watched the water below them. Hibiki wiggled the line around, hoping it would attract one of them, seeing such a delectable worm hanging on a line. How could a fish not want to eat it?
“Shirabe’s gonna cook a great meal, dess,” Kirika sang to herself, “Gonna eat all night.”
“Not if I catch one first!” Hibiki teased.
As they watched the water closely, Kirika took note of Hibiki wiggling the line around. She soon enough started to wave it back and forth. Kirika looked over to Hibiki while doing this, smugly grinning. Hibiki then felt a large weight tug at the line.
“Ohhh,” Hibiki taunted, “I got one!”
“No way,” Kirika growled. “Gimme that!”
She put down her fishing rod, pulling on Hibiki’s with all her might. It was less like helping her out and more like tug of war. She began pulling back while Hibiki pulled something in from the water. Then Kirika began to notice her fishing rod start to fall off deck.
“I’ve got one too, dess!” Kirika threw herself off Hibiki and back to her fishing rod.
Kirika pushed her legs against the sides of the boat, grabbing the rod and beginning to reel in the fish. With both girls pulling away at their prize, the fish they were fighting so hard to get for their lovers finally shot up! Only to descend from the heavens and smack their opposite grabber. As Hibiki and Kirika laid down on the deck, Chris couldn’t hold in her laughter.
“Do you see these two jackasses?” Chris pointed over to them for Maria. “They got smacked hard!”
“Now, Chris,” Maria lectured, “That isn’t very nice, but I suppose it is funny.”
Maria chuckled to herself. Her mind was focused on the water, wanting to catch a fish. Chris reared her head back over to Maria, quietly observing her friend’s slow and meditated fishing habits.
“Have you done this before?” Chris questioned.
“Mhm,” Maria nodded, “Occasionally I take the girls on weekends.”
“I see,” Chris looked back over to Kirika, “Kirika acts just like that, too?”
“Yep,” Maria smiled, reeling in a small bass. “Score!”
Maria handed Chris the fish, to which she spiked it into a bucket filled to the near brim. The fish immediately slapped back at her, knocking her onto the floor.
“Guess I’m a jackass now, too…” Chris rubbed her hand against her aching cheeks.
“Now that’s what I call karma,” Maria chuckled.
As Chris got up, she leaned against the side of the boat, looking over to Tsubasa and Shirabe.
The two stoic fishers sat quietly, their eyes and hooks deep in the water. Tsubasa looked over to her partner, who silently hummed to herself. As she looked back at the water, she felt a sudden weight on the pole. Tsubasa began to pull backwards while Shirabe solemnly paid no attention to her partner. As she pulled back, the fish flew upwards, landing perfectly into the bucket beside Shirabe.
“Nice job,” Shirabe quietly applauded. “Doing that over my head was also impressive.”
“As a well-trained sentinel...” Tsubasa put the rod to her side. “You have to make sure your strikes are precise.”
“I see,” Shirabe trained her focus on the water. “Sentinels have such interesting training methods.”
Shirabe’s fishing line then was bitten. She pulled back, and a large crab thrust into the air. The crab came raining down, Shirabe led her line directly into the bucket, the crab falling on its back.
“Can a sentinel do that?” Shirabe smugly replied.
“Where can I learn such powerful methods?” Tsubasa pulled a notebook from her coat.
“Well, firstly…” Shirabe began, Tsubasa nodding as she got a pen out.
“Wow, Shirabe-san and Tsubasa-san are fantastic fishers,” Miku smiled. “How’s that little contraption of yours doing?”
Elfnein sat at the front end of the boat with a small screen resting between her hands. A nice view below the boat was on display. Fish casually swam through the water, and pretty rocks and coral reefs were scattered across the ocean floor. Miku looked over her shoulder, smiling.
“This is so cool!” Miku smiled, patting Elfnein on the head. “But how exactly are you controlling it?”
“Like this,” Elfnein tapped the screen, showing it move slightly to the left. Miku nodded, inspecting small icons on the sides.
“And what are those?” Miku pointed to a set of icons. They were a satellite, net, and an exclamation mark.
“The top one helps me find fish,” Elfnein pointed out matter-of-factly. “The second one helps me catch, and the other one is an emergency shutdown.”
“Cool!’ Miku eagerly watched the camera as it began to finally set eyes on its target: a shrimp.
“That’s what you’re going after?” Miku spoke worriedly.
“Yep!” Elfnein nodded. “I’ve been obsessed with catching one.”
As soon as she said this, Elfnein tapped the net button, and a small wire poked out of the front camera. A telekinetic barrier formed around the fish, Miku sitting back and admiring the process.
“It should be floating up to the surface in a few seconds sharp.” Elfnein and Miku watched the camera as it gradually rose out of the water to reveal it sitting in front of the ship.
“Shrimp has been acquired,” It loudly declared.
As it hovered over to the bucket filled with nothing, the girls all turned to focus on it. This small, white and black drone hovered above the boat, its engines hummed and it finally released the barrier around the shrimp, dropping the shrimp into the bucket.
“You took something that cool under water just to get that?!” Chris said in a mix of shock and awe.
“Can I have one, dess?” Kirika eagerly spoke up, and Hibiki joined her. “Give us one, give us one!”
Genjuro walked over to Miku and Elfnein’s spot as the drone floated near the bucket. He took a good look at it, admiring its camera and the small spike underneath that fired that stasis beam.
“I see that prototype is working well,” Genjuro nodded. “Impressive work.”
“Whaaaaaaaat?” The girls shouted in unison.
“Yes, girls,” Genjuro began to explain, “While this was a bonding exercise, we’ve also been eager to search around the sea for anything helpful.”
“What’s helpful under the sea?” Maria questioned. “Missing relics?”
“Perhaps,” Genjuro nodded. “With Elfnein’s genius, we hope to see these things rolled out soon.” Genjuro gestured to the machine.
“That’d be cool!” Shirabe’s blunt expressions changed to amusement. “Would we all get one?”
“Absolutely,” Genjuro smiled.
“In a few months, give or take,” Elfnein clarified. “There’s a couple things that need to be ironed out.”
The machine began to power down, dropping from its floating state and onto the floor of the boat. Standing around it observingly, the girls take note of its sleek design. While a generic black and white machine with a floating apparatus, square head, and a bluntly obvious camera on the front, it looked like a high tech machine.
“To be built by such a powerful mind,” Chris nodded. “Fascinating.”
As the boat pulled into shore, the girls went over to a nearby lake. There was a grill setup, and plenty of buckets worth of fish to cook. Everyone was adorned in their swimsuits, turning a team exercise and research trip into a fun and rewarding dinner at the lake. Genjuro stood at a grill, taking people’s fish and crabs out of the buckets, making sure to leave the shrimp unharmed.
“Any ideas on what you’ll do with it?” Genjuro asked.
“I’ve got a cool micro-robot suit in the works,” Elfnein gleefully smiled. “And I promise that won’t sidetrack the underwater explorers at all.”