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The family's South African holiday involves a whale sightseeing excursion at Hermanus, perilously near the number two hotspot in the world for the planet's most violent fish, and would involve going down in a cage in order to 'swim with' said violent fish too, if every member of the trio didn't wear glasses. To be fair though, Rin only wears glasses for old times sake and for comfort.
“Sojirooooooooo! Loooooook!! They're dancing!” Futaba, clad in the green, gold, blue, red and black of the country's flag, turns and points through the salty sea spray as not far away a pair of gargantuan humpback whales launch themselves from the sea in a titanic ballet move, crashing back down with a boom. She'd like to see a great white shark, but there's no way her dad would let her without him, and there's no way he's stepping into the ocean blind.
“I see, Futaba. I can't not!” yells Sojiro, holding onto the sightseeing boat near to where Rin sits peacefully smoking whilst surrounded by their children. Children who are either attached to her chest, or imprisoned in a pram.
“Having fun?” she asks him, as a pod of dark grey dolphins leap past like skipping stones tossed by God.
“Huh? Yeah, this is amazing. But there'd better be no sharks.” Sojiro adjusts his glasses, through which he can barely see anything thanks to the salt spray, and scurries off to make sure Futaba doesn't attempt to hijack a dolphin.
Rin watches the antics of all and sundry for a moment, watches both animal and human fun times, then looks out at the fabulous sunny ocean and paradisiacal mountain clad landscape reaching for it, then looks over the side of the boat. They say a great white can smell a drop of blood in the ocean at a distance of three miles. So they say. Accordingly, she slices the skin of her right thumb with the sharp nail of her left thumb, letting a couple drops of blood surreptitiously fall into the heaving azure blue water. The boat’s going to return to dock soon anyway, so may as well. Silver fish swim by beneath the surface, glittering like living gemstones.
Southern right whales and their calves gambol past, happy to be alive, and then suddenly, there's nothing. No whales, no dolphins, no fish. Nothing but a deadly calm as the seagulls wheel by overhead and the boat creates white water.
And then, a fin is spotted.
“Shaaaaark!” calls Futaba, pointing at the large triangular shape rapidly slicing through the water towards the boat. It passes Rin, a vast grey torpedo.
“Great white!” Calls the tour guide. Everyone gets their phones and cameras ready to shoot.
“Get back from there!” Sojiro yanks his daughter away from the side, just before a pointed snout followed by an immense set of jaws launches itself out of the water, its dark eyes rolled back, its mouth a black cave of death, row upon row of inverted white pyramids extending from bloody red gums as its lips pull away. A true monster, the shark is a terrible, wondrous sight, and everyone is extremely afraid and delighted, except Rin, who continues to smoke like she's at a Sunday picnic. Finding nothing to satisfy its constant hunger, the ocean's apex predator dives back down into the deep, coming upon a sick dolphin for lunch.