Cobalt Plus: Aya and Mio (Patreon)

Aya watched two familiar figures walked back to the Isuzu Inn from the thin stretch of beach nearby. Fumika and Chihaya were back, dried off and still a little tired from their swim around the old vessel – they had spent almost 8 minutes underwater and had to scramble back up to the surface after overestimating how long they were prepared to stay down. Fumika complemented Chihaya on her excellent athleticism on their way back to the inn, Chihaya thanking her and lightly smiling with confidence the rest of the way back. Later that night, Chihaya told Aya about the ship she had explored with Fumika and how similar it looked to the shipwreck they were familiar with swimming through. A few days later, Chihaya was going into town with Fumika to shop for some food for that night’s dinner. This left Aya alone with the other woman she and Chihaya had just met – Mio, who was a military cadet under Fumika when she was younger. As Mio discussed her long relationship with Fumika, Aya couldn’t help but reflect on her relationship with Chihaya – both relationships had sisterly qualities to them and had developed in time to a kind of bond with an equal who could follow and understand similar experiences incredibly well. This helped Aya bond a little bit with Mio, and Mio seemed to feel likewise as Aya talked about her and Chihaya’s past diving adventures.  

At some point, Mio brought up the idea of diving that day, mentioning a cave that she and some other Japanese witches had dived in together before. After hearing a little more of Mio’s description of the cave, Aya had remembered there being an underwater cave nearby where she and Chihaya would usually launch their raft en route to their usual shipwreck, but she had never decided to swim through that place herself. Accepting Mio’s offer, Aya put on her swimsuit and the two took the raft to just above the underwater cave entrance. While a little hard to see, the mid-afternoon sun managed to provide some faint light thanks to the cave entrance’s closeness to the surface – Mio brought a durable flashlight along to help the two see further in.

Requester: https://www.patreon.com/MetalCar/creators