The Gift of Ena.
Sayu Hisanuma had gotten out of classes early one afternoon a few months after the second Ofunehiki and her friends were back in Oshiooshi either on break or they had other reasons to be back. However, Sayu was all alone sitting at the peir by the train tracks, the screeching of gulls overhead.
Her friends, Hikari Sakishima, Manaka Mukaido, Tsumugu Kihara, Chisaki Hiradaira, even her best friend Miuna Shiodome and the love of her life Kaname Isaki all went to Shioshishio because they had Ena. However, Sayu could not so she could not follow her friends down to the village under the sea. This upset Sayu greatly as she wanted to be like her friends but she could not and to her there seem to be no way to change this.
"Why couldn't I be blessed with Ena like my friends… why do I have to be the odd one out around them…?" Sayu said softly to no one in particular while a few tears rolled down the sides of her face, as she gazes longingly at the sea. Sayu would let the tears run down her face for a few minutes before getting up and putting a stop to the flow of tears, she had decided that crying would do nothing but upset her more in this situation.
Sayu then start walking up the pier to the road knowing her friends would likely be at Shioshishio until sunset or who knew when. "Maybe… one day I can join them down there…" Sayu murmured softly and stopped for a minute before she turned down the corner from the pier and walked away.
It was not until close to sunset when Miuna Shiodome managed to return to land near the pier and upon emerging from the sea her Ena quickly absorb the water away from her clothes and hair. Miuna was quick to rush home with a smile on her face and not a worry at all.
Miuna was not even thinking about her friend because she thought Sayu was out doing something fun without her. It was not however until she got home and to the dinner table when she was greeted with a hot meal and an odd question from her mother.
"Miuna, do you know what is going on with Sayu? She came by around four and started asking me a lot of questions about Ena." Her mother, Akari asked while Miuna's father and little brother looked to Miuna. They were also somewhat interested on the subject about why her friend was thinking about Ena, and now of all times to think about it. They believed there should be a reason behind Sayu's interest in Ena but all questions would have to wait until later once they realized that Miuna had absolutely no idea of what is going on at this moment of time.
Later that night Miuna would start to ponder about her friend Sayu and the latter sudden interest in Ena. There must be something, some reasons behind Sayu's incessant questions about Ena – otherwise it would be too weird. Maybe Sayu was planning to do something with them in the near future and it would involve being outside for prolonged hours so she wanted to be safe because their Ena get dries up over time spend under the sun. There was always the possibility that Sayu just wanted to learn a little more about her and Ena was a good place to start with in Sayu's opinion. Nevertheless, these were all guesses and conjectures on Miuna's part and soon Miuna found herself drifting off to sleep.
The next morning Sayu did not go to school but instead chose to visit the small sea god shrine that was left hidden away in one of the less frequent corners of the town. Sayu had some questions and was hoping to be able to catch Uroko around and hopefully gained some answers to her questions. Although, she knew with the villagers in Shioshishio awaken – there is a very high chance of Uroko already returning to the sea but she was hoping that Uroko's presence still lingers on as she made her way to the shrine of the sea god situated on the land.
While making her way over to the shrine, part of Sayu was also hoping that none of her friends from Shioshishio had noticed her heading this direction. The shrine had been well kept and someone had obviously cleaned it every day as a small gesture to the sea god, though Sayu had absolutely no idea who would frequent such isolated area on a daily basis just to tidy up the shrine.
"Uroko-sama…? Are you here?" Sayu asked and when she saw no one sitting next to the sacred flame Sayu looked around towards the sea and away from the shrine hoping to see Uroko doing something. Sayu literally had to stifle a gasp of surprise when she suddenly hears Uroko's voice emerging from behind.
"What is it…?" Uroko asked in his usual voice that made him sound like he was annoyed or that he simply didn't care about what was going on.
"Uroko… can I ask you a question?" Sayu asked while she sounded nervous about what she was going to ask him.
"Be my guest." Uroko simply stated while looking like he was picking dirt out from under his nails.
"Can… can the sea god give me Ena?" Sayu asked. Uroko was about to answer but then as though hit by a sudden notion, he started to rub his chin in silent contemplation about the subject.
"It's possible but why would you want such a thing?" Uroko asked back in return despite the fact that he already knew the answer but merely asked because he wanted to see if Sayu would come out and speak the truth.
"Because… I want to be more like my friends…" Sayu started hesitantly but Uroko just made a motion with his hand telling her to keep going. "And… I want to see where my friends are from. Their home…" Sayu continued before pausing to sneak a glance over at Uroko only for the former to prompt her further with a mere look of his eyes. "Because… if I ever have a child with Kaname... I want to be able to swim with him and our child if our child is blessed with Ena!" Sayu yelled before covering her mouth and flushing red from embarrassment and this made Uroko nod in satisfaction.
"That is what I thought." Uroko said and straighten his posture back into a sitting position. "Are you sure about this though? Once this starts there will be no going back to normal unless you remove your Ena and I won't ask of something like this twice." Uroko warned.
Sayu smile happily when she heard Uroko's response, and then recovered herself by putting on a serious face and nodded in response to Uroko's warning speech.
"Alright then, take a seat in front of the sacred fire and offer a prayer to the sea god as without his blessing I won't be able to do something like this." Uroko instructed and Sayu hurried to nod and got on her knees.
Keeping her eyes firmly shut, Sayu gripped her hands tightly together in front of her in preparation to make a prayer to the sea god. Inside Sayu's mind she was making a plea to the sea god to give her Ena so she could be with her friend, see their home and most importantly to her, swim with the one she loved.
With her eyes shut, Sayu had no idea what was going on around her and therefore she could only gripped her hands tighter together as she tried harder to push her prayer out forth in hopes that it would go through. When Sayu finally opened her eyes, she saw that she was engulfed by a blue flame and the sea god's flame was burning brighter on the shrine. The flame encasing Sayu didn't hurt but it still felt rather weird.
"Alright, off you go." Uroko said and stepped aside but before Sayu could figure out what that meant a large flame blast sent Sayu flying from her place in front of the shrine and into the sea not quite far from the shrine.
Sayu was screaming when she was sent flying and splashing into the water. Having no time to even catch her breath, she found herself already submerged under the water. For a while she was screaming still, panicking over the idea that she might drown. Her first instinct reaction was to close her mouth fearing that she would run out of breath.
Then as soon as the thought flash through her mind, she remembered her previous prayer to the sea god. Gathering up her sheer courage and willpower Sayu opened her mouth and took in the water only for it to feel like taking a deep breath. Sayu now had a layer of Ena covering her skin and that made her so happy.
"I can breathe!" Sayu yelled and then quickly started to swim for the shore only to emerge from the water and run towards Uroko, catching the servant of the sea god in a hug. It took only a minute for the Ena to absorb all the water from her skin like her friends, after climbing ashore.
"Thank you Uroko-sama and you too sea god." Sayu said before letting go of Uroko and ran for school after grabbing her bag from where she left lying around on the front steps of the shrine.
"Whatever... Just remember you got a layer of Ena now so things are different!" Uroko muttered aloud before sitting down in the shade and adjusting himself into a relaxing position. A small smile quirked on the corner of his lips as he felt like things were going to be very surprising for Sayu's friends for a while and likely things are bound to get interesting soon.
When Sayu finally got to class she had first apologize for being late and then made sure to keep her head and hands out of any sun light so she could reveal the surprise to all her friends at once. However, it was hard for Sayu not to reveal the truth to Miuna especially when Miuna started to ask questions to Sayu about why she was late and why Sayu was asking her mother about Ena.
Sayu however easily dodged the questions by telling Miuna that she had something important to do before coming to class and that she was simply interested in Ena which was not entirely a lie. After that Sayu told Miuna to get their friends together and to meet her at the pond up on the hill for an announcement. Miuna was going to ask for what but the bell rang and Sayu let off a string of giggles before running off in a wild dash – leaving Miuna having no option but to do as Sayu instructed.
However, when Miuna, Hikari, Manaka, and Kaname arrive at the designated area, Sayu was nowhere to be found. Regardless, they did not fret for they were certain that Sayu would arrive soon enough with whatever surprise she had in store for them. They decided to get into the pool and relax while they waited for Sayu's arrival.
Soon enough Sayu arrived with a big smile on her face as she greeted them. Then quickly without second thought, Sayu joined them in the pool and smiled. Her friends were very confused as to why Sayu would do such a thing and would just look at her in bafflement until Manaka decided to speak up and voiced her question across.
"Sayu, why did you do that? Your clothes are going to be dripping wet for our next class."
"Oh I don't think so~." Sayu said and giggled while her friends just looked at each other in confusion.
"Sayu… are you ok? Kaname asked softly as he was thinking Sayu was having some sort of mental breakdown or something.
"Never better~." Sayu replied and then the warning bell went off. "Oh! We better get going." Sayu said and now was her moment as she got out of the water and walked into the sun. Her hands glimmered a little from her layer of Ena and Sayu's friends were shocked when Sayu's clothes dried up right before their eyes. Hikari would stare at Sayu while his mouth was open as he tried to speak but was mostly confused.
"Sayu… what is going on!?" This was what finally came out from his mouth but it was a question that was on everyone's mind.
"Oh well... earlier this morning I went and have a talk with Uroko-sama ... and my prayer went through to the sea god so now I have a layer of Ena just like all of you!" Sayu announced brightly and this made everyone smile as they got out and got into a group hug with Sayu.
Everyone was happy for her but then the late bell rang. Everyone looked at the school and started to make there was down. All but Sayu who grabbed the hand of Kaname and pulled him back. "Um… Kaname… would you go for a swim with me alone after school and show me around Shioshishio?" Sayu asked while blushing and Kaname would also blush and rubbed the back of his head before agreeing.
"Hey! If you two don't hurry you're going to miss class!" Hikari yelled and the two would look at Hikari before laughing and running after Hikari.
(Author's notes: Recently updated with the help of the story's new proof reader and amazing friend Xijoa! She is the only reason this story now has much better grammar and sentence structure as I'm terrible at it! Be sure to thank her as well for this story for being better. We also hope to bring you more chapters in the future! Until then please review as each one will help this story.)