Miyako Diaries 17: Puella Mortua (?) (Patreon)

Aya has been aware of the recent craze - almost - about the "Miyako Mermaid Girl" that was now all over Twitter. A whole community of people were guessing what that beautiful being was that made its sudden debut at the Underwater Observatory on the rainy day. Of course Aya knew about who that was, although the "Mermaid" herself - Aya's cousin and best friend - couldn't have cared less. Chihaya hardly touched any social media; on Twitter she followed just one account (Aya) and wasn't aware of the multitude of #hashtags that were now up and hunting her.  

Well,  Aya cared. Wow, this is great! I can also dive along those window panels and Chihaya and I can become #TwinMiyakoMermaids! She was running out to the beach and out to the northern shores before long.

And there she was - at the exact spot as the Miyako Mermaid tweets of Chihaya, and the crowd of people were there behind the panels just as Aya had expected. Aya stayed down there for a long time, posing and floating still as long as she could, so that her observers would have enough time for photoshooting and texting. More and more people gathered with their phones held up. Things were going great! Only after what felt like an eternity she decided to go up for air. Puff, puff! Aya was gasping, and her cheeks were flush red. Had she been down for six minutes? Or seven? Not certain, but close to the limit even for the fish girl Aya.

The next morning, Aya was anxious to activate her phone. Everyone should be tweeting and tagging her to #MiyakoMermaid now! But, to her dismay,  what she saw was:

#DeadDrownGirl

Eh? That is my hashtag? That can't be - but people were wondering and discussing about the "drowned girl body" that they witnessed floating alongside the Observatory. "She looked stiff" - No, I was posing! "Noted postmortem darkening of skin" - Ugh, I'm just tanned!! So, no talks about how cute I am or how I'm beautiful like a mermaid? Oh, here's a post -

"I 've never seen a watery corpse in such a beautiful condition" - @necrophilove

Aya shut the app.  She's had enough of Twitter - maybe it's time to switch and focus on going out catching Squirtles and Charmanders.