"You bombed your grades AGAIN!?" A rugged, middle-aged man spat out with anger at his teenage son. "How the hell do you expect to get anywhere in life at this rate!?"
"How would you know!?" The teen yelled right back in response, throwing the harshest of glares back at his father. "In case you forgot, I'm not just a younger version of you, ya shitfaced old fart!"
"The' fuck did you say to me Junpei!?" The rugged man's face wrinkled up with sheer aggravation, and his hand fiercely clenched onto the neck of an empty beer bottle.
The look of frustration stretched across Junpei's face was quickly replaced with one of panic, as he quickly dodged to the side so that his skull wouldn't be smashed open by a glass bottle. As it hit the coffee table instead, shattering the bottom half into an array of glass shards, Junpei darted right out of the living room, as quickly as he could without slipping on the wooden floor.
After a small stumble, Junpei's father came running after the high schooler with his broken bottle in hand. As he stormed through the cramped halls of the apartment, the entire place filled with the loudest of footsteps, which only made Junpei run even faster.
The young teen took a grasp of his bedroom door, and slammed it shut once he rushed inside. His entire body shivered when heard the glass bottle shatter against his door, and only continued to do so once his dad erupted into a mess of drunken clamors. All the while, Junpei just panted like a dog, and leaned against his door to hold it completely shut.
Minutes passed as his father yelled out slurred profanity, accompanied by the sounds of furniture toppling over. This was nothing new to Junpei, but that didn't make his body shake any less. He knew that if his door opened so much as a creek, his dad would come barreling in, and turn his head into a pile of mush on the floor.
Who knows how much time passed until the apartment finally became silent. Once it did, Junpei just barely peered out of his door, to find his father passed out on the littered floor.
With a tired groan, the teen closed his door again, and locked it. He knew that was going to happen, given how much booze his dad chugged down on a daily basis, and he also knew that he'd rather not risk leaving his door unlocked when his father finally woke up.
When Junpei was his way to the bed, a single question arose in his head.
Would this godforsaken cycle ever end?
After the end of the P-1 Climax, and the red fog had finally dissipated, all had gone quiet within the Amagi Inn. Or at least, up until the hot springs were officially open for the males.
"I'm not going dammit!" The redheaded teenager in the yukata yelled out, all the while sternly crossing his arms.
"Aw c'mon Sho-chan, a hot spring isn't gonna kill ya." Junpei responded with a teasing tone laced in his voice. When he heard an irritated growl from the futons, the Little League coach couldn't help but chuckle.
Junpei was already nineteen years old now, and the catastrophe in Inaba had finally come to a close. But out of all of the surprises he found in his path, none of them were quite as astonishing as the discovery of Sho Minazuki: one of the children from the Kirijo Group's experiments.
The teen in question gritted his teeth from the nickname Junpei used. "I told you to stop calling me that already!" He shouted out furiously, standing right up from his spot on the futon just to glare at Junpei.
"God, someone's getting riled up over a simple nickname." Junpei said, leering up an eyebrow, and resting his hand on his hip in a way one would call 'sassy'.
Sho just growled back once again, before he sat back down on the futon, crossing his arms like a stubborn little kid. "I just don't wanna get in to a damn hot spring is all…"
"Why?" Junpei tilted his head, which now carried a full head of short, slightly spikey hair. "It's only open for guys right now, so you don't have to worry about being with any girls in the nude." He stated calmly. His face was rather static until a sly smirk came to it, and a finger lifted up to his chin. "…Unless a few tensions rose between you and Adachy-baby~"
Sho immediately blurted countless stutters in response, with his cheeks flaring up as red as his hair. It wasn't long afterwards that the teenager stood up again, and glared daggers right at the older man.
"Do you wanna die!?" Sho spat out angrily, clenching his hands into fists as if he was ready to get into another fight.
Junpei however, just laughed in response, grinning widely all the while.
"Nah, I just wanna get your bratty ass in the hot spring already." He responded with a shrug of his shoulders. Sho's threats didn't scare him, since the teen didn't have his twin swords in hand. "From the looks of it, you're pretty overdue for one."
Sho's eyes briefly widened at that remark. How could the baseball coach determine whether or not he was 'overdue' for a soak in a hot spring? He sure as hell didn't know. But even so, he wasn't entirely wrong; Sho hadn't even heard of a hot spring up until both the Shadow Operatives and the Investigation Team dragged him to the Amagi Inn. In fact, he couldn't even remember the last time he had a full soak in a bath, thanks to what his father did to him.
Sho let out a defeated sigh, and released the tension in his hands. "…If I go, will you shut up already?"
Junpei immediately smirked. "Sure thing!" His words sounded honestly enough, although he wasn't go to make any deadest promises. "Let's get goin' then!"
Sho groaned, but followed Junpei anyway, with his shoulders slumped, as the sleeves of his yukata covered his hands.
The two walked through the halls of the Amagi Inn, all of which were almost entirely silent. Junpei could understand why; his friends were probably still recovering from the immense aftermath of the P-1 Climax, but it still made the place feel a tad spooky.
Although for Sho, it was actually quite run-of-the-mill. As such, he just kept walking behind Junpei, with his hanging down a bit. A few grumbles of reluctance still left his lips from time to time, but the redheaded high schooler knew that he'd just get into trouble if he tried to bolt it.
After a few more steps, the two teens reached a set of open doors, covered up only by noren curtains. One of which was a dark shade of blue, while the other was red.
Sho didn't understand why the two curtains were different colors, but went along with it anyway, ready to walk through the entrance with the red curtains.
"Woah there Sho!" Junpei blurted out in a panicked voice, and pulled Sho away from the entrance, right by the collar. "I know you're in your teenage years, but you don't wanna go in there unless you want an execution!"
"Wait…why?" Sho asked out, more bewildered than upset at the moment. "This is the entrance to the hot springs, right?"
In response to Sho's question, Junpei's eyes immediately widened with surprise. Didn't the kid at least know that red was usually color coordinated with girls? Heck, the kanji for 'female' was right on the curtains as well!
"W-well, yeah…" Junpei stated with a stutter, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so. "But that spring's only open for the girls right now." He then pointed right at the plaque to the side of the entrance, which had the kanji for 'female' embedded into it. "Didn't ya see the sign?"
Sho then turned his head back to look at the plaque, but there was no sudden realization that he goofed up, or secretive look of sheer embarrassment. Instead, he still appeared to be confused by the clear-cut kanji on the plaque.
"Wait…" Sho muttered out, squinting at the kanji like a nearsighted child. "That's what that mess of lines means?"
Junpei practically froze in place when he heard that. Whenever he heard someone describe the most basic of kanji as 'a mess of lines', it was a dead giveaway that they couldn't read Japanese at all. Sho had already proven himself to be one heck of a pathetic brat, but illiterate on top of it? Did the Kirijo Group really treat him that badly?
As the swarm of questions filled his mind, Junpei simply smiled weakly at the redhead. "You've got more to learn than I thought…"
Sho instantly turned back towards Junpei with a scowl. "Hey! What're you implying?"
"Nothing." The little league coach said with a small chuckle. "Let's just get a good soak already."
With that, Junpei stepped right through the entrance with the blue noren curtains. Even though Sho was still confused by the whole deal with the red curtains and the writing on the plaque, he followed suit. Upon doing so, he immediately found himself in a small room, containing nothing but a shelf that held a multitude of baskets, one of which was already being pulled out by Junpei.
"…Do I have to undress though?" Sho asked out in an unusually quiet tone of voice, letting his head hang low.
"Well yeah, if you don't wanna wear a sopping wet yukata throughout the night." Junpei said with a snicker as he loosened the obi around his waist, and stripped the yukata right off, revealing nothing but his skin. "Don't worry though, we're both guys he-" His words came to a dead stop when he looked back at Sho, with his eyes widening and his mouth hanging open in shock.
The teen's head was still down as he let the yukata fall to the floor. Once it was off, a massive array of scars could be seen all across his back. Some of them shot straight down his back, almost like claw marks, while others seemed to curl across it, but every one of them was coated with jagged red skin, greatly contrasting against the rest of his body.
Any at all words had completely escaped Junpei's throat, as his eyes stared at the scars in sheer horror. That was when all of the dots had finally connected; he realized why Sho didn't want to get into the hot spring, and he also realized just what exactly Shuji Ikutsuki, his so-called 'father', did to him in the past.
"…Aren't you gonna laugh?" Sho soon muttered afterwards, catching Junpei completely off guard. "After all, this is just proof that I was the brat you said I was…"
Junpei let out an almost silent gasp at Sho's question, while his eyes still looked over every patch of torn-up skin on the younger teen's back. As the question simmered in his mind, the coach's mouth closed into a stern state, not a smile nor a frown.
"Sho." He stated, placing a single hand on the teenager's shoulder, and looking at him with a serious glare. "I'd never laugh at something like this. And I never will."
Sho just stuttered in response, outright stunned by both the answer Junpei had given him and the look in his eyes. It was a look that he hadn't seen before until he saw the Shadow Operatives, hovering above him as he regained consciousness at the Amagi Inn. It was difficult to give a proper description of that look, but the closest thing that Sho could think of was… empathetic.
After Sho had delved into that memory, Junpei soon regained his old-fashioned smile.
"Come on." He said calmly, giving the younger boy a quick pat on the shoulder. "Let's go wash up."
Sho's eyes were still wide with surprise, all while he felt the shoulder that Junpei just patted. He was almost completely bewildered because, somehow, the patting didn't agitate him at all.
It was only until a few seconds had passed that the redhead followed Junpei out of the changing room, and into the bathing room. In it, there were two rows of short stools on the ground, along with several handheld showerheads that were clasped onto the walls. Underneath the showerheads, there were sets of knobs, and on the floor, there were a bunch of bottles and bars of soap.
"Don't get the stuff in your eyes now." Junpei commented, smirking as Sho gave off another glare in response. Junpei easily shrugged the glare off, and just sat down on one of the stools. Taking a hold of the showerhead, he then twisted the knob embedded in the wall, which sent a cascade of water pouring through the tube of water, and onto Junpei's mop of black hair.
As the little league coach was clearly enjoying himself underneath the showering stream, Sho took a few cautious steps towards one of the stools. Even though he knew there was nothing that could pose a threat to him at the moment, the red-haired boy still felt an odd shiver travel across his skin when he placed his bare behind on the hunk of wood.
Sho then took a hold of the showerhead in front of him, and looked over it with a pair of curious eyes. Glancing back at Junpei, Sho noticed how the older teen was using the knobs to control the flow of the water. As such, he lifted his free hand up to the knobs as well, tilting the red one all the way.
That was when he was greeted with a blast of hot water right in his face.
"Agh! Goddammit! Shit!" The redhead blurted out every curse word imaginable. While he was being bombarded with scorching hot water, he clenched his eyes, and blindly reached a hand towards the wall.
Before he could even rest a finger on one of the knobs, the boiling water came to a complete stop, and the showerhead was taken right out of Sho's hand. When Sho opened his eyes again, he saw Junpei giving him a grin, while holding onto the handheld showerhead.
"Need some help here bucko?" Junpei asked him, his grin growing a bit as he did so.
"Hey! I can handle myse-Ow!" The younger teen was immediately cut off by a swift bonk on the head.
"Sure you can." Junpei sarcastically stated, while lowering his eyebrows to form a deadpan glare. "And I can make pigs fly with the magical powers of the tooth fairy." The baseball coach let out a chuckle in response to his own joke, even as Sho practically growled right at him. "Look, just relax Sho, I'm used to this kinda thing." He stated, resting one hand on one of the knobs. "So just stay still 'till I get all the crap off of your skin."
Sho grumbled yet again, but sat still on the stool with the utmost reluctance. His lips frowned to form a deep scowl, which only served to make Junpei laugh again.
With another chuckle out of his system, Junpei carefully turned knob on the wall, allowing a much more reasonable temperature of water to gush from the showerhead. The water immediately dowsed Sho's head, making his usually poofy mop of red hair flat against his head, and causing it to appear a darker shade of crimson. The teen shivered a bit as the droplets trickled down his skin, clenching his eyes shut all the while, but he stayed just as still as ever.
Junpei smirked once he saw Sho stay put. As such, he kneeled down for a second to pick up the bottle of shampoo on the floor. Standing back up, Junpei flicked the lid open, and poured the gel onto the younger boy's head. He ignored another one of Sho's irritated grunts as he dug his fingers into the red hair, lathering it right up.
Sho grumbled even more as the soap foamed up in his hair, and even bared his teeth angrily.
"Oh relax ya big baby." Junpei responded, like a brother tolerating their whiny sibling. "You're gonna have to get used to this anyway, if you don't want to smell like a walking septic tank."
Sho turned his head back to glare at Junpei, gritting his teeth as he did so. "You're lucky I don't have my weapons on hand…"
"Haha, I'm sure I am." Junpei said with a snicker as he continued to lather up the teen's head, to which the soap bubbled up into white foam that encompassed all of Sho's crimson hair.
Once it did, Junpei lifted his hands from Sho's head, and took a hold of the knob of the wall, as well as the handheld showerhead. With a small turn of the knob, warm water came gushing out of the showerhead, and onto the young teen's head. While the lathered shampoo washed out of Sho's hair, Junpei grabbed the bathroom sponge on the floor to rub the dirt and dead skin off of his body. Cleaning his arms, neck, and torso, the little league coach scrubbed away all of the dirt, revealing the teenager's clean and pale skin.
However, Junpei hadn't finished. He hadn't cleaned Sho's back yet after all.
Just looking at the multitude of scars made Junpei shudder a bit. The skin across his back even tingled a tad, as if he could feel a few of the scars on his own body.
Carefully, he lifted the sponge up, and gently pressed it against Sho's back.
"Shit, shit, shit…!" The redhead muttered, hissing with disdain as he felt the sponge on his torn up skin.
Junpei could only sigh to himself. He didn't appreciate Sho's language in the slightest, but he couldn't blame the boy for swearing like that. Grumbling a bit, Junpei soon put the sponge down, and reached for the bottle of shower gel instead. With a flick of his thumb, the plastic top opened up, and the older teen began to squeeze the gel over Sho's back.
"Ghhhhhck!" Sho let out a sound of sheer discomfort, curling his fingers into his palms all the while.
The little league coach snickered to himself after he saw a reaction that dramatic, and then placed his hand right onto Sho's back, slowly rubbing the gel all over his scarred skin.
Sho grumbled once again as the gel carried a chill across his back, making the rest of his body slightly shake from the cold sensation.
Once the gel spread across Sho's entire back, Junpei lifted his palm away from the boy, and sprayed his back with the showering water. Once the gel cascaded down, Junpei smiled to himself, since the teenager's skin finally looked clean.
With a twist of the knob, making the water come to a complete stop, the older male stood straight up as a calm grin grew on his face.
"Alright, you're all good now." He stated proudly. "Want me to get you towel?"
"I can get it by myself, thank you very much…" Sho muttered with a growl, while his eyes fiercely narrowed towards the little league coach.
In response, Junpei simply laughed, and patted the younger teen's shoulder. "Alright then, but make sure to cover up your goods before you get in the water." With that, Junpei walked away to get his own towel. All the while, the redhead stuck his tongue out at the coach.
Once Junpei made his way to the hot spring, Sho stood up from the stool, and walked over to the towel rack. Quickly grabbing a towel and wrapping it around his waist, the young teen turned his eyes towards the spring, and immediately widened them in surprise from the sight.
The hot spring was massive enough to be a swimming pool, complete with a rock structure resting in the middle, like an ancient monument from years past. The steam rose from the water, and to the starlit sky above, instead of the typical ceiling. Each star above sparkled like a diamond in the night sky, while the gentle sound of the waterfall in the middle of the spring filled his ears.
Only to be followed by the long, satisfied moan of the baseball coach himself.
Sho groaned a bit at Junpei's interruption as he lowered his head, and saw the older teen sink into the warm water. Not only did he sport the goofiest grin imaginable as he rested in the hot spring, but his towel now rested on his spiky head of hair, all folded up into a small square.
An irritated sigh left Sho's mouth in response, but even so, he walked towards the hot spring, and slowly knelt down near the water. Remembering how Junpei kept his towel atop his head, the younger teen lifted his towel up from his waist, and folded it up as best he could. (Even if it looked a lot bumpier than the flat piece of fabric on Junpei's head.)
Once the towel rested on his cranium, Sho cautiously stepped into the hot spring, expecting it to scorch his skin like the first blast of shower water did.
To his surprise, the spring water was nothing like that. It was warm, almost like a blanket encompassing him. The water gently soaked his skin like a calming massage; even his scarred up back felt a sense of ease within the hot spring, which he didn't even think was possible. Before he knew it, Sho found himself sinking deeper into the spring, letting out a calm breath similar to Junpei's moan of ecstasy.
"Feels awesome, don't it Sho?" Junpei asked from the other side of the hot spring, retaining his goofy grin. He even nonchalantly placed his arms on the edge of the spring, as though he was lounging back on a couch.
Sho's eyes widened up when he realized the little league coach could still see him. Upon noticing that, a scowl grew on the redhead's face. "…It doesn't suck, I'll say that much." He muttered, turning his head away.
"Great!" Junpei answered gleefully. "That means we're finally getting somewhere!"
Sho groaned as he heard the older teen's response, and sunk further into the water until only the top half of his head was showing.
After a few minutes in the spring, Sho glanced back at Junpei, watching the dork chuckle. As the redhead looked at him, his mind wandered back to the moment in the changing room, where he had to unveil his wide array of back scars. Particularly, the expression Junpei had on his face when he said he wouldn't laugh at him.
The memory of that expression alone filled Sho's mind with a flurry of thoughts, while his head slowly rose from the water.
"…Hey." Sho muttered, keeping his face completely still, with neither a wild smile nor a scowl filled with spite.
"Hm?" Junpei lifted his head up a bit in response, lifting an eyebrow straight up as he did so. "Yeah Sho?"
"Why did you say you'd never laugh at… you know what?" The young teen asked in a faint tone of voice, similar to when he asked the coach if he was going to laugh at his scars.
As Junpei's smile gradually faded, his arms sunk back into the hot spring, while his eyes widened. Once his eyes were as wide as they could be, the little league coach looked away to the side with something that surprised Sho: a pained expression.
Junpei let out a small sigh before he raised his head back towards Sho. As he did so, he gave off a serious glare similar to the one he previously gave in the changing room. "…You think you're the only person who had a piece o' shit dad?"
Sho flinched back a bit from that question, while his eyes blinked with a bit of astonishment.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Junpei asked as his lips curved downward into a slight frown. "You get pissed off every time you think of the bastard…" As the baseball coach continued, his frown grew into a harsh scowl, and his hands tightened into fists. "…'Specially when you remember how much control he has over you, since he's your 'parent'…"
Sho took notice of Junpei's actions, and practically felt the anger emanating from them. The more he saw the older teen grit his teeth and furrow his eyebrows, Sho felt a burn within his chest, as though his heart had a fire building inside of it. His breaths also became shorter and more rapid, like an animal that was ready to either run for its life, or fight to the death.
Sho knew those feelings all too well. They arose whenever he thought about his bastard of a father Ikutsuki, or when he was ready to slice someone's flesh until they were silent.
…That was what Junpei was feeling at the moment, wasn't it?
Right at that moment, the aforementioned little league coach let out a hefty sigh. "It ain't easy to talk about either…" Junpei continued, leaning back on the edge of the hot spring as he did so. Leaning his head back, he looked up at the endless night sky, filled with the twinkling stars hovering above him. "Especially not with somebody who didn't go through the same crap you did…"
"You're telling me…" Sho grumbled almost immediately, with the memory of Narukami's lectures still ringing in his mind. Just the thought of all his blathering about bonds made the redhead grit his teeth in irritation.
When Junpei heard the grumble, he lifted his head back up with a grin.
"Hah, you're actually agreeing with me?" He wondered while a chuckle hid underneath his words. "There's a first!"
Sho quickly sat up straight in the spring, with a pair of widened eyes, and a bright red blush across his scarred face.
"Hey! Shut up already, will ya!?" He spat out angrily, splashing some of the water as he slammed his fist into it.
"Aw, c'mon Sho-chan." Junpei answered, shrugging as he still kept smiling. "I thought you had a sense of hyu-uh…" With that one flub of pronunciation, Junpei felt his cheeks flare up with a blush, while his smile faded from his face. "…humor."
Once the younger teen heard that slip up, every furrow of anger seemed to fade away from his face. In their place, a massive grin grew on Sho's face as a laugh left his mouth.
"Seriously? You can't even speak correctly now?" Sho uttered in between his fits of bellowing laughter. "Hahaha! That's unbelievable!"
"H-hey! Shut up!" Junpei furiously stuttered out. "All I did was futz up a word!"
Despite Junpei's slightly sheepish yells, Sho just kept on laughing, with his small chuckles growing into an outright fit.
That was when the older teen noticed something. Something that made furrowing brow and gritting teeth fade away into a look of sheer surprise.
For the first time, Sho's laughing appeared… genuine. He laughed with the biggest smile on his face, as though he didn't have a care in the world. It was as if, in that one flub of a line, all of the heartache and anguish of the P-1 Climax melted away in the spring water.
Junpei couldn't help but smile, and sat further back in the hot spring to look at the stars above. As he spotted each twinkling speck of light, his mind wandered back to a good friend…