Yumi and Sakuya take some time off.

Following their duel, Yumi and Sakuya escaped Togami without the notice of anyone who might try to stop them (in this case, the EEDF still furiously looking for Yumi). They were tired, sweaty, and sick of crying, so they needed some way to decompress after that massive release of emotion.

The town just outside the campus had the perfect thing for that, at least in Yumi's opinion. Fittingly for a place in Gunma, there was a rustic onsen not that far away. Nothing like boiling water to restore your strength.

Sakuya was, of course, not too keen on the idea. She'd always disliked the feeling of being submerged in water to the point that she'd skip the bath entirely after showering each day. Still, this was for Yumi, so she'd try to tolerate it.

They managed to get in despite the hostess' suspicion as to why a couple of school-aged kids showed up in the middle of the day. Sakuya thought fast and made up that they had a free day today. Whether or not she bought it was up for debate, but she ultimately must have decided it wasn't worth the hassle as long as they were paying customers. Not like it was prime tourist season, after all.

They went inside and prepared to hop into the hot springs, taking the time to shower up in a clinically white washroom as one does. It was at that very moment while she was rinsing soap out of her hair in one of the shower stalls that Sakuya realized the gravity of the situation. More truthfully, it was more like the reality of the situation, but the pressure that just descended on her soul certainly felt like the full force of a moon bearing down on her.

She was going to be naked. And Yumi was going to be naked. And they were both going to be naked at the same time. In the same place. Together. And she was not handling that very well.

Despite the shower being relatively warm, it could do nothing to heat her after the immense chill that ran down her spine. There were so many things she hadn't considered when Yumi brought up hot springs, so many that she hadn't even realized they were there to be considered to begin with.

This was fine, right? There was nothing wrong with this, so she shouldn't be worrying. Just two girls sitting in the hot springs together. Naked. But that happened all the time. Nothing weird about that. Sure, those other women probably weren't...attracted...to each other, but it should still be fine.

And they were friends, too. Friends didn't need to worry about seeing each other naked. It happened all the time. Then again, they weren't exactly just friends anymore, were they? But that should actually make it even more fine, right?

On the other hand, people in those sorts of relationships probably saw each other naked in different circumstances than this, too. More flattering circumstances. More...something or other circumstances. Her brain wasn't really working at the moment, so she couldn't quite find the words to express what she was thinking.

Maybe she should have worn makeup. Yeah, she probably should have worn makeup. Wait, no, she would have just washed it off right now. Could she sneak back to her things and go put some more on, though? Well, it's not like she even brought any to begin with. Maybe she should start doing that? Wearing makeup, that is.

Her panic kicked up another gear upon realizing that, in all the time they'd known each other, she never actually got a clear idea as to Yumi's "type" and how she could appeal to that. They'd never had any kind of in-depth conversations about girls (understandable, she'd been in deniable for quite some time), but she absolutely couldn't forgive herself for being so careless. In her defense, Yumi kind of seemed to like just about every girl she saw (again, understandable, since girls were pretty).

Why was she even here? She hated baths. They were just big, boiling cauldrons of icky sensory overload. What possessed her to want to jump into one today, let alone in public?

Oh, right. Yumi wanted to and she was desperate to repair their friendship after treating her so poorly for so long. Thinking about it like that, did she even have a right to complain like this? All of this was her fault, so it was her responsibility to fix things. Even if it was tough, she'd see it through because Yumi was what was most important.

Actually, that kind of made her feel better. A bit more confident, at least. She pumped her fist just a bit, psyching herself up with thoughts of Yumi's happiness. She'd go through Hell itself to make her smile one more time. Compared to that, this was nothing at all.

Wait, no, now she was thinking about the nudity again. In a shocking turn of events, putting Yumi in her mind had actually backfired. All she could do now was ask herself what the plan was going forward. Thinking about it logically would surely help, right? It's not like she could just make a break for it and run...or could she?

"You okay?" she heard Yumi say, evidently ready to go. Running was most definitely not an option. The only thing keeping her from slamming her head into the wall out of frustration was the fact that that would probably just make more people come in to check on her, and the absolute last thing she needed right now was more people.

"Just a second," she replied weakly, face pale and vision blurry. Was this what being in a war felt like? At least war gave her the chance of ending up with a neat prosthetic limb or an eyepatch (some Gun Man in a video game commercial had those, so that was probably a realistic expectation). All she got out of this was being uncomfortable and forcing Yumi to look at her weird, gangling body. Her own mind started to hyperfocus on the scar on her stomach, feeling self-conscious about it for the first time in her entire life because apparently it couldn't just be one thing with her today.

Slapping herself on the cheeks, she realized she had to do what she had to do. "Don't be weird, don't be creepy, don't look at her too much," she repeated to herself over and over again. She focused her mind on stuff to try to steel her confidence, listing off things like dumb-as-bricks shonen anime protagonists, that Gun Man from the video game, and American actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It didn't do much for her, honestly, but she sure did try.

Heart pounding faster than any marathon runner and shivering like a half-drowned cat, she gripped the knob with far more force than necessary and turned off the water. There was no going back. Repeating her mantra in her head, she stepped out to face her destiny.

Actually, it wasn't that bad.

It probably helped that, if not necessarily indifferent, Yumi barely acknowledged the fact either of them were naked. Despite Sakuya's mind wanting her to focus on that, having someone almost entirely ignore it helped her to finally relax, save for when Yumi tried to hug her.

It didn't hurt that they were the only ones in that particular bath at the time. Going in the middle of the day after lunch while school and work were still going might not be the responsible thing, but it certainly put less pressure on her. The bath itself wasn't actually that bad either, something about the temperature, the mineral composition of the water, or something else making it feel far less bad than she was expecting. Not something she was eager to go back and do again, but tolerable.

"Did you see how much dead skin I lost?" Yumi asked exuberantly as they walked down the hall. That was probably also a factor – Yumi being a gross goblin child.

"It was...a lot," she said, genuinely amazed at just how much came off of her after a point.

"It was like a baseball's worth," she agreed. "Maybe even a softball. Do you think that means I should moisturize more?"

"Probably." Yumi's smile at this and the fact she decided they should be holding hands right after was almost enough to kill Sakuya on the spot. As freeing as it was to finally have things out in the open, it almost seemed to reset her discomfort with touching, though for a very different reason compared to when they first met.

Despite this, she began to feel a deep guilt in the pit of her stomach, slipping her hand out of Yumi's as it quickly built up. "Are you okay?" Yumi asked, the concern in her voice only serving to make Sakuya feel worse.

Gritting her teeth, Sakuya figured it was probably time to stop putting this off. Taking a quick glance out the full length windows overlooking a very nice view of the town, she took a deep breath and tried to say what was on her mind. "I'm really..." She immediately stopped, shaking her head.

"I can't just say sorry," she said. "It's not good enough. I've been horrible. I know I already said these things before, but I wanted to make sure you knew I didn't forget."

Before she could say another word, she felt a great weight chop directly onto the center of her head. Apparently, all that time tending to vegetables in her family's garden had given Yumi some impressively strong arms despite her size. "Stop being mean to yourself!" she commanded.

As Sakuya rubbed her head, Yumi stuck her finger out accusingly. "I told you before that I don't like it when you hurt yourself." Puffing out her cheeks, she set the record straight once and for all. "Yes, you hurt me. I know that. You know that. It's okay that you're acknowledging that, but all you're going to do when you talk like that is make everyone feel worse."

Lowering her voice as she realized that probably came off a lot harsher than intended, Yumi continued, "I wish you would have talked to me about what was happening with you, but I understand that you needed time for yourself. And I'm happy you're apologizing, but I already forgive you. You don't have to punish yourself for it and just make yourself feel bad."

With a nod, she added, "So just promise you won't do it again like that, okay? If you can promise you'll at least talk to me about it if you need time alone like that again, then it's okay. I know you won't break your promise."

Sakuya nodded back quickly. "I promise," she said. "I know I need to get better at talking. I'm going to try. And I'm going to try not to hold things in so much, too. I'm going to be a better friend, too. I promise I will."

Yumi cocked her head to the side. "Friend, huh?"

"Well, I mean…" Sakuya shrunk back, her face starting to turn red. "You know what I mean," she mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked, the most innocent smile on her face.

Now a lovely shade of fire engine, Sakuya grumbled as she forced out, "Not just friend, but...girlfriend."

"You said it!" Yumi squealed, pulling Sakuya into a hug and hopping up and down with her. "It's official, so you can't take it back!"

Sakuya groaned, pulling her hat down over her face. Turning an even deeper crimson as Yumi nuzzled the back of her neck, she squeaked out a pathetic, "You're cruel sometimes." This was going to take some getting used to.

Figured we could use a short breather after all of that in the last two chapters. Kind of the big emotional climax to their relationship and a big duel.

I didn't actually plan for things to work out as well as they did on the hot spring front here. I picked Gunma as the school's location mostly because it was sufficiently far from Chiba, but only when I started researching it more did I realize it was an onsen prefecture and thought I could use that for something. Originally planned to do more with other students and duel some people, but I ultimately decided it wasn't really a good use of time. The plans for later are kind of on lock, and I don't think there would be sufficient payoff to things like that.

We had that cut in the middle partly because I think it's kind of funny to juxtapose Sakuya's worry and overthinking with the fact nothing really happened and partly because I don't feel super comfortable going into detail there. Imagine it if you want, but probably don't.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Share if you're enjoying. Always remember to keep the water clean for other people.