The sun rose later than usual. Goemon had been standing there for several minutes wearing nothing but a towel around his waist, gazing down at Festival Village from the hotel room's window as it was bathed in the morning light. Now, in this moment,things were nearly perfect.

Humming softly, Omitsu approached him from behind, also wearing only a towel, and began rubbing his shoulders. Her soft, delicate fingers made their way down his muscular arm, a gesture which brought a smile to his face. "Mmm, that was great..." she whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, but we're not done yet, are we?" Goemon put on an unusually charming grin. Soon enough, things really would be perfect.

"Ding!" Omitsu playfully tapped his nose. "You're absolutely right, handsome." She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and licked her lips suggestively before moving them closer and closer to his, slowly and deliberately. With nothing to hold it up, her towel came undone and started to fall towards the floor...

--

Rather than a warm and passionate kiss, the very next thing Goemon felt was his left side colliding with the wooden floor of the hotel room. "Ow...That was creepy. I mean, Omitsu and me..." He quickly shook his head to stop himself from going any further. Too tired to think of much else, he observed his surroundings in an attempt to distract himself and piece together what really happened after the dance. "Okay, I was on the bed...The only bed in the room...Oh man! We didn't do anything last night...did we?"

Thrown into a slight panic, he then began muttering aloud. "All right, she's not in the bed...Wait, I didn't make her sleep on the floor, did I? Oh man..." He was somewhat relieved to find, upon closer inspection, that someone HAD slept on the other side of the bed. The sheets were fairly cool, but had been disturbed recently. "Well, it looks like we were in the same bed...Wow."

Bit by bit, the events of the previous night began coming back to him. He and Omitsu had checked in, and he remembered that he had been less than thrilled that the room did indeed have only one bed. Using the excuse of wanting to prove just how much of a gentleman he could be, he told Omitsu to take the bed while he looked for a comfortable place on the floor. "Don't be ridiculous," she had told him. "It won't really mean anything if we sleep in the same bed. And besides, you'll need your rest for tomorrow." Goemon stubbornly refused, however, and spent several hours in various areas throughout the room, failing to get a wink of sleep every time. He even tried to sleep in the hot tub for a while until he realized the disadvantages of waking up with too much steam in his lungs and too many wrinkles on his skin. Finally, he dragged himself into bed, as close to the edge and far away from Omitsu, who was fast asleep, as possible. A few short hours of unconsciousness later, he was once again on the floor, though certainly not asleep.

"Where did Omitsu run off to? And what about the others? And...what time is it?" Still exhausted, Goemon rubbed his eyes while wandering to the nearest door. It wasn't locked, so he slowly pushed it open. "Oh man, I've got a really bad--"

"Eek!"

"Uwaah!" Now he was awake.

"Oh, Goemon. I'm sorry, you just startled me a bit there." Omitsu stood there in the bathroom, and she blushed and quickly turned her back to him upon realizing who had just walked in. "Hold on for just a minute, I'm not quite finished yet." She fiddled with her kimono in a rushed attempt to close it, apparently unaware or just forgetting that Goemon was able to see her upper body in the mirror. A towel was draped around her shoulders and she was brushing her damp hair, released completely from its usual geisha style. Goemon could see that one of her eyes was almost completely covered by her lustrous locks, giving her an exotic and rebellious look that he wasn't used to seeing with her. Finally, she turned around and walked towards Goemon, who was almost certain he saw her hips shake more than usual as she ambled over. "Well, I'm glad you eventually came to your senses. Though I'm not quite sure if I personally care for your choice in sleep wear, hee hee..."

Goemon, who had actually dressed up for bed due to Omitsu's presence and the cold weather, was wearing nothing but a loincloth and standing in the doorway, completely speechless. Omitsu giggled again before continuing. "What's the matter, Goemon? Cat got your tongue? Am I just too hot for you to handle, hmm?" She smiled and leaned in closer, but unless nervous shaking could be considered a legitimate response, she received none from Goemon. "Well, at any rate, you'd better get ready to go. I don't know how long it's gonna be before Yae and the others come back up here."

This seemed to catch Goemon's attention. "Huh? Wait, the others have already been here?"

"That's right," she replied as she walked past him, casually combing her hair as she did. "Not too long ago, actually. You were still asleep, so they waited for a few minutes before deciding to go downstairs to get some breakfast. You should get ready pretty soon, then we'll eat together, okay?" She sent another warm smile his way.

"Wh-Why didn't you go with them, Omitsu?"

"Why, I wasn't ready yet, silly. Plus, I wouldn't want to leave you alone. By the way, have you tried the hot tub yet? It's fantastic."

--

After what was perhaps his most awkward meal in recent memory and a good deal of berating from Yae and teasing from Ebisumaru, Goemon couldn't be more excited to get out of Festival Village. He put an inordinate amount of effort into staying away from Omitsu and avoiding eye contact with her, lest he remember his dream and become incapacitated by dirty thoughts accompanied by a chorus of his trademark "perverted chuckle" (as Yae called it): "Dehehehehe..."

Of course, Omitsu was rather displeased that Goemon was no longer paying attention to her. "Goemon! Hey, Goemon!" No response from her friend, save for a twitch that may have been involuntary. "What's wrong with him?" she wondered aloud. "Was it something I said?"

"Don't worry about it, Omitsu," Yae responded quickly. "I'm sure he's just peeved because we couldn't catch Bismaru yesterday. He'll be fine. Doesn't look like he got much sleep last night, though..."

"Yes, it does indeed seem that way," Ebisumaru mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder, just what did you two do last night after the dance, hmm?"

"You--What are you insinuating, Ebisumaru?!" Omitsu shouted. This was the first thing she said since breakfast that seemed to get Goemon's attention. "We didn't DO anything! I mean, you can see that I'm not tired--"

"Ah, so I wonder just what he did do, then," Ebisumaru said with a sly grin and wiggle of the eyebrows. "Nyohohohoho..." And finally, after sitting on the sidelines for so long, Omitsu found the perfect opportunity to hit Ebisumaru on the back of the head.

--

Fortunately for Goemon, the weather had cleared up quite a bit around Mt. Fear. Meaning everybody at its foot was able to see just how high it really was.

"Okay, why don't you guys just go on ahead without me? I think I'm gonna go back to Festival Village and wait for the next dance. See ya around!" Ebisumaru slowly backed up as he said this, then tried to make a mad dash for the town as soon as he finished.

Goemon, though, wouldn't let his companion retreat like this on his watch. "Oh, no you don't," he exclaimed, grabbing Ebisumaru's arm before he was able to get too far. "You're coming with us whether you like it or not!"

--

He huffed, and he puffed, but no amount of huffing and puffing on Ebisumaru's part could bring this mountain down. "H-How much farther, Goemon?"

"I suggest you save your breath and stop asking, Ebisumaru. Because I have no idea."

Up they went the seemingly endless slopes, seeing no sign of Bismaru or his victims. Every so often, Ebisumaru would break the silence by asking how much further they had to go or complaining about his sore back, at which point he would passionately yearn for a hot bath (with Omitsu's and Yae's company, of course).

Thankfully, this would end soon enough, as the five climbers heard a familiar voice, humming quite loudly amidst a chorus of metallic clangs. "Ah, I think we've found our crazy ol' nun," Goemon whispered back to his friends. "Just a little further guys."

A few minutes later, the clanging was replaced with a soft buzz. Not long after that, the four ninjas and the waitress had reached the edge of a cliff and peeked over to see just what was waiting for them.

Sure enough, there was the contracted Bismaru Elegant pod, along with a number of cages tied to the bottom. But what really caught their attention was a large, spinning vortex. Although it seemed to be infinitely deep, it was in fact paper thin and floating above two metallic hubs separated by the diameter of the circle. Bismaru Elegant sputtered as it hovered above the ground and shakily made its way to the mysterious spiral. It approached, went in...and never came out. Goemon and the others watched in amazement for a few seconds.

Nothing happened. The entire scene was silent, save for a cool breeze that rustled through their hair. "All right. That's it," Goemon said as he pulled himself up onto the cliff. "Let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Sasuke asked.

"What do you mean? We're going in there, after Bismaru, of course." Before anybody else could protest, Goemon ran towards the portal and dove straight in.

Everybody else stared, apparently waiting for something dramatic to happen. When nothing did, each of them breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, shouldn't we follow him?" Yae asked everybody.

"I think Omitsu's already decided for us." Ebisumaru pointed to the waitress, who was trudging her way through the snow and into the vortex as if pushing a door open. "Well, now I guess we've gotta go, huh?" He climbed up and helped Sasuke and Yae to his position before all three of them followed their two friends.