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Ch. 34: An earnest attempt to avoid the stereotypical hot spring scene
"Ah… This? Now this… This. Is. The life!" Yuugi reclined against the side wall of stone, her head rested against a comfortable depression in one of the flat rocks lining the side of the hot springs, her hair tied up in a bun. Before her bosom, regrettably hidden beneath the soothing milky water, floated a flat-bottomed wooden tub in which stood a small bottle of sake and a drinking cup, the tub bobbing merrily in the water and the water lapping merrily about Yuugi's smooth skin.
"Ehhh…. Hehehe… Tease me will yah?" Yuugi said to the tub with the sake in the water about her. "With you bobbing up and down like that… Almost like you're saying 'drink me'!" she gave a nonsensical, cheerful grin.
"… Yuugi, will you please stop conversing with the sake?" Parsee, who was next to Yuugi in the hot spring, flatly said. "People will start to think you're mental. Not that you had all the screws properly in place to begin with…"
"Aw…. C'mon Parsee… Relax a little will you?" Yuugi closed her eyes as she reclined her head a little further, "Let you're screws down a little- Eh…? Oops! I meant you're hair, hehe…" her grin widened.
"… T'ch…" Parsee sank deeper into the gently hot water, her own little, grudging smile barely showing above the surface.
Yuugi and Parsee were in the corner of a smaller but still rather large bath to the side of the resort. The main bath was still rather packed, for a bath that is, its walls already lined with bathers just a few feet apart. As such, the two had decided to partake in one of the smaller hot springs, although even here there were quite a few guests. It was further from the eateries and snack bars, but at least there was a bit more privacy and they were in no hurry to eat after their soak anyway. And if sake was the problem? Well, the duo was expecting Suika in a moment, she'd settle the drinks…
"Hmmm? Speaking of Suika…" Yuugi opened her eyes and sat up to look around her, "Where is she, anyway?"
"No idea…" Parsee murmured, her comfortable position within the water unchanged. She had discovered that if she spread out her arms slightly about her, her body would float just a couple of inches above the bottom of the pool, and the water would completely surround and bubble about her, almost like a literal bed of massage. Ahhh… That felt good…
"…! Hngh…!" Yuugi took a glance down into the water next to her and nearly contaminated the pool with nasal blood. "P-Parsee! I can see your- Well… Your everything like this!"
"Go ahead and look then," Parsee mumbled, remaining still and unwillingly to get off her massage bed of bubbly, steamy water. Whether her cheeks were blushing or just red from the heat was anyone's guess, but either way, she did not have the slightest care about her modesty in front of Yuugi at the moment. "Take a good look, Yuugi," Parsee even gloated, "Because this is the one time you'll ever see me like this…"
"…! T'ch…" Yuugi reclined back against the rocks and pouted the other way.
Parsee and Kogasa were sharing the same room, at Parsee's insistence, of course. Speaking of Kogasa…
"Hey! Heeey~!" Yuugi suddenly started calling out across the bath.
"Oh, shut up, you're being noisy…" Parsee mumbled, although to whom she was not entirely certain. Her mind was still bobbing along with her body in her cradle of warm water.
"I'm just inviting the two of them over, Parsee," Yuugi explained, then resumed yodeling across the pool again. "Heeey~! Hey, boss! Heeey!"
Quite a few heads were turning to look at the one-horned Oni, who was now standing up, her pelvis clear of the water to the embarrassment of several guests, and to which Parsee gave a small glance disinterestedly before going back to relaxing in the water. From across the duo, another pair was lounging about on the far side of the hot spring, both neck deep in the water. A blue haired head with ruby-red and sky-blue eyes was turned to her in confusion, but the purple haired one with equally purple eyes was stubbornly looking the other way.
"Heeey! Heeey~!"
"Oh, be quiet will you!"
"But Satori doesn't seem to be able to hear me! Hey! Heeey~!"
The heterochromatic "bluehead" was now tapping the purple haired one on the shoulder, who was still resolutely unable to hear Yuugi's calls. Only after a few guests had gotten up to leave the pool, a few of them still ogling at Yuugi's blatant and abundant display, did Kogasa, leading an unwilling Satori, make their way across the pool to them.
"What… are you doing? !" Komeiji Satori hissed at Yuugi, her towel, which was folded and placed on her head, trembling with anger. "You're chasing the customers away!"
"Awww… But the two of you were all the way on the other side…" Yuugi pouted. She was, thankfully to Satori, submerged once again beneath the water. "I just wanted us to be together. You know, make things more merry…" Yuugi shrugged. "Why were you two all the way over there, anyways? Parsee and I were here the whole time, you could have joined us."
"Sigh… You're the reason why I didn't want to be here," Satori whispered under her breath. "Kogasa," she turned to the umbrella youkai, "Lesson one of the resort: We try not to except unruly customers if possible. Do you understand?"
Kogasa gave an earnest nod, "I understand, Satori-san."
"Hey…" Yuugi frowned, "I thought you said you would put off the heavy stuff till later?" she grumbled.
"Yes, but this particular policy is important…" Satori starred flatly at Yuugi. It was now confirmed, or at least agreed upon, that Satori would provide lodgings for Kogasa in exchange for Kogasa working here. That was Parsee's idea, to which Satori had agreed. Soon, Satori would be showing Kogasa the ropes of the trade; she already had plans to have Kogasa understudy a certain pet-kasha that was also her right-hand cat. But for now, Satori was letting Kogasa learn of the resort by simply enjoying it. She had taken a liking to the meek and quiet but earnest karakasa…
"Well hey now… You wouldn't chase me away if you came to work here, would you Kogasa?" Yuugi asked in a mock anxious manner.
"W-Well… Yuugi-san is just a really cheerful person so… I mean… It wouldn't hurt…" Kogasa gave a nervous glance towards Satori, whose lips thinned just a tad bit.
"There! See! The girl's good!" Yuugi brought an arm around Kogasa and pulled the startled umbrella youkai in with a friendly grin. Parsee was suddenly bolt upright in the water, her deep green eyes wide open.
"Sigh…" Satori gave a disapproving look at Yuugi, "Stop taking advantage of her trusting nature, will you?" she asked with a tired edge to her voice. Behind Yuugi, Parsee was nodding her agreement vigorously.
"Ahhh… It's not like it's anything bad…? It's all in good will…!" Yuugi filled up a sake cup and presented it to Kogasa, then took one herself. "To a smooth success in your future career!" she toasted Kogasa, her arm still around the poor karakasa who was shaking with fright; Parsee was still stiff as a board behind her and looking rather murderous now.
"Uh… Um…O-Okay…" Kogasa lifted up the glass of sake to her lips, but before she could tilt the contents of it into her mouth, she gave a yelp and leapt back away from Yuugi, her sake splashing all over the one-horned Oni's face much to the amusement of Satori and the glee of Parsee.
"H-Hii!"
"H-Hey! What's wrong?" Yuugi looked over her shoulder. Huh? It was only Suika, approaching the group, wrapped in a towel with her long ginger hair done up in an uncharacteristically elegant bun, not unlike Yuugi's, for hygiene purposes. At her hip she carried a wooden tub like Yuugi's, except instead of a bottle of sake it held her trademark gourd.
"Hmmm? It's just Suika… Eh?" Yuugi, joined by Parsee and Satori, looked on puzzled as Kogasa was shimmying along the pool's walls, away from the group.
"Sorry I'm late," Suika said as she stopped and squatted at the bath's edge. "It's been awhile since I did anything fancy with my hair so it took me awhile to get it right. Plus I was sampling the snacks… And Kogasa," she turned her attention to the frantic looking karakasa as she removed her towel and got into the water, "What areyou doing?"
"I-It wasn't… I didn't… S-She was the one that approached me!" Kogasa jabbed a finger defensively at Yuugi.
"… What are you doing…?"
"… Huh? Y-You're not mad?" Kogasa peered from the water's edge, her body still clinging to the side of the pool although she had stopped shimmying.
"… Why would I be?" Suika had gotten into the pool and was staring at Kogasa in a bemused fashion.
"I… I thought… Well… Yuugi-san had an arm around me, and we were nude and everything…"
"Oh that? Well… Of course you'd be nude! Silly Kogasa, you're in a bath!" Suika laughed a little. Hehe… Sometimes, Kogasa was really worth having around just for moments like- Eeek!
Kogasa had a hand clenched tight on Suika's arm, her expression one of annoyance. Something emerald shone from behind her red and blue eyes.
"You're not mad?" Kogasa repeated the previous yet different sounding question, her lips pursed ever so dangerously faintly. Wrong answer.
"A-Ah… W-Well… well I…" The tub containing Suika's gourd was floating about Suika, enviously ignorant of the atmosphere.
"Psst. I'll give you a hint," Satori leaned in and murmured in Suika's ear. "She expects you to be mad," she helpfully stated most unpretentiously.
Grrr… Suika's temper flared a little. She had had enough of being teased around by Satori! But before she could round on the mind-reader, she was pulled in along with her arm. Kogasa had tugged her in to close the already uncomfortably short distance between them.
"Ahaha… Now now, Kogasa…" Suika found herself putting her free hand up submissively before the cutely fuming little umbrella youkai. Kogasa stared at Suika for a moment, then turned her head to the side, her frown persistent and her grip not slacking. Satori was smiling pleasantly at the scene, Yuugi was at a loss, and Parsee seemed to have calmed down in the presence of someone who, in one of those rare moments, put out more jealousy than even she could.
"Awww… Look what we have here!" a playful voice crooned. All heads turned just in time to catch a black cat at the edge of the water suddenly transform into a red-haired girl in a flash.
"I love the concept of mixed bathing, don't you?" Kaenbyou Rin said dreamily. "Love the drama and the hi-jinxes that come from couples!"
So… did I manage to successfully avoid it? Or would you have preferred it if I didn't try? Let me know, and I might just be crazy enough to turn this into a lemon fic- *shot*