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Ch. 38: The unruly civilised and the civilised unruly
"Step aside! Step aside!" cried out Orin as she led Satori, Suika and Kogasa through a crowd of guests standing around the main hot spring. The guests, hearing Orin's call and seeing the owner of the resort come, stepped aside and let them through. Suika noted however that quite a few of them cast displeased glances at Satori. Most of them were mumbling darkly as well, though Suika was sure that Satori could clearly hear their thoughts.
"… Hah…! S-Satori-sama!" a songbird youkai girl with long, light orange hair and a fair complexion, decked in the staff yukata, rushed forth from amongst the crowd towards Orin and Satori.
"Ah! Ayaka!" Orin rushed to meet the girl, and the two stood holding each other's arms in anxiety, "What's going on? !"
"It's terrible, Orin! Terrible!" the songbird shrilled, her folded, soft, peach coloured wings at her waist trembling. "It's… It's! W-Well!" the songbird, temporarily at a lost for words, let go of Orin and turned instead to her employer, seeking to try to convey the bad news directly to the one in charge. "S-Satori-sama!" the songbird managed, but before she could go on, she was stopped by a raised hand from Satori.
"I know," she said, one hand to her temple. Suika surmised that she must have gathered more than she needed form the crowd around them, who were extremely agitated and restless. But neither she nor Kogasa were mind readers.
"S-Satori…" Suika approached the petite lady boss. "What's going on-"
"Excuse me!" a harsh voice sounded, and suddenly from amidst the crowd, an answer to Suika's question burst forth. Three to be exact. Three angry, huffy, middle-aged women.
"Excuse me!" repeated the foremost one of them, her whiskers twitching and her pupils narrowing into slits as she scrutinised Satori. "Are you the owner of this hot spring?" she jabbed verbally.
"Indeed I am…" Satori replied with a grim expression. No one needed telepathic powers to tell exactly what these women were thinking…
"Really…?" she crossed her arms crossly, and the other two behind her followed.
"If there is a problem…" Satori took a silent deep breath, "Then may you kindly voiceit out?" she requested of the three before her.
"Heh…" went the lady to the right of the first woman, her long ears giving a cynical twitch. "Problem? What do you think the whole resort is gathered here to do? Celebrate your huge success?" Her friend next to her giggled at her sarcasm, her long, combed back quills bristling.
"… I repeat, you are welcome to voice out any concerns you may have…" Satori said softly, almost hissed. Orin behind her had a look of being heart-broken at her master's plight, mixed with a strong desire to claw the three women to shreds. Ayaka's feathers were standing on end, and Suika's jaws were squared.
"S-Suika?" Kogasa whispered agitatedly. "Can't… Can't Satori-san read their-" she was stopped as Suika laid a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.
"She can, Kogasa. She can…" Suika murmured, and the frown on her face creased downwards more.
"Voice our concerns out, you ask?" the foremost woman was stroking her whiskers in a hungry manner as she eyed Satori sneeringly, almost as if to consider how best to torment her. "Alright… Then explain to me this!"
She gestured with a flourish to the main pool, and several guests parted to allow Satori and the rest a look. What they saw shocked them all, save for Satori, who no doubt had long concluded what had happened from her mind-reading.
The entire pool was frozen solid. Not just the surface, the entire pool. From the bottom to the top, from rocky edge to rocky edge, the hot spring had become one solid chunk of ice. So frozen and chilly was it that steam previously dancing across the surface had now formed delicate structures like free standing webs of silk. Dew hanging from the plants at the edge had transmuted into unwelcoming little icicles, and even the plants themselves looked frozen with a brittle sheen. The rocks had turned a cold dark blue, and here and there sat stuck the odd wooden tub which showed where the bather's positions originally were.
"Wh-What happened…?" Kogasa put a hand to her mouth in shock, Orin and Ayaka carrying similar expressions while Suika simply stared in amazement. By now, several other guests, faces as equally shocked but also rather displeased, had gathered around the group, having being drawn to the commotion.
"So!" the long eared lady demanded of Satori angrily, "I think you all of us an explanation on how something like this could have happened!" Apparently, Satori's lack of a reaction did not satisfy her, but that did not matter. There was a murmur of agreement through the crowd, and from the back came several shouts also demanding an explanation, and this seemed to compensate the long eared lady enough. "And it's not just this bath too!" she cried.
"Yeah! Every other bath is frozen just like this one!" the woman with the quills testified, "Plus, it could have been worse! We could have been frozen along with the water in there!" she shrilled, and the murmur of agreement grew. Orin and Suika started forward as if to object, but found they could not, and both Kogasa and Ayaka had their hands clutched over their hearts.
"… I sincerely apologize for any inconveniences caused," Satori bowed low and apologetically, "And am terribly sorry for any danger I may have put you into." Barely had she finished however, before cries of rejection erupted from the crowd, with some demanding refunds and compensation.
"Hmph!" the whiskered woman vocalized, and suddenly the crowd went silent. She now swaggered up to the mind reader with a vicious look in her eyes, while her other two friends and some amongst the crowd had gleeful looks of anticipation. Satori returned her gaze with a cool stare.
"Ladies," she stood next to Satori and gestured to her with a hand, "I'm not exactly sure if our dear owner of this prestigious hot spring here will even know where to begin to compensate us…" she crooned, "She doesn't even seem to understand exactly what 'hot spring' means!"
Almost immediately, laughter broke out around from the crowd. The whiskered woman was stroking her whiskers most satisfied, and her two lady friends were chortling. Orins's eyes were predatory, Ayaka's feathers were on end, Suika's fists were clenched and even Kogasa had a look of anger on her face. But before any of them could give in to their emotions, a fifth onlooker did so with a great roar.
"OH YEAH? ! WELL YOU DUMBASSES DON'T SEEM TO KNOW WHAT 'GET THE HELL OUT' MEANS! ! !" Yuugi, followed by a cold-eyed Parsee, burst onto the scene.
"Wha-Who? !" the whiskered woman and her friends, as well as a good portion of the crowd, jumped at the bellow and turned around just in time to clear out of the way of the bulldozing one-horned Oni. Parsee, following close behind, did not seem to mind Yuugi's brutish behaviour this time.
"Wh-Who…! Wh-What do you mean!" the whiskered woman, having recovered her stance, demanded of Yuugi.
"You know clear as hell what I mean!" Yuugi fired back.
"I don't… Oh…" the woman's eyes fell upon Yuugi's horn, and her lips mouthed 'Oni'. "I see… It's a brute I'm dealing with…" she sneered, "That explains the difficulty of us understanding anything she says," she smirked, and again several of the crowd laughed with her, although this time considerably less did so.
"Excuse me…?" Yuugi began, but at the moment a cool, gentle hand laid across her arm, and Yuugi backed down as Parsee stepped to the fore.
"I'll translate for these fools if none of you possess basic hearing skills," she launched her own brand of unrelenting sarcasm with quiet precision and skill. It seemed to hit its mark, for several silently furious frowns had formed on the faces of some of the onlookers, and the whiskered woman's whiskers were bristling.
"What Yuugi here means," Parsee corrected the whiskered woman without so much as a care to the reactions she was getting, "Is that some of you took forever to get out of the hot springs, even after the alarms were raised and the staff were repeatedly urging you to get out for your safety. And I seem to remember you," she pointed at the long eared lady, "Having to be dragged out. And you were dragged out protesting and kicking like a baby, even as the water was freezing right before your eyes," Parsee's lips curled and her green eyes flashed.
Some of the crowd shifted uneasily, and the long eared lady was murmuring something that sounded like "Thought it was a false alarm… Or some sort of a drill…"
"The staff did everything they could to ensure your safety," Parsee continued. "They reacted swiftly at the slightest hint of danger, which is only why all of you are out here safely. And some of you, only after reacting like sloths, still have the gull to complain that not enough has been done!" her voice rose just a shade, but its tone was deafening.
"O-Oh yeah!" someone else shouted from the back. "Well, it's all great that we're safe, but the hot spring's still frozen, isn't it! That's spoilt our stay!" And immediately more voices joined to corral around this new argument.
"Only for this moment!" Yuugi countered passionately. "For all those previous happy hours until now, each and every single one of you has splurged to your heart's content, haven't you! And you've all paid happily too! You tell me!" Yuugi singled out an individual with a pointed finger, who backed up nervously, "Exactly which part of your stay was not satisfactory!"
The individual mumbled something uneasily, and was joined by others, all of whom voiced little complaints about "food wasn't that nice" and "the rooms had horrible lighting". But Suika and the others knew they were mumbling because they were not feeling particularly justified.
"I see… So it was Satori here that got your lazy asses out of the hot spring!" Suika strode forth as well, her anger making her eager to have a swing at the pathetic crowd too. "That's right! It was the lady boss that you owe much too!" she gestured to Satori. "It was on her orders that her staff managed to get your ass out of the water before it became frozen for future generations to unearth!"
Satori and Parsee gave Suika a funny look, to which Suika mouthed "What?" Yuugi flashed her a thumbs up.
"Huh… Another Oni…" the whiskered woman commented dryly, "Your kind really thinks they are really amusing, don't they?"
"Oh yeah? Well, at least we're honest by default!" Yuugi proudly proclaimed.
"Yeah… And we know how to appreciate good stuff when we get it," Suika stepped up to Yuugi's side. The two were now between Satori and her group and the mob. "And I'm telling you, Oni hate seeing their benefactors get heckled by others…" she almost growled.
"A-Are you threatening us?" the whiskered woman spat defiantly, but the crowd around her were backing off quite a bit.
"Yeah, so?" Yuugi and Suika took a step forward, but Satori intervened before anything else could happen.
"Enough," she merely said, her voice still quiet but now piercingly sharp. Yuugi and Suika turned back to protest, but Satori simply repeated, albeit more kindly, "Enough…" Yuugi and Suika glanced at each other, then backed down, resenting but respectful.
"Everyone," Satori now addressed the guests. "Please kindly return to your rooms. I think a rest is in order. My staff will tend to your needs free of charge for the following few hours. If you still desire compensation, I am sure we can work something out peacefully. Meanwhile, the rest of our facilities will still be open for your enjoyment, of course," Satori bowed low and apologetically again. "I beg only your patience as we investigate just how every hot spring in the resort could have frozen over, and I promise you we will devote all our efforts into restoring things to normal," she bowed again.
"… Humph!" the whiskered woman went, but apparently, she had nothing to say, and soon she and the rest had turned around and left the scene to retire to their rooms in haughty fashion.
"Yeah, that's right!" Yuugi threw one last pitch after them, "Turn tail and leave with your dignity between your-"
"Yuugi!" Satori urged.
"But-"
"That's enough trouble you've caused me!" Satori exclaimed.
Yuugi and Suika exchanged glances again. "T-Trouble? But…! But we were just-" they were suddenly silenced however, unable to go on as their protesting faces were replaced with looks of shock.
Satori was bowing low before them, her arms straight at her side. When she recovered, her eyes had a brilliant gleam of gratitude shining through the usual cold façade.
"That will be enough trouble, really," Satori allowed herself a small smile at everyone, a small smile that seemed to radiate more warmth than she had ever showed.