Character(s): Rajura, Anubisu, Naaza
Warning(s): Nudity. Post-episode 18/season 1, character study, bathing, bonding through trauma?
Cleansing
They walk together, silent.
That itself is a surprise, because the Four Masho – well, Three Masho now that Shuten Douji has turned traitor and left them, the bloody bastard – together are hardly ever quiet. Usually, there is always at least one of them to throw a barbed remark at the others, when it's not a sneer or a disguised/not-so disguised insult.
Not today, though.
For the first time since forever, the little group is too tired to even think about posturing and asserting dominance over the others.
It's taking all their bloody will to keep standing and shuffling more than walking toward their destination.
The three of them, Yami Masho Anubisu, Gen Masho Rajura and Doku Masho Naaza, have only one true desire, and it's to faceplant in their respective futon and sleep like the dead for several days in a row.
They're drained.
They don't know what Arago-sama did exactly when he absorbed them and their armors, but the aftermath is… bloody awful.
And it's made even more awful by the knowledge that their sacrifice was not only painful (they felt like they were being electrocuted when they granted their Master their power), but it was also for nothing in the end, for the Troopers still managed to prevail somehow.
Beaten black and blue by a bunch of little boys who must barely have seen any proper battlefield before they faced the Masho in battle… Their pride has taken hit after hit in those scant months since the invasion of the Ningenkai started, but today, it's worse than usual.
They're not even sure about what went on, for they had all… blacked out somehow from the moment their powers were transmitted, but they got the gist of it. The Troopers have access to another armor now, one more powerful than anything else they've seen before, and Rekka (because of course it had to be Shuten's own little nemesis) somehow wore it and defeated Arago-sama in battle.
Their Master's life isn't hanging by a thread, certainly, but he has been weakened, his hold on the doors connecting the Youjakai and the Ningenkai slipping, the humans taken captive at the beginning of the invasion escaping or being released when reality shifted, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Their Master is furious, and the three of them know they better to make themselves scarce while he recovers and talks with Badamon.
No doubt, petty warlords who had previously been beaten by the Masho and had been cowed by the might of Arago-sama, would be on the prowl to try and gain back power they had lost over time. Some might even go after the Troopers themselves, seeking out the new, mysterious power they showed to try and claim it for themselves in the hope of overthrowing Arago, but the three Masho think to themselves, dimly: good luck with that.
(They do NOT admire the Troopers, but they know by now how persistent their little group is; any Warlord trying them is going to bite more than they expect, and that'll be deserved.)
The three Masho know they'll have work to do the moment they are sufficiently recovered to be sent back in the field.
But that day isn't today.
Right now, as stated, all they want is to sleep. But before they do… they want to feel clean.
It's something they can't explain, but they need… they feel tainted, somehow. It's not the sweat or the blood they can feel running on their bodies after too long hours fighting (and damnit, those Troopers brats can hit hard!), for they're used to it.
It's something deeper, something nagging at them, and they just hope the relief of soaking in warm water and relax tense and sore muscles in the heat will help.
They do not talk as they walk through thrashed and half-destroyed hallways (the Troopers' work, but also Arago-sama; it's going to be a pain to repair, and they all feel briefly grateful their living quarters are in another wing of the palace entirely) and manage to rejoin the baths on unsteady feet.
Normally, they have private bathing chambers in their respective quarters, which they prefer to use, but… as pointed out, it's another wing of the castle, and the fear that they'll fall over and/or drown if they're left alone in a tub works wonder for using the communal bath, if only this time.
Funny.
Never before have the three of them ever taken a bath together in all those years serving Arago-sama. Usually, they're too busy being at each other throat to contemplate the idea. Or too wary of a potential betrayal to dare appear in front of each other without being armed. Today, though, they couldn't care less about the others seeing them at their most vulnerable.
They're lucky; some enterprising servant has filled the furo already, probably sensing that they'd need it sooner rather than later. Water gently sloshes inside, volutes of steam rising from the tub as they collectively sigh and banish their armors and their sub-armors.
Getting undressed from their kimonos is a pain.
Naaaza struggles with his belt, eyes bleary, while Anubisu scoffs at the tears in his sleeves where Kourin's swords somehow managed to reach despite the armor. He has a gash on one wrist, too, and blood has soaked the sleeve there. Rajura is black and blue from taking a pounding – Kongo doesn't hit as hard as Shuten in a bad mood, but he's not far behind, that's for sure.
Still, kimonos are dropped, hakama are removed, and then they set about to clean themselves, with more or less success.
Naaza always makes sure to keep a reserve of homemade soap and shampoo in the communal bath on the off chance he has to use it (which happened twice or thrice, usually because someone sabotaged or damaged his own tub – damn you, Shuten!) and painstakingly removes them from their hidden spot under a floorboard before handing them around.
They're good products, and he's not in the habit of tempering with care products HE would use himself, though the other Masho wouldn't know that. Still, they accept the jars without comment beyond an acknowledging nod. Rajura's valid eye lingers on the cache, and Naaza has the sudden, annoyed realization that the Gen Masho will now consider the secret reserve as free-for-grab now.
Ah, well. Naaza can always find another hiding place later.
They don't talk while they go around their business, but… they have little gestures for each other.
First, it's Naaza handing balm to Rajura and Anubisu both for their bruises, though they'll only use it after the bath proper. He also, most unexpectedly, produces thread and a needle out of somewhere and sets about stitching the wound on Anubisu's wrist close. That's going to be one more scar for the Yami Masho, though Naaza's healing balm will reduce the scarring to a minimum.
Then, it's Anubisu realizing with a frown that Rajura cannot reach above his shoulders to shampoo his hair, muscles too sore to lift his arms so high. The Gen Masho's white mane is a mess of knots and tangles which Rajura curses about under his breath – at least, until Anubisu gets behind him, grab the shampoo and starts massaging his elder's scalp. Rajura doesn't even tense and barely has an annoyed huff for the needed-but-unasked-for help, head lolling a bit as Anubisu's fingers work out the knots.
Then, it's Rajura deciding he should do his part, too, and who scrubs Naaza between his shoulder blades, in a spot the green-haired Masho cannot seem to reach with his sore arms, and wordlessly starts to do the same for Anubisu, even if the Yami Masho could have managed by himself.
An act of kindness for an act of kindness, right?
They're still silent when, one by one, they enter the furo and find a spot in which to settle, a distance away from the other, all with their back to a corner. Most of them haven't shared a bath with another individual since the time they came to the Youjakai to serve Arago.
It's… different, bathing with the other Masho. Not quite relaxing, but all three realize they aren't as badly on edge as they thought they'd be.
(They won't say, 'it feels RIGHT', but they all think it for a fleeting second.)
They blame it on the exhaustion.
All three stubbornly refuse to look at each other or, worse, look at the corner where a fourth person could be sitting him, if things weren't…
(Would Shuten have enjoyed sharing a bath, too? Or would he had scoffed at the display of 'weakness'?)
"… Sake," Rajura finally mutters, bringing the attention of the other Masho on him. "I could really do with a cup of sake." Nothing like alcohol to sooth frayed nerves, he thinks, even if Rajura isn't the type to overindulge himself. He's the one loosening people's tongues, not the reverse, and too much alcohol has an effect on him he'd rather not think about.
"Hard boiled eggs, cooked straight into a hot spring's water," Naaza replies, head rolling to the side as he sinks his shoulders deeper under the water. "It's a good snack," he explains defensively when Anubisu and Rajura both raise an eyebrow at him.
"After," Anubisu declares calmly, stretching his own limbs, which feel both too heavy for his taste. "Can't say about the eggs, but… I do have liquors in my quarters, and tea, and extra futons," he observes calmly.
He doesn't ask, 'will you join me?', but the other Masho hear it all the same. They do not say 'thank you' in return, but they still nod in appreciation for the veiled invitation, each wondering if they should bring something of their own to share – or if it'd be taken as an implicit threat.
Perhaps they'll accept, or perhaps they won't, depending on their mood and wherever or not they think they can trust their fellow Masho not to poison them.
(Naaza isn't the only one who has ever played with poisons, after all; just the most frequent culprit.)
But in this moment, all soaking together in the bath, they feel both cleaner and closer to each other than they have ever been before. It's not much. It is fragile and fleeting, and it might not last longer than it'll take for the three of them to get fully rested after the long ordeal they've gone through, but it's… something.
A connecting moment they never thought they'd share.
And for now, they all think it's amply sufficient.
End