Then Shino suddenly used his fingers to splash hot water on Masamichi’s face.
“Whoa!”
He grinned at Masamichi as he quickly wiped his forehead and cheeks.
“People reacted the same way then as you just did.”
“…Shino… Did you play pranks on your master like this?”
“I did intentionally, since he never seemed to get tired of soaking in the hot water day in and day out, but Tokifuyu did seem annoyed.”
“Of course he’d be annoyed! It’s one thing to want to soak your body in hot water and another to have it splashed at you when you least expect it.”
“That’s what he said, too, pouting angrily. Ah…this is the spot.”
“Huh?!”
Shino looked up at the crescent moon, contoured so thinly that it looked like a piece of thread shining weakly in the night sky, and continued, as if speaking to himself, “This, indeed, is where the inn Tokifuyu used to visit was located. It was a crude building, nothing like this inn.”
“Is this really the same place where you came with him? The spot where you’re soaking in the hot water? Is that where Tokifuyu bathed?”
“Yeah.”
Shino nodded and looked at Masamichi. The next moment, Masamichi felt the warmth of the hot water with his whole body.
With blinding speed, Shino grabbed the front of Masamichi’s yukata and dragged him into the tub.
“Huh? Wh-what the…?!”
Unable to understand what had just happened, Masamichi blinked. He was immersed in the hot spring in a strange position, still in his yukata, coughing after swallowing the water.
The tub may have been large enough for two adults, but Shino had his arms and legs stretched out, and as his servant, Masamichi only had a limited amount of space to himself.
“H-hey, Shino, what do you think you’re doing? At least give me time to take off my yukata…”
Shino watched Masamichi with amusement as he complained. Of course, there was not a shred of guilt in his expression.
“More and more interesting. You complain the same way as Tokifuyu did.”
“Wait a minute. This is nothing like splashing water on a person! Seriously, Tokifuyu had it tough with you… God, Shino, you really were a naughty child, weren’t you? You’re still… I mean, you aren’t a child anymore, but you’re certainly still full of mischief.”
Masamichi sighed and looked down at his body resentfully.
He had once gone into a heated swimming pool with his clothes on during a water safety training class during elementary school, but this was the first time he had gone into a hot spring bath while clad in a yukata.
The yukata’s design, with its large spaces at the cuffs and at the base of the arms, allowed little resistance against the water as he moved. As for his legs, the kimono’s hem fluttered away from his body, offering virtually unrestricted movement.
The jersey fabric would probably be heavy after absorbing the water and a hassle when he got out of the tub. However, Masamichi was surprised that it wasn’t as uncomfortable as he might have thought in the water.
“So this is how you took hot spring baths with Tokifuyu. You were remembering those days, huh?”
“Not that I have any emotional attachment to them. I was recalling old memories. That’s all.”
Shino was going out of his way to say that, which was as good as telling Masamichi that he was fondly reminiscing. Despite his intelligence, he seemed oblivious to such things, and although Masamichi knew it was disrespectful as his servant, he couldn’t help thinking that it was cute.
“…I see.”
“The hot springs in Arima where Tokifuyu used to bathe weren’t as magnificent as they are here. They were simple baths: holes dug in the ground, filled with small rocks.”
“Really? We still have wild rock baths today…”
“The facilities for nobles may have been more luxurious, but Tokifuyu probably couldn’t afford them. Hot water therapy in those days often meant pouring hot water over the parts of the body that were unwell or soaking them in a bath…but Tokifuyu said it was quicker to immerse the entire body in hot spring water.”
“Oh, I can imagine that. Tokifuyu must have been a very rational thinker. The reason why he made you his servant was like that, too. Instead of just killing you, it was better to make you a specter that was useful to humans.”
“That’s not rational thinking. It’s being selfish.”
Masamichi quickly changed the subject as Shino sounded like his mood was turning sour.
“B-but then again, people’s butts would hurt in a bath filled with rocks.”
“That’s why…he soaked like this,” Shino said as he grabbed Masamichi’s arm.
“Huh?!”
Aided by the buoyancy of the water, Masamichi’s body floated easily and fell straight into Shino’s arms, as if that route had been predetermined.
This is a bridal carry.
Like an infant, Masamichi sat on Shino’s lap, and he blushed in embarrassment.
“He wore a bath gown in the same way you’re wearing that yukata, looked totally nonchalant, and used me as a chair when he bathed.”
“Heh-heh!”
“It isn’t funny. I was very annoyed by the rough treatment he gave me.”
Shino looked grumpy, but his hands naturally fell around Masamichi’s waist. More than a thousand years ago, he must have been ordered by his master to support his body like that.
Tokifuyu must have found Shino adorable.
Considering that, Masamichi couldn’t understand why Tokifuyu eventually betrayed him, as Shino said, and sealed him in a jar.
While Shino was angry and resentful about it, he also couldn’t stop reminiscing about his distant memories with his master. Perhaps Shino himself couldn’t understand the reasons for Tokifuyu’s actions and couldn’t quite hate him for them.
Shino still loves Tokifuyu, and that’s clear when I hear him talking about their memories together. That has to be why it’s painful and sad for him.
Shino said he didn’t have the same emotions as humans did, but Masamichi didn’t agree.
After spending six months with him, Masamichi knew he had a wealth of emotions and went out of his way to suppress them. Of course, there were many subtleties of the human heart that he couldn’t understand, but he still respected them, in his way.
Tokifuyu had probably nurtured part of his human spirit.
I really wish I could have met Tokifuyu and talked to him. He could have told me how to get along with Shino better, and I would have deepened my understanding of him.
Then Masamichi felt Shino grab his head with his large hand.
“Wh-what is it, Shino? It doesn’t hurt, but it’s a little scary when you suddenly reach from above.”
“Shut up. Don’t complain about everything your master does.”
With that, Shino pushed Masamichi’s head against his bare chest. Naturally, the younger man’s back ended up resting against Shino’s body.
However finely crafted it was, Shino’s body didn’t have body heat.
Masamichi’s heart skipped a beat when the usually stone-cold body, warmed by the heat of the hot spring bath, felt like real human skin.
“Sh-Shino?”
“Tokifuyu always leaned on me like this and talked about a lot of nonsense. He would always get carried away and talk too much…”
“And that’s why he got heatstroke?”
“Yeah. It was also my job to fan him as he stretched out slovenly on the floor… Naturally, I’m not going to do something like that for you.”
“I’m your servant, not your master. I’m the one who has to fan you.”
Masamichi chuckled and relaxed his tense body.
Feeling as if he, too, shared memories of Tokifuyu, whom he had never even met, he said, “I’d better get out of the water, since I also tend to get heatstroke pretty easily. Let’s go buy some ice cream while the store is still open. I got a popsicle after my bath earlier, and it was really good. Let me treat you to that much if they sell the same kind.”
He laughed out loud when Shino instantly replied, “You’ll have to wait a hundred—no, a thousand years—till you’re mature enough to treat me.”
That night, as they lay side by side…though all they did was slip into their respective beds, Masamichi fought against his drowsiness and asked Shino, “Did you sleep side by side with Tokifuyu, too, when you came here with him?”
Shino’s answer was clear indeed.
“I told him to let me do what I wanted while he slept and went up on a large tree branch outside. Tokifuyu recommended that I catch and eat weak specters that lurked in the area, saying it would make the neighborhood safer.
“Oh… Like specter mealtime?”
“Well, only to the point that I could keep him safe.”
“That’s so disciplined of you, Shino. So, you enjoyed your trips to hot springs, too, huh? Is that why…because it’s a place filled with memories, you agreed to accept Henri’s request?”
Masamichi waited for a beat, but Shino didn’t respond.
The lack of a response spoke louder than words.
So, rather than push him further on the subject, Masamichi asked him another question.
“What do you want to do tomorrow? Get up in the morning, have breakfast, check out…and go home?”
“No,” Shino said, clearly rejecting the idea. “We’ve come all the way here to Arima. I’m thinking of stopping by the capital…I mean, Kyoto, on our way back.”
“Kyoto! Wow, I haven’t been there since a high school field trip. That would be great. Oh, right, you used to live there.”
“Yeah.”
A lot of mixed feelings seemed to be condensed in Shino’s short reply, and Masamichi hesitated for a while before working up the nerve to ask, “The place you used to live…where Tokifuyu’s house used to be? Do you want to go and see it? I’ll go with you. I mean, please, let me go with you. I’ll try not to get in your way.”
“…It will depend on how I feel tomorrow,” Shino said carelessly, then turned his back to Masamichi.
It was a clear statement of intent that said he didn’t want to continue the conversation. As his servant, Masamichi couldn’t keep bothering him further.
Masamichi obliged, withdrawing as he said, “Okay. Goodnight.” Shino’s back remained still, and Masamichi couldn’t hear a word from him, nor the sound of his breathing.
No longer concerned with Shino’s habitual behavior, Masamichi prayed that Shino would feel like visiting the site of his old home and closed his eyes, letting the pleasant exhaustion from the day take over.