There we were, at a hot-spring resort not far from home.
Adachi had managed to change into her yukata without incident, but when she went to turn the TV on, she’d slipped on the remote and nearly smashed her head against the window. When she tried to pick the remote up off the floor, she’d banged her shin on the corner of the table. Seeking to escape the pain, she’d inexplicably downed her scalding hot cup of tea, and despite her expression—which betrayed her agony—nevertheless leapt back to her feet…only to pass out from the resulting dizziness.
“My ears are ringing,” she groaned from the floor of our partitioned room.
“You fought the good fight.” Like a superhero, she’d risen again and again.
“I can’t understand you.”
“Then you might have serious tinnitus.”
“That’s not what I mean…”
She lay a hand over one side of her face as if suppressing a headache—but when I caught her uncovered eye sneaking peeks at me, I found myself wondering whether she was ogling me in a pervy way, and at that point I couldn’t bear to meet her gaze. Obviously, I knew Adachi wasn’t that kind of girl, except… Well, she had invited me to a hot spring. And this was how she was acting.
“I, uh…I think I’ll go take a dip,” I decided aloud. Witnessing her antics had made me break a sweat.
“I’ll…go with you…” She hastily pushed herself up to join me.
I stopped her, though. “You, missy, could use a few minutes to calm down.” I didn’t want her to pass out in the hot spring next.
Fortunately, she seemed to have at least some awareness of her poor condition, because she didn’t press the issue further. “Okay.” She nodded, closing her eyes.
I pressed a hand to her forehead. “Besides, I need to cool off too.” Never mind that I didn’t actually feel all that warm, and that “cooling off” wasn’t really the point of a hot spring.
Out in the hall, I let out a breath and started walking toward the baths. Past the lobby, where hardwood replaced the carpet, my slippers slapped audibly with every step.
“Hmmm…I don’t know…”
What sort of mood were we supposed to aim for here? It seemed like so much work. Wouldn’t things just happen automatically once we took our clothes off? No… If we tried that here, it would feel like we were little kids at the pool. Ugh. This is so complicated.
As I mulled the situation over, walking toward the hot springs on autopilot, I noticed that a very familiar pitter-patter was now punctuating the airy slap of my slippers. Instinctively I whirled around.
“Hmm?!”
The moment we locked eyes, she froze in place, one foot raised, as if we were playing Red Light, Green Light.
“Hello there!”
Of course, only one creature on this planet would proceed to greet me like everything was fine. Today she wore a onesie that resembled…some sort of bird, probably. The big comb made me think of a rooster, except the wingtips had a blue tinge.
“When did you get here?!”
“I was bored, so I telep—” Her lips fell still for a moment. “Walked here on foot.”
“Were you just saying teleported?”
“Ho ho ho!”
That’s not an answer. With Yashiro here, I felt like I was back on that school trip all over again. “For a second, I thought maybe you’d stowed away in my backpack.”
“I have not been to the Shimamura residence today.”
“Oh no? My sister will miss you, you know.”
“Then I shall visit afterward, if you insist.”
“Um…” That wasn’t what I’d meant, but oh well.
How did Yashiro always manage to appear out of nowhere? Perhaps for a creature so far removed from Earth’s orbit, traveling any distance was little more than a hop.
“Now then, where are we?” She glanced up and down the hall.
“If you’d purposely walked all the way here, wouldn’t you know that?”
“Actually, I simply…found myself here.”
“This is a hot spring.”
“A hot spring, you say. I understand,” she replied.
It was clear that she didn’t, though. Considering how much she loved to veg out in front of the television, she must’ve heard about hot springs at some point, right? As we walked along, though, it occurred to me that she most likely hadn’t bothered to pay the entry fee. I’d probably get in trouble for bringing her in with me.
“Ugh. Fine…”
Just when we’d finally reached the changing-room curtain, I doubled back all the way to the front desk to pay a second fee—albeit the children’s rate, since I knew no one would believe me if I said Yashiro was six hundred years old.
“Oh, this place costs money?”
“You may be no different from a wild animal, but I figured I should pay your admission, just to be safe.”
I handed over the money, took the key, grabbed the girl, and headed back to my original destination. The front-desk clerk had looked deeply confused by Yashiro’s appearance, but I’d just smiled and played dumb.
“It seems that I owe you,” Yashiro said.
“You owe a lot of things to a lot of people.”
I envied her ability to coast through each day without having to worry about money, since I was starting to feel its weight more keenly now that I was an adult. However much time passed, though, she never had to change; no matter how tall my sister got, the pair still shrieked and squabbled like always. Perhaps that was the perfect friendship, in a sense.
“I am looking forward to this hot spring.”
“Do you even know what it is?”
“What does it taste like?”
That’s a “no.”
As we walked, the glass corridor provided ample sun and a scenic view. At last, we passed under a doorframe curtain into a room with warm lighting, wooden walls, and a damp floor. Yashiro scanned the area.
“Is this, perhaps…?”
“Come on, strip down.”
After she shed her skin…er, pajamas…and thus revealed that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath, Yashiro bolted butt naked across the room. I gathered all our discarded clothes together, then hurried after her. As far as I could see and hear, no one else was using the facilities at the moment—which was ideal, for obvious reasons.
The moment I opened the door, a gust of steam billowed over my face. Bath buckets were stacked to the right of the entrance; beyond the entrance, I saw a few shower stalls and the telltale gleam of wet tile. Sure enough, the spacious bath on the other side of the room was devoid of occupants. All I heard was hot water flowing.
Yashiro had run in ahead of me, but I found her only a few steps from the door, standing as still as a statue. “This is just a bath.”
“Gee, I wonder what it tastes like.”
She toddled up to the water’s edge, crouched, and dipped a hand in. “It is the temperature of bathwater.”
“That’s the best part.”
Her butterfly braids shook side to side as she played with the water, making waves. This was followed by a “Cannonba—!”
“Nooope! You gotta wash yourself first.”
Before Yashiro could jump in, I yanked her out of midair and dragged her to a shower stall. When I glanced at the mirror in front of us, I was surprised to see her reflection, which—at the risk of sounding insane—wasn’t always guaranteed with Yashiro.
“Know how to adjust the temperature?”
“I am all-powerful,” she declared, twisting the shower valve and sending a torrent of hot water straight into her face. In response, she neither flinched nor moved to lower the heat. “Wharrgarbl!”
“Wash your hair.”
At my insistence, she swirled her braids around haphazardly, prompting me to ask a long-unanswered question: “Can you untie those?”
“What?”
I pointed at the butterfly wings.
“Ah. One moment.” Tugging the knots, she let out an unearthly screech of pain. “Gyaaaaah!”
“What are you doing…?”
Despite her scream, the braids indeed came undone, loosing a cascade of hair down her back. She looked so different with it down—like a fragile maiden.
“What is the matter, Shimamura-san?” she asked smoothly, paying no regard to the blue torrent of hair and water presently covering her face. Upon closer inspection, I realized her hair wasn’t actually getting wet; the water was rolling straight off it.
“Mmm, nothing.” I wasn’t sure whether she’d use it, but nevertheless, I handed her one of the plastic bath buckets stacked across the room.
“Little always makes me take baths as well.”
“Yeah, because you don’t take them unless you’re forced to.”
“I prefer swimming pools.”
“Then why not think of the tub as a warm pool?”
“Oh, that does sound nice.” She smiled, her eyes wandering to the hot spring.
She’s gonna try to swim in it, isn’t she? Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.
I was putting my hair up in a towel after showering when Yashiro took off running toward the bath.
“Hey, no running! The floor’s wet!” But by the time the words were out of my mouth, she was already in the water. “Good grief,” I mumbled as I walked over.
The bath edge formed a series of steps leading down. I lowered a cold foot onto the first step and found the water so hot that it made my toes ache. Meanwhile, Yashiro was already submerged up to her scalp—her scalp? Her hair floated on the surface as she swam to and fro.
“Well, that’s surreal.” It was almost like watching a bright blue jellyfish. “Wait—stop that!”
When I hauled her out of the water, she didn’t protest but merely blinked back at me, dripping rivulets of blue. “When I sat down, the water level rose above my head.”
“I get that, but in a hot spring, you’re not supposed to let your hair…well, if that even is hair…” At this point, I wasn’t sure anymore. After all, water simply clung to the surface of the strands; just that was pretty weird. And I didn’t know how to explain the rules of society to a creature I barely understood. I did, however, know to snatch her by the scruff of the neck the moment she tried to swim away. “My point is, don’t put your hair in the water. It’s against the rules.”
“It is?”
“It is.”
“Very well, then.” She fluffed her hair up until it pointed skyward. What the hell? “Is this acceptable?”
“Uh…yeah, sure, whatever. Also, no swimming in the bath.”
“Why not?”
“It’s rude to the other guests.”
“But we are alone.”
I glanced around; she was right. “Well, just pretend we aren’t.”
With that, I sat her next to me. Even on the steps, though, the water still came up to her lips. She started kicking her feet immediately. Will you settle down?
“Is this not boring, Shimamura-san?”
“Not to me.” I rather enjoyed dunking my brain in hot water for a while. Facing the courtyard, I sank so the water was shoulder-level and let my thoughts trickle along comfortably, like sweat down my neck.