Akira scrunched up her face into an angry pout. She shoved the travel guide back into the innocent bystander’s hands and stomped over to have a staredown with me.
“You know what?” she said. “You’re on. Let’s go, dude.”
Wait… Did I just sign my own death warrant here?
I could feel myself getting cold feet already. But I knew if I backed out now, Akira would never let me live it down. So I just stood up and told her to lead the way, and the two of us left the building and headed for the inn with the mixed-gender baths.
It was a much longer walk to get there than I was expecting. We had to hoof it for quite a while through some long, narrow, winding mountain roads. It felt like we were now literally going on a hike in the middle of nowhere, enough to make me worry if we were actually heading the right way or not. But lo and behold, after over an hour of walking, we finally arrived at the traditional-style inn Akira had seen in the guidebook. The place looked so old, it probably had to have been built in the late 1800s. There was even a little hot spring right out in front of the building, kind of like an outdoor pool. There were no other customers, by the looks of it.
“Is this the mixed bath right here, then?” I asked.
“Well, if I remember right…” said Akira, rolling her head from side to side as she sifted through her memories. “I’m pretty sure the book said there were two types of mixed baths, actually. Main difference being that you have to wear a bathing suit in the outdoor one, but anything goes at the indoor one.”
“Oh, gotcha…”
“W-well, what are we waiting for? Let’s head on in.”
Oh man… A-are we actually doing this?!
My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest, but I took off my shoes and followed her into the building despite my better judgment. The interior definitely felt like a product of its era, filled with antique furniture and black-and-white photos that lined the walls. The exterior was one thing, but actually stepping inside made it feel like I’d been time-warped back to prewar-era Japan.
We came to a changing room at the end of the hall, and apparently the bathing area was just beyond that. Akira and I just stood there stock-still, as though there was some invisible barrier preventing us from going any further.
Neither of us said a word.
I stole a furtive glance at Akira out of the corner of my eye, hoping to gauge her expression—and was a little bit startled to see a hint of trepidation there. This alone was enough to make me immediately call off this stupid game of chicken.
“Y’know what, maybe we’d better not,” I said.
“…No,” said Akira. “We’re doing it.”
“But—”
“Clothed,” she said as she walked forward. “We’ll go in clothed.”
“Uhhh… Y-you sure you wanna do that?”
Where was this weird brand of obstinance coming from? Was she really suggesting we just get in the bath with our clothes on, like self-conscious kids at a public pool? Wasn’t that a bit of a faux pas at a natural hot spring? And could you really even call it bathing together if we were both wearing all of our clothes?
Despite all of these question marks hovering over my head, I followed Akira into the changing room, whereupon she sat on the bench and started taking her socks off. My heart skipped a beat—but these were the only articles of clothing she removed. I went ahead and took my socks off too, then balled them up and shoved them into my pocket for now.
And then at last, we entered the bathing area. There wasn’t a single other person in the bath, thankfully. It was pretty dim inside, and the floor and bathtub were both just made out of simple, undressed concrete. There was a large, angry tengu mask hanging on the wall for decoration. But as I stood there feeling a little overwhelmed by the oppressive atmosphere, Akira was already rolling up her pant legs. She grabbed a nearby wash bucket and used it to splash a bit of hot water on her feet to warm them up and rinse them off, then gently dipped her toes into the bathtub proper.
“Oh, nope. Not happening,” she said. “Way too deep. Gonna get my pants wet.”
She immediately pulled her foot out, then crouched down at the edge of the bath and simply stuck her hands in the water instead. Man, really? You’ve gotta be kidding me… What did we even come out here for?
“C’mon, Mugino,” said Akira. “Get over here.”
“Uh, o-okay.”
I crouched down beside her, then dipped my hand in as if testing the water. It felt a little bit hotter than bathwater’s usual temperature.
“Cool,” said Akira. “Now we can technically say we’ve bathed together, huh?”
Not sure I’d go that far… But if she was determined to tell herself that, then I didn’t mind humoring her.
“Yeah. Feels kinda nice, actually.”
As soon as I said this, Akira’s expression suddenly turned meek. “…Hey, Mugino. You were telling me the truth when you said you’re not into guys, right?”
This was a question she’d asked me on the very first day of our journey. I wasn’t sure why she felt the need to reconfirm it now, but I nodded.
“Gotta admit, I kinda start to forget that you’re even a boy sometimes…” she said.
“Hm. Not really sure how to respond to that…”
“So hey… What do you think of me, anyway?”
I did a double take; now I was really bewildered. This was even more difficult to respond to than her last statement. It took Akira a few moments to notice the implications of this before her eyes went wide, and she let out a little gasp of realization.
“Oh, sorry!” she said. “I don’t mean that in a weird way or anything! I guess I’m just, I dunno…kinda curious how you categorize me in your head, is all.”