“Phew,” sighed Kimihito, settling up to his shoulders in the large bath. He hadn’t paid any mind to how much work he’d done, but his muscles had kept track, and he was surprised how much tension the massage and hot water had released.
As he got comfortable, he looked around him, taking in the sights of the bath. “This place is huge,” he remarked. To accommodate a range of liminals, it had very deep sections, very shallow sections, and even a single-person wooden tub to the side. None of them were quite right for a human like him, but that didn’t stop him getting comfortable.
“Plus…I feel kind of weird having the whole place to myself.” There was no one else around, but that didn’t make any sense. There’d been plenty of people in the massage room, so why wasn’t anyone in the bath? “Guess it means I can take my time,” he said, stretching out.
At that moment, a voice called out. “Heya, Buddy! Have you gotten warmed up?” Wasn’t this the men’s bath? How’d she gotten in?
“Huh?”
“Ha ha ha! Look at your stupid face! Knew it’d be worth it to turn into the cleaning lady.” A completely nude Doppel entered the room.
“Doppel! Why’re you here?” he shouted.
“Didn’t I say I would be? I’m here to wash your back,” she said.
“You got rid of your uniform!”
“It’s a bath. Duh.” Not that nudity mattered to her. Her hair swept around her chest and nether region, keeping her decent. That didn’t change the fact that this was the men’s bath.
“What if someone comes in?”
“I put up a sign saying the baths are being cleaned. We’ve got the place to ourselves.” She’d clearly thought this through. “Come on over. Like I said, I’m here to wash your back.” She had poured body wash onto a sponge, and now she was close, kneading it and lathering it up. Her dark skin struck a beautiful contrast with the pale bubbles.
Crawling along the bath floor, she found a chair and brought it over for him to sit on. As she ducked, stood, crouched, and straightened, her hair followed along to keep her modest. It was impressive that it kept up.
Seeing her put in so much effort forced him to concede. “Ugh, fine,” he said. He stood from the water and wrapped a towel around his waist.
She was ready, the soapy sponge in hand. She smiled at him pleasantly.
He sat on the bath chair and allowed her to touch his back with the sponge. “I hope nobody sees this.”
“Nobody will. Jeez. If someone did, I’d turn into a guy, and we’d be fine,” she said.
“I guess so.” His back was coated in bubbles.
She started to scrub. “All right. Now, as thanks for your hard work, let me spoil you a bit.”
Confused, he just said, “Thanks…?”
“You really helped Zombina, Tio, and Manako this week,” she said as she continued to scrub, “despite having your homestay girls to take care of. I feel bad about that, and I want to make it up to you.”
“It wasn’t hard. Everyone else did their part, too.”
“Hah! If you say so. Tio was so happy she got to be an idol, and Manako was less shy when she got back to the office. Zombina, uh…I dunno, she got to drink alcohol? A due to the dead. Hah.” The fact she wanted to do something for him was so unexpected that he hadn’t fully processed it yet. She loved to play practical jokes and get him flustered and tease him, but there was also a side to her that cared for MON and the other people around her.
“Why’re you making that face?” she asked as she scrubbed a few more inches clean.
“I’ve just never heard you talk about your colleagues like that, Doppel,” he said.
“Well. I don’t, normally. It’s been weird working apart this week. The work program felt kinda private.”
“Private how?”
“Like Tio getting to live her idol dream without us seeing it. We don’t know what happened on that stage.”
“Ahh, true.” She’d been incredible, and had an incredible night, but MON hadn’t been there to share it with her.
“That’s why I want to show my gratitude for you looking after the team. In lieu of Smith saying so, I’m here to say thanks, Buddy.”
“You’re welcome.”
“So that about sums up why I’m giving you this nice, skillful wash! Pity I’m not a cute girl, that’d be the icing on the cake, huh?” She took the detachable showerhead from its fixture so she could rinse the huge mass of bubbles off his skin.
The embarrassment set back in when he heard her describe the situation, but there was one part of her description he couldn’t let stand. “That’s not true, Doppel.”
“Huh?”
“You are a cute girl,” he said.
There was a long silence. He had his back to her, so he couldn’t see, but her body had frozen, and her hair had moved in to cover her reddening face.
“Doppel?” he asked when the silence went too long. He tried to turn.
Her hair wrapped around his head and forced him to face forward.
“Gwuh!”
“J-just give me a minute!” she said.
“If you’re embarrassed, put on some clothes!”
“You know that’s not what this is about! I’m gonna rinse you, so stay put!”
“Blugh!” he spluttered as he was struck with pressurized water. Doppel soaped up the sponge again for another round of scrubbing. He stayed still and didn’t bother resisting.
“Okay, time for the front!”
“What?! I’m fine, I’ll do that part!”
“Quit complaining! Nurse Doppel is here!”
“Why do you sound so angry?!”
Soon they were scuffling. Doppel tried to tear off Kimihito’s towel, and he tried his darndest to keep it on. Her usual devious expression had returned. There wasn’t a hint of mercy in her eyes.
“I’m done! It’s fine! I’m clean!” Kimihito said.
“No you’re not!” Doppel shouted.
He escaped her grasp and bolted for the changing room with shocking speed. He’d had to learn how to dodge his liminal housemates, and those techniques had long since become muscle memory. And after all the treatments he was in peak condition. Unstoppable.
“Ugh. Whatever. I did get to say thanks,” Doppel said, scratching her head. “It’s fine to relax sometimes, right? In the bath, or—” She looked at the tubs. “Yeah. Whatever. Let’s just take a bath.” Stepping into the water, she sank in deep.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Um…”
“Hm?” Kimihito had gotten out of the bath, dressed, and bought some coffee-flavored milk to sip. Midway through his drink, Lala approached, still in her strange nurse uniform-scarf combo.
“What’s up, Lala?” he asked.
“Y’see…” She fidgeted. He knew this was a misdirection to hide her awkwardness. Whenever she either spouted off paragraphs of flowery prose, or refused to speak at all, it was cover for her not knowing what to say. At times like this, he couldn’t figure her out either.
“Do you…need my help?”
“Uh…” She hid her lower face in her scarf and peered at him over it. “Tha’ wretched mound o’ slime and her benighted, tricksome accomplice hae disappeared in pursuit of some unknown end.”
“If you mean Doppel’s in the bath, I know. Why?”
“She claimed it was mixed bathing.”
“Yeah…”
“She also advised not tae bother her. Thus I must focus on me own dark tasks. Which is tae say, the work of a nurse,” Lala paused, struggling with what to say next. “Yet I am a shinigami, a reaper of souls, who leads mortals tae their final rest. When Yuuhi spoke tae me, I realized I am incapable of healing you without making a hash of it.”
“That’s why you’re upset?”
“I’m not upset! I’m a shinigami! It’s just—I’m not comfortable with a job so contrary to me nature.”
She was getting more nervous as they talked. He sighed. “Want some coffee milk?”
“Hm. Yes,” she said.
He bought her a bottle with some change and brought it over.
Lala’s expression stayed neutral as she lifted her head and poured the milk into her exposed esophagus. He supposed most humans would’ve been uncomfortable watching that, but he was used to it.
“Ahhh,” Lala said as she replaced her head like a cap on a bottle.
“Do you feel any calmer?”
“Aye, t’be sure. I am a shinigami. I may wear the wings of an angel, but ’tis the underworld I consort with.”
“Well—” Before he could reply, she pulled her scythe from who-knew-where. She usually carried it around with her, and he hadn’t figured out where it went when she didn’t. It was like magic how she manifested it from thin air. “Wh-what’re you doing—”
“I regret tae say, this is the only option before us.”
“Watch where you’re waving that scythe—”
She ignored his protests and swung it hard at his neck.
Stars danced in his vision. “Hngh—” He felt his consciousness fading. As he sank into oblivion, he felt, improbably, like he had been there before.