Hot Springs Trip, Part 1

WARNING: This chapter contains depictions of enjo kosai/compensated dating.

While Ruka, Kumiko, and Sayaka were preparing to battle a magical beast in an abandoned building, Tenko and Yoko had met up together outside of the apartment building their families both lived in. “So,” Tenko asked Yoko as they walked down the street together. “How’s your mom doing?”

“She’s doing good,” Yoko replied. “This month is always hard for her since it’s the anniversary of my father divorcing her and leaving us.”

“Yeah,” Tenko nodded. “How long has it been since you last saw him now?”

“Five years. Five whole years.” Yoko was clearly frustrated that her own father seemingly showed no interest in her or her mother anymore. “I’ve only seen him four times since he left us back in 2016.”

“He really should visit you more.”

“You think? Of course he should.”

While the two walked further down the street, Tenko’s phone began to ring, so she pulled it out to see who it was. Upon seeing it was Yoshiro, she answered with, “Hello?”

“We’re about to get a call for a magical beast sighting near the train station,” Yoshiro explained over the phone. “I just called it in and requested backup.”

Sure enough, just as Yoshiro told Tenko that, both her phone and Yoko’s phone began to go off with a text from the agency’s app. Yoko looked at it and told Tenko, “We got something.”

Tenko asked Yoshiro, “What class is it, Yoshiro-kun?”

“It’s either a Class Four or a Class Three.”

Tenko then asked Yoko, “What’s the classification of the magical beast?”

“A Class Four,” she told her. “Who are you on the phone with?”

“It’s a Class Four per dispatch,” Tenko told Yoshiro over the phone.

“Alright,” he replied. “I’m gonna go fight it now. Transform and start heading over here, but you don’t need to rush as of now. I should be fine holding it off on my own for the time being.”

“Got it. We’ll be right over.” Tenko then told Yoko, “Yoshiro-kun says to transform and start heading over there.”

Yoko, confused, asked her, “He can’t take care of a Class Four by himself?”

“He says he can for now, but to head over just in case something goes wrong.”

“Alright,” Yoko said as the two of them transformed into their hunting outfits and then began to run over to the train station a few minutes away. “I just hope no one else signs on for this mission and takes more of the reward money away from us.”

“You and me both.” As they ran, Tenko thought to herself, “We won’t be able to count on Kishio-senpai, Miyamura-san, or Murata-senpai for help since they’re on patrol and they’re too far away. Even so, I think we should be good if it’s just a Class Three or Class Four.”

…

On the second floor of the abandoned building, Sayaka and Kumiko silently looked around for whatever had been inside the dilapidated structure. Because most of the windows were boarded up, both used their cellphones as flashlights. As they peered into an empty room in what looked like what used to be an office of some kind, all they found were some dirty papers on the floor and nothing else. Sayaka turned to Kumiko and shook her head, indicating she had found nothing. The two then walked out and began looking elsewhere.

As they peered into another room, they both heard the sound of someone or something scurrying across the floor nearby and quickly turned around to see who or what it was. When they shined their flashlights at the spot where they thought they heard the noises, however, they found nothing. Kumiko sighed and thought to herself, “This is getting frustrating. I don’t even care if it’s just a damn animal at this point. Just give me an answer already.”

Then, as Sayaka walked towards the end of a hallway, she suddenly stepped on something soft and fuzzy and looked up to find she had stepped on the foot of a creature that quickly let out a yelp in pain. She flashed her cellphone light at it and screamed as Kumiko looked over and saw a wolf-like magical beast staring at both of them with homicidal intent. When the wolf roared at the two of them, Sayaka fell back onto the floor, followed by the beast attempting to lunge at her with its teeth. Sayaka screamed, “Help me!”

Kumiko rushed over and quickly swung her sledgehammer at the magical beast, whacking it in the head and immediately knocking it down. The beast’s blood spattered onto the wall beside it as she swung down again on its head, this time killing it and once again spreading its blood all over. As the body of the beast twitched several times, Sayaka took several deep breaths and looked up at Kumiko, who breathed a sigh of relief as she stared at the dead wolf beast and said, “Holy shit…”

Sayaka then got up and looked at her uniform, stained with both blood and brain matter from the dead beast. She blinked several times before saying, “I can’t believe that happened… That was a pretty small beast, and yet it almost got me.”

Kumiko replied as she wiped a small bit of blood off of her cheek, “It took you by surprise, didn’t it?”

Then, Ruka ran up the stairs nearby and yelled out, “I heard screaming! What’s going on up here?!”

“It’s fine,” Kumiko replied to her. “We found it. It was a magical beast. I killed it.”

“Let me see,” Ruka said as she sheathed her sword and walked over to them. As she did, she saw that Sayaka was still somewhat disoriented and pale from almost being bitten by the beast. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she commented to her. “What the Hell happened here?”

“It… It almost got me,” Sayaka explained, still shaken by what had transpired. “It looked small, and yet… I stepped on its foot, and it lunged right at me… I can’t believe I almost let such a small and weak monster almost get me.”

Ruka looked at the dead body of the wolf beast and told Sayaka, “Sometimes, it happens to the best of us. The smaller magical beasts like this will often use the element of surprise to get their victims, since they know they won’t win otherwise. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Are you sure?” Sayaka felt bad for letting what she perceived to be a small beast that should have been easy to kill almost instead kill her. “It feels like I could have done better.”

“Stop worrying about what you could have done,” Ruka warned her in a somewhat more commanding tone. “You’ll only drive yourself crazy if you keep doing that shit. All you can do is prepare for next time, Miyamura. Otherwise, you’re just gonna overthink every little thing you do, and that shit will make you hesitant to act in battle. Believe me, hesitancy gets people killed in this line of work, magical huntresses and civilians alike.”

Heeding her warning and feeling bad for worrying about her actions, Sayaka nodded her head and replied, “Okay…”

…

When Yoko and Tenko arrived at the train station, they saw that a portal had opened up near its entrance and that Yoshiro was nowhere to be seen. After they briefly looked around, Yoko told Tenko as she ran towards the portal, “He must have gone into the portal. Come on!”

As they both ran in, they heard Yoshiro speaking to someone else somewhere up ahead of them. “Are you hurt at all? Do you need me to call an ambulance?”

“The battle must be done already,” Tenko inferred as they raced through a dark forest looking for Yoshiro.

Sure enough, as they happened upon a clearing in the trees, they found the dead body of a three-eyed bear-like creature with numerous slash marks and stab wounds from Yoshiro battling with it. They also saw Yoshiro helping a woman in a business suit onto her feet with his left shoulder. The woman, who had scratches across her body and tattered clothes, told Yoshiro, “That thing came out of nowhere!”

“It’s gone now,” he assured her. “It can’t hurt you anymore.” He then saw Yoko and Tenko nearby, telling them, “Help me carry this woman out of here. Her one leg is probably broken, so she can’t walk on it. I need someone to carry her on the other side of her body and someone else to grab my backpack and get the first aid kit from it.”

“Got it,” Yoko replied as she ran over and got on the other side of the woman, carrying her with her right shoulder.

Tenko meanwhile ran to Yoshiro’s backpack, which was on the ground nearby, and opened it up to grab a small first aid kit inside before shutting it and putting it on her back. As she ran over, she asked Yoshiro, “Where do you want the healing dust?”

“Spread it over her clothes on the front,” Yoshiro told her as they all helped her out of the forest and back towards the portal. As they did, Tenko did as told and opened up a small vial of healing dust and tossed the contents onto the woman’s tattered blazer and undershirt. Yoshiro told her, “That dust will close up any wounds from that beast’s claws.”

“Agh,” said the woman as she felt a stinging sensation on her body where the dust landed. “It stings a bit.”

“It will at first, but that means it’s working. Bear with it, okay?”

“What was that thing anyway?”

“That was a magical beast,” Yoshiro told her. “And we’re the people who kill them.”

“But you all seem so young,” the office woman told them in a confused tone.

“We are,” Yoko admitted. “But we know our shit.”

…

October 10, 2023

Hana and Ruka talked among themselves in the middle of the school day while on break in a hallway, primarily talking about the two battles the group had the day before. “I told Miyamura to not overthink her decisions and stop worrying so much,” Ruka said to Hana. “I hope she gets it. Honestly, she’s not a bad fighter, but I do think she needs more confidence.”

“And what of Murata-san?”

“She’s alright. She’s inexperienced obviously, but she isn’t any worse than your average magical huntress who only has two months of experience as of now. I’m not worried about her.”

“I see.” Hana looked out of a nearby window and told her, “I hope they both work out.”

“You know,” Ruka then asked her. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. Have you ever had any other members of the Fox Knights aside from me and the others?”

“I figured this question would get asked sooner or later.” Hana sighed and told her, “Yes. We had one other member who joined us to make a trio when it was just me and Yoshiro-kun, but…”

“What happened to her?” Ruka then clarified, “Or him? Were they a girl or a boy?”

“She was a girl, yes.” Hana turned back to Ruka and explained, “She’s… No longer with us.”

“She got killed?”

“Yep,” Hana nodded. “We lost her in a battle a few months before Fujimori-san joined us. It was a difficult battle, and she took a blow meant for me.”

Ruka nodded. “I see. I imagine you took that hard.”

“Well… It doesn’t affect me now. It really doesn’t.” Hana’s tone of voice and facial expression seemed to imply to Ruka that she was trying to convince herself that was the case. “However, it does motivate me to keep improving the Fox Knights and myself. I won’t let anyone else in my group die, and I’ll do anything to keep them alive.”

“What was her name? Maybe I’ll recognize it.”

“Morikawa Yuna,” Hana told her. “Yuna-chan started out as a rather weak fighter, but by the end, she was strong enough to hold back a Class Two for seven whole minutes while I rushed over to help her and Yoshiro-kun, even if she sacrificed her life by doing so.”

Ruka thought to herself, “Morikawa Yuna… Come to think of it, I did hear that name before about two years ago. She must still hold her in high regard if she’s using her first name. Anyway, Arikawa was right. She really would do anything if it means improving the group. Even so… Would she really go as far as to sell herself?”

“That being said,” Hana clarified. “I can’t stop you from taking risks. It’s what we do as magical huntresses. This is a job that’s inherently dangerous, and of course, you know that all too well.”

“Damn right,” Ruka agreed. “I’ve seen my fair share of death. In fact… I’ve seen a magical huntress die in front of me before.”

“You have?”

“Yeah. When I first started, I, uh… I got some help from an older girl.” Ruka paused, thinking of Himiko and how she had helped her when she was only ten years old. “She… She died while battling a Class Two. She sacrificed her life to save mine, and I won’t ever forget that.”

“What was her name?”

“Kaya Himiko.”

Hana, interested upon hearing her name, replied to her, “Kaya Himiko, huh… I remember hearing about her death. I had no idea you were there when it happened. I only had about three months of experience as a magical huntress when she died. I’m surprised we never ran into each other before this year.”

“I moved away for a bit after she died,” Ruka explained. “I lived with my uncle for the rest of my time in elementary school. The attack also destroyed my grandpa’s house, so I couldn’t stay around this part of Yokosuka anymore until I moved out on my own.”

“Ah, right. You told me you don’t talk to the rest of your family anymore. I assume that happened after he died?”

“Basically, yeah.” Ruka chuckled, amused at herself for telling rather sensitive information about herself to Hana. “You know, I don’t even know why I’m telling you any of this shit. If anyone else asked me those questions, I would have told them to piss off and that it wasn’t any of their God damn business.”

“Perhaps it means you trust me,” Hana inferred.

Ruka let out a brief laugh. “Trust… I don’t trust most people, but… I gotta say, I guess I trust you at least somewhat.”

“Hopefully I can earn more of your trust in the future,” Hana told her with a smile. She then thought to herself as the two then began to walk down the hallway, “I’ll do anything to prevent another tragedy. Anything. Ruka-chan has no idea how far I’ll go.”

…

October 14, 2023

In front of a rather large and well-built onsen and inn, the whole group looked up at the building, ready to enjoy a nice and relaxing day in a hot spring. Sayaka smiled and told the group, “Wow, this place looks really cool!”

“Only the best for us,” Hana told her. “It may have cost my family a bit much, but I think we all could use this.”

“Oh yeah,” Ruka then asked her. “Where is your family anyway?”

“Oh, uh,” Hana then explained. “They just signed for me. The seven of us are going in by ourselves.”

Yoshiro asked, “Wait, really? I was assuming your dad was gonna go with us so I wouldn’t be by myself.”

“That reminds me,” Kumiko then said to the group. “Uh… What about me?”

Yoko turned to her and asked, “Huh? What about yo-?” She then remembered that Kumiko was transgender, having momentarily forgotten she was. “Oh, right, the trans thing…”

Kumiko replied, “Yeah… Suffice to say, I don’t have the, uh… Parts you guys do.”

“Hmmmm…” Ruka pondered what to do for a brief moment. “It’s a long shot, but what about a mixed-gender bath?”

Tenko, Yoshiro, and Sayaka all immediately blushed at the idea of the group going into a mixed-gender bath. Yoshiro said in response to Ruka’s suggestion in a flabbergasted tone, “We can’t just do that! Do you think they’d let a bunch of teenagers into a mixed-gender bath?!”

Tenko added, “Besides, uh… I, um… I don’t think I wanna be around naked men…”

Sayaka agreed with Tenko, saying, “Me too… It would feel too weird being around a boy while…” She blushed even harder, not able to even finish her sentence.

Kumiko, annoyed that the group had reached an impasse, then sighed. “Okay, hang on. I got it.”

Yoko asked her, “What’s up?”

“I’ll just go in with Arikawa-kun,” she volunteered.

“Wait, what?”

Yoshiro asked her, “Are you sure?”

“No one will know I’m actually a girl,” Kumiko explained. “They’ll just think I’m a boy with longer hair.” When she was met with silence from the group, she shrugged and added, “Hey, it happens. I’ve seen boys who have longer hair than usual.”

“Yeah, but,” Hana replied to her. “Are you comfortable with that?”

“Listen,” Kumiko assured her. “I pretended to be a boy for the first thirteen years of my life. I can pretend to be one for a few hours again if it means Arikawa-kun won’t be alone.” She then smiled and told Yoshiro, “Trust me. I don’t have any qualms about being naked around boys or girls, Arikawa-kun.”

Yoshiro sighed. “Screw it. Why not?”

“I guess we’re all set,” Hana then told the group. “Let’s head in.” As the whole group walked into the onsen together to check in, Hana then got a call on her phone and told the group as she pulled it out, “Oh, wait. Hang on. Let me answer this call. Go in ahead of me.”

“Got it,” Yoshiro replied before the rest of the group went on without her.

Outside the building, Hana answered the phone with, “Hello?”

On the other end of the line, Hideo asked her, “I can see you.”

“You can?” Hana then turned around and saw a car in the parking lot that matched the rather expensive and luxurious sports car Hideo owned, as well as Hideo himself, who waved with a devious smile from the driver’s seat. “I see.”

“Head on in,” he told her. “I’ll catch up with you in there. I already checked us in and confirmed your little hunting group. Does anyone suspect anything?”

“No,” Hana assured him. “They don’t know anything about our deal.”

“Perfect.”

…

In the women’s changing room, Ruka, Hana, Yoko, Tenko, and Sayaka were all getting ready to go into the women’s springs. As they all took off their clothes to shower before heading in, Hana told the others, “Sorry about that phone call earlier. It was just my dad.”

“Ah,” Yoko replied. “What did he want?”

“He just asked what time we’ll be coming home,” Hana clarified, lying to her. “He must have forgot.”

“I’ll shower first,” Ruka then said to the others as she stepped into an open shower stall. As she walked into the stall, Yoko happened to look over at her and immediately fixated her eyes on her chest. Ruka noticed this immediately and asked her, “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing,” Yoko replied while looking dejected, self-conscious about her own smaller bust size compared to Ruka. “I’m just curious.”

Ruka sighed. “You looked at my boobs, didn’t you?”

“No,” Yoko denied to no avail. “I wasn’t looking at the-“

“Bullshit,” Ruka chuckled. She confided in her, “Look, I get that you’re self-conscious since you’re a year older than me, Fujimori, but having big boobs isn’t all that special or fun.”

Yoko then asked her, no longer denying anything, “How are yours so big?”

Ruka shrugged. “Look, I don’t know. Maybe it’s something that runs in my family.” She then arched her back to stretch it out. “Sometimes, my back hurts, but it’s nothing too bad.” As Yoko stepped into a stall next to her and Ruka turned on the water, she continued the conversation with, “The more annoying part is when people look at them or assume things about you because they’re big.”

As Ruka began washing her hair with shampoo, Yoko turned on her own water and thought to herself, “I have the smallest in the group, come to think of it… Aside from Murata, but, well… All the other girls have me beat, even Ikezawa.”

Meanwhile, as Sayaka washed her body, she said to herself out of curiosity, “I wonder how Arikawa-kun and Murata-senpai are doing…”

…

In the men’s changing room, Kumiko and Yoshiro had finished showering and were about to head into the bath. Yoshiro asked Kumiko as they both grabbed towels, “Are you still sure about this?”

“Yeah,” she assured him. “Like I said, I did this for thirteen years. I don’t mind doing it again for a few hours.”

“I know, but…”

“Listen,” Kumiko pointed out in a quieter voice so no one else could hear them. “I still pass as a boy. You don’t need to be worried.”

“Alright…” When the two walked out to the baths, they found a rather large onsen with a tall dividing wall between the men’s and women’s baths on one side and a rock wall on the other side. There were about ten other men and boys in the bath already, all ranging in age from young children to old men, and all of them enjoying the warm water and atmosphere. Yoshiro and Kumiko set their towels down on the onsen floor and then stepped into the bath. Yoshiro smiled and said to Kumiko, “The water’s warm.”

“Yeah,” she agreed as she stepped in. “I haven’t been in one since last year.”

“Since you ca-?”

“Yeah,” Kumiko interrupted him with. “Since then.”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Yoshiro felt bad about almost outing Kumiko in the men’s bath by speaking openly about her gender identity.

“It’s fine,” she assured him quietly. “Just keep it under wraps here. If anyone asks, I’m a boy.”

“Got it.” Yoshiro then looked around the onsen and saw someone else he recognized. He turned to Kumiko and quietly told her, “See that guy over there in the corner?”

“Yeah?”

“I know him,” he explained. “He goes to school with me and is in Fujimori-senpai’s grade. He’s Yamanaka Goro. He has a reputation for being a bit of a player with girls.”

“Oh, I see,” Kumiko nodded. Both of them made sure to remain as quiet as they could so Goro could not hear them.

“Rumor has it he’s already had sex.”

Kumiko replied in a dumbfounded tone, “Already?”

“Yeah, and I gotta say, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s fucked a girl already, but I guess he’s not dating her anymore.”

“That’s usually how it goes,” Kumiko sighed. “He’ll just keep going around sleeping with girls and breaking their hearts until it catches up with him one day.”

Meanwhile, as the two of them began to talk among themselves, Hideo was sitting in another part of the men’s bath, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the water. He then opened his eyes and checked the time on a water-proof watch he had on his right arm. “I got another hour to go…”