Chapter 46: White Mist

Description

Tap.

The bathroom light came on.

It was white enough to sting a little.

Yukina bent down.

She twisted on the faucet and began filling the bathtub.

Translucent splashes sprang up from the ceramic surface.

Steaming vapor quickly filled the small bathroom.

The tiles and the mirror were both covered in a thin layer of mist.

She stood in front of the sink.

She took off the eye patch.

She stared blankly for a while at the blurry shadow in the mirror.

Then she unfastened the buttons of her school uniform one by one.

When she took it off, she found that the fabric had already stuck to her skin.

If she tugged with even a little force, it made a soft sound like tape peeling.

The school uniform slid down along her wrists.

It fell on both sides of her ankles.

After that, a small piece of pale pink fabric with thin straps stacked on top of it as well.

The zipper of the pleated skirt was at the back of her waist.

She felt around behind herself a few times before she found it.

When she pulled it down, the skirt hem slid down along her thighs.

It piled lightly on the very top.

Then came the pantyhose.

Her fingers slipped into the elastic from both sides of her hipbones.

She rolled this nylon fabric that had gotten wet then dry, dry then wet, down little by little.

She only noticed when she had rolled it below her knees.

[Censored.]

The inside of the still-warm fabric [Censored.]

Yukina’s face turned red at once.

She did not dare look even one extra glance.

She hurriedly scooped up all the bundles of cloth, stuffed them into the washing machine, and even added one more scoop of detergent than usual.

P-please… you have to wash clean.

She prayed quietly in her heart.

Then she turned around and quickly began to unwrap the bandages on her body.

By common sense, she still had external wounds right now.

It was not suitable for a soak.

But Yukina felt that if she did not take a fierce soak today and relax completely, she was going to explode on the spot.

Even if it meant risking an infected wound, she had to soak.

One loop.

Two loops.

Three loops.

The bandage in her hands was slowly unwound.

“Huh?”

When the bandage dropped completely to the floor, she discovered in surprise…

The wounds were gone.

She froze for a moment.

She flipped her wrist over, then turned it back.

She touched the place where the ribbon had originally bound her until it left blood marks.

The skin was very even.

It was unreasonably smooth.

Even the scabs were gone.

What’s going on?

Yukina blinked.

She unwrapped the bandages at her shoulders as well.

Those claw marks that had originally still been shocking to look at had all disappeared now too.

“How can this be…”

She checked again.

There really were none.

Not even the slightest trace had been left behind.

It was as if those wounds had never existed at all.

But they had clearly existed.

When she had disinfected them this morning, it had hurt so much her tears had almost fallen.

A faint bloodstain still remained on the inner layer of the bandage.

“So weird…”

Yukina firmly touched the location of the wounds.

Suddenly she noticed something else.

Why is it sticky?

It was like dried sweat, yet not quite.

A thin film covered the surface of her skin.

Other parts of her body had it too.

She pinched it with a fingertip.

When she pulled her fingers apart, she could draw out dark, fine threads.

It isn’t some weird disease, is it…

Yukina thought about it.

She quickly shook her head and rejected that idea.

This was a world inside a game.

There were all kinds of strange settings.

It might just be some special constitution of the succubus race, something that could rapidly heal external wounds.

She tried hard not to let her thoughts run wild.

She walked straight into the shower stall and twisted on the showerhead.

Hot water poured down from the top of her head.

Her body could not help shrinking in.

A few sticking-up tufts of hair were pressed down.

Her whole figure looked a circle smaller.

Water ran down along her collarbones.

It flowed into curves that had not fully matured.

It slid across skin so white it was almost transparent, so pure.

It washed away all those sticky things on her body.

Foamy water carrying the scent of milk bath gel ran down the sides of her legs.

It split into a small dark stream.

At last it swirled into the drain.

Next was the soak she had been looking forward to most.

The water in the bathtub gave off steaming white vapor.

Yukina tested the temperature with her toe.

She shrank back from the heat, then slowly reached out again.

It was just right.

At last her whole person slowly stepped over and sat down in one go.

“Hah…”

The water rippled lightly.

Hot water spread over her shoulders.

Her whole person soaked until it went soft.

Yukina lightly rested the back of her head against the rim of the tub.

She listened to the water echoing by her ears.

It felt so good her toes slowly uncurled in the water.

This feels so good…

In her last life she had not had much chance to take baths.

She had not expected that after transmigrating, there would be a bathtub at home, and she could soak as much as she wanted.

It was just a pity the tub was a little small.

If it were tall people like her sister or Mashiro, they would probably have to curl up painfully.

But for her it was just right.

She could stretch her legs out straight.

Moving around was no problem either.

She really wanted to soak every day.

But the water bill was not cheap.

She could not casually add to her sister’s burden.

But her sister seemed to have said it was fine.

Soak if she wanted to soak.

No need to save.

Just don’t drain the water after soaking.

She would keep using it when she came back.

She always felt there was something weird about that sentence coming out of her sister’s mouth…

But she could not put her finger on it.

As I thought, I should still drain the water.

Yukina buried half her face in the hot water.

Only the tip of her nose and her eyes showed.

She blew a string of bubbles from her mouth.

Gazing at the white mist that gradually rose and shrouded what was before her, her sakura-colored eyes slowly unfocused.

All the fatigue she had accumulated seemed to dissolve in the soak.

After she had completely relaxed, her mind could not help recalling the things that had happened today.

…A lot of things really happened today.

There were a lot of bad things.

But good things had happened too.

It was all that idiot tanuki Ningning’s fault.

She had spread those weird rumors, which had led to Yukina being targeted by Boss Yumiko.

Later those things had happened in the bathroom too.

It had almost cost someone their life.

She did not know how she was supposed to face Boss Yumiko and the others after going back to school tomorrow.

She hoped she would not be settled with harshly.

As for good things, there was one.

That was… she and Mashiro had made up.

Not only had they made up.

They had also found a method to suppress Blood Moon Disease.

Before the Male Protagonist appeared, as long as nothing too serious happened by accident, they should be able to hold out with this method.

It was just that she was less and less sure what she and Mashiro even counted as.

“Female Protagonist and villain”? “Bully and bullied”? “Secret partners”? Or… just simply “friends.”

She did not know.

Yesterday, Mashiro had confessed to her with her own mouth.

Today, they had also done some things… that went a little past the boundary of friends.

Even now, Yukina could still recall those red eyes.

Those eyes hanging above her head.

They had laid bare the most naked desire.

They had stared fixedly at her body.

It was as if they wanted to eat her completely clean.

“Ugh…”

Recalling that instant, Yukina’s body could not help shrinking in.

It sent a ring of ripples through the water in the tub.

She lowered her head a little.

Through the hazy white mist, she looked at her own body under the water.

Good grief. What’s so good about a dried-up figure like this.

Yukina complained with a red face.

She guarded her hands in front of her chest.

The bubbles she blew by her mouth grew bigger and bigger too.

Maybe Mashiro was just too “repressed.”

It was like a disaster victim whose stomach was so empty it was about to go flat.

If she happened to pick up a piece of dried, shriveled rabbit jerky, even if it did not taste that good, she would still eat it with relish.

“Hunger” was the most delicious seasoning in the world.

On the emotional level, “repression” was very likely the same kind of thing.

If, if some other cuter girl appeared, would Mashiro… make that kind of expression too?

Yukina thought about it.

She always felt that the area around her chest had become a mess.

It was like a ball of yarn a cat had clawed through.

…Whatever.

In the end she gave up thinking.

She held her breath.

Her whole person slid down into the tub.

She blew bubbles with a glug-glug.

The Blood Moon Disease on Mashiro had worsened because of her.

So no matter how she put it, she also had an obligation to help her deal with it.

Until the plot returned to the right track, she would just keep being this piece of dried, shriveled rabbit jerky.

Glug-glug.

***

The living room.

The screen of the phone that had fallen into the sofa crack suddenly lit up.

The speaker hole was blocked.

It could not carry through to the bathroom.

On the screen, the name “Sister Yuna” kept jumping out again and again.

Twenty-plus missed calls, all from one person.

There was also one unread message.

It hung quietly on the lock screen.