CHAPTER 104: Girls in Distress / The Confused Elderly Woman (1/2)

CHAPTER 103: Girls in Distress / Sun Tzu’s Art of War CHAPTER 105: Girls in Distress / The Females Sneak in at Night

Translator: Reflet

Giving in to his emotions and raising his voice, Taiyou yelled in the direction of the room. Pochi, still naked, timidly peeked at Taiyou in response to him suddenly raising a loud voice. She wasn’t necessarily frightened, but was more of perplexed as to why he had suddenly raised a loud voice. Taiyou was also perplexed, but, his cause of perplexation was much clearer. After all, he was certainly not expecting to see Pochi naked and the sight was too dazzling for his eyes.

Unable to face her head-on, he subtly avoided her with his eyes. Both in a state of perplexity, the two of them spent a brief moment of silence together. At length, Pochi gathered up her courage and broke the ice.

「Please let me wash your back.」

「N-No, you don’t have to do that.」

In contrast to the courageous Pochi, Taiyou wavered like a middle-school boy.

「You just entered the hot spring, right? So come in before it gets cold.」

「Uuu…」

As he rejected her offer, Pochi began to become more and more teary-eyed. A feeling of guilt pierced through Taiyou’s chest.

「You don’t want me to…?」

「No, it’s just…」

「Uuu」

「Umm」

「Uuuuu…」

「I get it I get it, just please don’t look at me like that.」

Pochi’s eyes were like that of an abandoned puppy. Unable to last against that, Taiyou gave permission. As soon as he did that, her face burst into a broad smile.

「Thank you!」

「…Before we do that…」

Taiyou diverted his eyes away from her and slipped past her side, making a mad dash for the changing room. Grabbing the door, he threw it open at once with a clatter.

「Hyaa!」

A female scream could be heard. The girls were gathered around the area where the door was thrown open. Kotone, Suzune, Kazane, Kohaku, Aoba, and even Shirokiyami were there. Leaving one exception, the girls had fallen down in surprise when Taiyou had suddenly opened the door.

「…What are you guys doing?」

「Erm, uhh…I was curious.」

「「「We thought it would come in handy.」」」

「To monitor mah daughter’s growth.」

「Collective behavior is…important impor, tant.」

Aoba answered with a faint voice, the disorganized sister trio actually answered in unison, Kohaku responded with a remark that was difficult to take seriously, and Shirokiyami was standing proudly without any prideful expression on her face for some reason.

Though there were a variety of interesting reactions, suddenly, the girls let a gasp escape their mouths. These were tiny, inaudible screams that could not be conveyed in words. There were some who were red-faced, and they were all focusing on one detail.

「What’s wrong…Oh.」

Taiyou realized what had happened as he asked. Fitting for the bathhouse, he was currently entirely naked, and the girls had their eyes focused on the…thing that was laying idle.

「S-Sorry.」

Aoba, who had not experienced something like this before, turned as red as a lobster and bolted away like a startled hare. Chasing after her, the three sisters and Kohaku also left the changing room. The remaining Shirokiyami unexpectedly pulled out a katana from her skirt.

The white blade poked out of the scabbard, making a “shing” noise.

「Put away your…hazardous, material.」

「How about you put away your hazardous material!」

Exclaiming loudly, he shut the door slam with all his might. Shaking off the girls, he returned to where Pochi was.

Having a change of heart, he sat in the bathhouse chair and had Pochi wash his back.

（Just a wash, it’s just a wash）

He repeatedly chanted in his heart with a Buddhist-like prayer. In fact, he felt as if he were about to slide into an “All Is Vanity” attitude.

「Heave-ho, heave ho」

Not comprehending in the slightest what was going on in his mind, Pochi made a hand towel sudsy and let out an sweet, enthusiastic voice as she began to scrub his shoulders.

「How is it?」

「Not bad.」

He bluntly answered.

「Okay!」

Pochi put even more power into it. Impressed, Taiyou thought that was very commendable.

「I’m skilled at rinsing people’s backs. This is because I used to regularly do it to my master.」

「Master…as in Karina Nose-san. So you guys regularly went to the bathhouse?」

「Yes, we went every day.」

「I see. By the way, is it alright if I ask you what kind of person that Karina Nose-san was?」

「What kind of person Master was?」

Pochi’s perplexed presence transmitted from behind his back. Even so, the scrubbing rhythm of her hands showed no alteration. Taiyou gave her a helping hand.

「Seems like she was a pretty small person, right?」

「Yes, the same as my current Master.」

「And did you ever call her “Mom”?」