Hot Springs and Ryokan

[battymynameis]

Guess what, y'all. It's time for a field trip. We're heading to a Hot Springs and an Inn for the weekend, and everyone is invited. This place is huge, and has multiple springs both indoor and out. There's separate bathing, mixed, and even a spot for foreigners and prudes who like to keep their swimsuits on. Table tennis? Got it. Room service? You bet. Massages? Possibly. Ghosts? Maybe.

1. Hot springs: after you rinse off come take a relaxing bath. There are multiple options as to what kind of bathing environment you can have, so please choose wisely. Also, please read the signs. None of the springs will kill you, but if you choose the wrong one you might end up with some... adverse effects. Cursed springs might just be a Thing.

2. The Inn: you'll be here for a few nights so find your rooming buddy and get friendly. Whether bonding over food, games, or even just exploring the place there's certainly something you can find to occupy yourself. Just don't be too curious after curfew. The staff are pretty insistent, but they aren't cops so responsibility for your actions are your own.

Comments

[shinbunshinobi]

Okay, I'll take you to my room. C'mon.

[ He's going to scoop her up in his arms and carry her all the way there. Not!siblings stuck in different bodies have to stick together. ]

[shieldher]

[Until 9S confirms her suspicions, Mash glowers a little behind the backs of the others—she can't help it! She may be bad at controlling her volume sometimes, but she's not an idiot, and she knows babies crying when she hears them! Not to mention she's pretty sure the darting shadow she saw before wasn't either of these guys. Does she have evidence? No, not even a little . . . so maybe it would be easier to let them hash it out and slip away on her own in pursuit of whatever's really going on . . .

But no, she isn't the only one, thank god. Her eyes widen at the words cursed spirits and nods, keeping her voice down this time, and hoping the other two do the same. That may be a bit too much to hope for.]

Cursed spirits . . . I knew something was going on. The sounds I heard weren't any of you. That's why I woke up in the first place. I should have realized I'd run into other people who heard the same thing.

[shinbunshinobi]

[ Sasuke drops his head a little. It had been dangerous, and that event marked the start of his horrible nightmares. He felt his body tense as he thought back to it... how Yukimura was thrown back against the wall--No, he can't focus on it. He stirred the spread with increased interest. ]

Thanks. We haven't hear anything about a season 2 the school being rebuilt or not.

[shinbunshinobi]

[ How does a place like this make money and stay afloat? One might think it would be slapped with lawsuits up and down for what the hot springs could do to a person. However, who would even believe such a charge? It probably wouldn't even make it past a free consultation with a lawyer volunteering their time at the library. ]

... I won't stop you if you want to, but you deserve to get some sleep too.

[ He underestimated how good a full night's rest was until that sleep eluded him like a leaf caught in a strong breeze and out of his fingers' grasp. ]

[fujimaru]

I've already slept more this weekend than I have in...

[ Uhhhh. Come to think of it, how long has it been? Time works kind of weirdly when you spend most of it in other periods than your native one. ]

...well, a while. I've gotten good at functioning on three to five a night. Not that I'd recommend it, but I feel like I've spent most of this weekend either asleep or in the hot springs. I'll be fine if I miss one night.

Besides, for me, company helps. If it doesn't for you, I can buzz off.

[shinbunshinobi]

[ He can't even claim he got sleep in a past life. Not when the Takeda forces questioned if Sasuke ever slept.

Taking a sip of his tea, Sasuke considers Ritsuka's offer again. Maybe the night would pass faster if he had some company. It still wouldn't help his sleeping problem, but it could make him feel a little better at having yet another night ruined. ]

Okay, but if you feel the need to doze off, don't let me stop you.

[ And if he miraculously manages to sleep, don't disturb him. Getting into trouble for escaping curfew would be worth it if he got some sleep. (If he got some.) ]

[fujimaru]

I'll promise, if you promise the same. You know, just in case.

[ Don't make this into some weird pride thing, Sasuke! Sleep if you manage it! ]

I'd offer to tell you a boring story to see if that helps at all, but most of my stories are actually kind of on the weird side...

[shinbunshinobi]

[ It's less about pride and more being concerned for others because Sasuke is really learning what lack of sleep feels like, and he was also really hoping this hot spring would help end that. ]

Deal. The only stories I can tell are weird ones about my classmates' antics, so once more we have common ground.

[synastries]

[ She squeaks as she picks up but remain mostly compliant in Sasuke's arms. Tsuruhime tucks rests her crane head on his shoulder, letting out another whimper. Cranes can't really let out a sigh so this is the best way to do it.

Once they're in his room, she wiggles out of his grasp until she's standing on the floor. ]

[shieldher]

[Oh thank goodness, she'd just been wondering about how to wipe her eyes without making this worse. She takes the tissue gratefully, laughing, which only sounds a little like she's laughing through tears. It really is funny.]

This is my first time cutting onions. I knew about the effect, but it slipped my mind until I could feel it happening. Thank you! It's more embarrassing than I expected . . .

[She hands the tissue back and then goes to wash her hands properly, still smiling at the minor mishap.]

Sorry to interrupt.

[shinbunshinobi]

[ Sasuke takes a seat on the floor. He won't be able to get to he level, but at least she won't have to look up as much to hold a conversation... a one sided conversation at least. ]

I'm going to guess that a hot spring did this to you. It turned you into a crane and me into a girl.

[synastries]

[ She nodded firmly before pointing to the general approximation of the hot spring from the room. Tsuruhime tries to illustrate with her wings how she was just trying to enjoy her evening, taking the rare opportunity of a vacation at a luxurious hotel, before suddenly feeling like the world was turning bigger by the minute.

She starts to honk louder, re-enacting how freaked out she was upon the revelation, in less than a minute she paces back and forth in the room with her wings stretched out. She looked everywhere for someone! Anyone! Instead she ended up picking fights with Mitsunari of all people, which has her letting out a hiss in frustration.

All this until she sighs in the defeat and slumps on the floor. She was close to giving up until Sasuke found her. Had he not found him, she isn't sure if she would be safe and sound for any longer than she had been tonight. ]

[fujimaru]

Having met some of your classmates, I can imagine. If you've only met Mash, you're going to get a really skewed idea of what mine are like. She's a good girl.

[ Also the one least likely to get into wacky hijinks.

Not UNLIKELY, just, least likely. ]

[shinbunshinobi]

I haven't met Mash yet. Maybe you could tell me a little about her.

[ And then Sasuke will talk about the food competition the school ended up holding because a few students were arguing about which meal was the tastiest of them all. ]

[shinbunshinobi]

[ After Tsuruhime slumps to the floor, Sasuke gets up to gather some blankets into a comfy nest-looking bed. Maybe she'd get insulted by the gesture. However, Sasuke only thought of how nice it was to hide under the covers sometimes. ]

You can stay here as long as you need to. If my roommate has a problem with it, then I'll kick 'em out. Go ahead and rest.

[ If there's anything Sasuke can do for her right now, it's to keep her safe. ]

[traceon]

[ Hearing her laugh along with him, he can't help but have a warm sensation spread from his chest. For someone he'd only just met (and being away from the people he usually knew,) Mash was doing a good job at making him feel home, even far away from his own. ]

It's okay. I won't tease you too much over it.

[ Time was fleeting, passing them by in no time flat when it's time for the next step. ]

Go ahead and season the salmon now. Put your layer of carrots and onions down with the consommé on a sheet of aluminum foil, and put the salmon on top with the mushrooms and a chunk of butter.

[shieldher]

Mmhmm!

[All right! It really does sound incredibly easy the way he presents it, and to her surprise, it is. It's interesting: as a person with an encyclopedic knowledge of many things that doesn't necessarily translate into experience or skill with them, Mash feels that there should be something more to this than just following directions. Cooking well has always seemed like a secret art given only to those with a talent for it. And, if she had to do this herself, she would flounder . . . but doing it with someone else, it feels more natural than she would have thought.

She works on layering the ingredients properly, thinking about both that and the revelation that had come before she got distracted by cooking.]

Emiya-san—can I ask you something? What's it like being a Master where you come from?

[traceon]

[ While Mash continues to work on the salmon and layering it up before wrapping the packages for the fillets, Shirou returns to another order of hamburg, placing the finishing touches and checking the internal temperature. Yosh. That should do the trick. As he's plating up for an order out, he goes quiet for a moment or two. Not because it was hard to talk about, but because he has to reflect back over what's happened already.

From the night he was killed and brought back, to the way the moonlight accentuated the beauty of the King of Knights as she asked if he was indeed her Master... So much had happened already, but one thing remained perfectly clear to the very end though, as he plates up and sends out the order. ]

Well, for one, we only have one Servant each. Saber is mine. But...

[ Mash would understand. More than Shirou actually realized, considering she's been to the city he's talking about. He's decided as such that it's alright to share. ]

I became a Master so that what happened ten years ago in Fuyuki wouldn't repeat itself. It's been hard,— [ An understatement, considering all the bad ends times he's nearly been killed already. ] —but I won't give up until I've made it to the end. That way no one else will have to suffer.

[ It was heavier than he would have liked, but it was the truth all the same. Ritsuka and Mash were charged with restoring humanity itself, after all. That being said, however, he reflects back to the girl waiting for him back home with a smile. ]

I got to meet Saber because I became a Master though. And I'm glad for that.

[fujimaru]

Mash? She's one of the best people I know.

[ There it is, subtle but unmistakable, if one knows what to look for: the bright response of someone who well and truly adores the person they're talking about. ]

She was the first person I met when I arrived in Chaldea -- that's the name of the, er, the company we work for -- and even though I made an idiot of myself, she stuck with me. She's patient and she's really level-headed, and she always listens to and cares about people. Even when I'm worried about how things will turn out... she always believes in me. It's hard not to have faith when someone believes in you that much.

[shieldher]

[Fuyuki. She remembers immediately, turning to Emiya with wide eyes in the middle of laying the salmon down on the bed of vegetables. At least she manages not to drop the last piece. As he reflects back on Saber, she lowers it onto the sheet slowly, letting the words sink in. Saber . . . was his Saber the Saber of Fuyuki, Arturia Pendragon? On one hand, there's no reason to think so. But on the other, it's already enough of a coincidence that Mash feels immediately that it must be true.

But regardless, his feelings for his own Saber are obvious in the way he says it, and Mash finds herself warm with a sort of indirect happiness at that kind of bond. What would it be like, to be Ritsuka's only Servant? But she knows that, even though she isn't, what they have is special and different, and that maybe Emiya feels the same way in his own bond.

She steps back from the now-prepared salmon, meeting his eyes.]

You care about her a lot, don't you?

[Emiya hadn't said Saber was a her, but Mash finds herself already imagining Arturia—though she doesn't realize it's the wrong version she has in mind.]

I'm glad. I can't imagine having a Master I didn't feel the same way about. And—she'd be happy to hear it too. Speaking as Senpai's Servant, I worry a lot about whether she thinks all of this is worth it . . . if a Servant can make their Master feel confident that it is, that means a lot. That's what I think.

[traceon]

A-Ah, [ He blushes. It's nothing heavy, but even if he didn't answer her, that alone was telling enough about what she meant to him. ] well, she is my Servant, after all. But... I do. Saber means a lot to me.

[ It was easier to say to someone else rather than saying something as brave as that to Saber's face (not without getting flustered, that is.) Shirou cared about her quite a bit. Enough so that if he had it his way, he would have been the one protecting her from everything that came their way. But Shirou also understood that things didn't work that way in the Holy Grail War. Although they fought together...

Saber was strong. Very strong. As long as he could fight alongside her, that's what mattered in the end. He takes a moment's pause from preparing the rest of the dish (all that was left was to get the tall frying pan heated and the salmon packets wrapped up for baking on the stovetop,) his smile lifting a bit more as he listens to Mash talk about her Master in kind. ]

With someone like you by her side, I bet it's worth every second.

[ He liked her. He could tell that she was a good person— more than that, actually. And between how Ritsuka talked about Mash and even from just this brief time spent with her, teaching her something so simple as making a salmon dish, he truly believed in what he said.

That, and there was little that could change his mind once Emiya Shirou was set on something. He was stubborn like that. ]

[shieldher]

[Well, now they're both blushing. That's fine! Mash finds it easier to stare down at the salmon's appealing plating (packeting?!) than to look up at Shirou, but whatever, that works too.]

That's . . . w-well, I hope so . . .

[Her mind spins its wheels trying to come up with something else to say on the subject, but it can't. Anything more feels like it's getting into truly embarrassing territory, especially with someone she's just met. And who knows Ritsuka! Better than he knows Mash, at that!

At last she lands on something else entirely. It's no less awkward, but her brain seizes on it as the first alternative to present itself, so it comes out pretty suddenly when she lifts her head again:]

—Emiya-san, is your Saber King Arthur?

[traceon]

[ Fortunately, although Mash's question would eventually come and shift the gears a little bit, Shirou was ready for the next step. He already had a tall frying pan on low heat prepared for her! ]

Yosh. Not much left now. [ He'll step in beside Mash as he nods down at the way she'd set up the salmon and everything on top. ] All we have to do is wrap it up, seal the ends of the foil and put it on low heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

[ Like so! He works slow with one of the packs so that she can follow suit. The question about his Servant's identity catches him by surprise. At the time of meeting Ritsuka, her true name was a mystery...but... ]

How did you know?

( OOC; Gonna just play it loosey goosey and say Shirou does know since memes. 👍 )

[shinbunshinobi]

[ Sasuke recognizes that brightness. It's the same one Yukimura has whenever he speaks of Teach. (And others likely see the same on him.) ]

It's sounds like you really like her.

[ He means in general, but it could be taken the wrong way. ]

MEME CONTINUITY IS ITS OWN THING . . . thumbs up

[shieldher]

[Sealing up is a go! That may not have been the most difficult prep work in the world, but she still feels nicely accomplished for having done so much of it. And once that's done, she's understandably distracted him from any forthcoming instructions for the next dish, and wipes her hands off with a kitchen towel as she explains:]

I don't know if Senpai ever told you this . . . but the two of us have been to Fuyuki before. Actually, that was the first Singularity Chaldea ever found. That was where I learned how to act as a Servant. And the Saber we met there was Arturia Pendragon. So—I wondered if that part might have been the same, even though the Singularity wouldn't have gone the way your own time did.