Chapter 13: Miss Song’s Home for Wayward Kemonomimis – Bath Time

“Uh…Miss Song, I don’t really want to go,” the tiny girl, Mika pressed back against me nervously, staring fearfully toward the glass double doors at the end of the hall.

“Everyone’s got to take them, Mika,” I insisted gently, continuing to press her forward. I wasn’t particularly tall at 162cm or terribly broad. Before my journey to the other world I’d weighed in at about 57 kg but now, thanks to Ashvallen’s training regimen while she inhabited my body and my own half-hearted attempts to keep it up, I was down to a slimmer 52 kg, so I didn’t consider myself a particularly imposing figure, yet I positively towered over the girl in front of me.

Her adorable round ears atop her brown hair were a good 20 cm below the top of my head and she couldn’t have weighed more than 35 or 36 kg. She tried desperately to dig her heels into the carpet, but I continued to press her forward gently yet firmly. Her thin arms grasped for anything to stop her inexorable journey to the fate which awaited her.

“There should be a few other girls there at this time,” I soothed.

“I-I don’t do well with other people,” Mika stammered, nearly tripping. I righted her easily and continued to press her forward.

“But you handle all of our negotiations with suppliers and delivery services, Mika. You’re excellent with people!” I pointed out.

“Th-Th-That’s o-over the ph-phone!” Mika’s voice had become rather panicky, and I felt bad for the girl, but Moon had insisted it was important for her to interact with the other girls in a social setting and, thus, I was under orders to facilitate that. We reached the door and Mika gasped as we pushed through into the employee baths.

“Owww!” Sora bellowed, running naked through the baths, Tamaki hot on her heels, flicking the towel she carried like a whip in her hands. With a snap the towel connected, and Sora yelped again. “My butt!”

“Fear my righteous indignation!” Tamaki howled wildly.

“Someone’s going to fall and hurt themselves, you know,” Chiaki, the large-breasted cow girl who’d joined us shortly after Tamaki chastised sagely.

“Did someone say ‘butts’?” Sayuri looked around intently before screaming in pain as the shampoo covering her head and, inexplicably gathered into a beard on her face dribbled into her eyes. “Sayuri is blind! Her eyes sting!”

“Do be careful, dear,” Chiaki moved next to the cat girl to help her.

“Herd her this way!” Hikari giggled politely, covering her mouth demurely as she moved from the faucets toward the bath. “We’ll make her talk in the bath!”

“Uh…” I blinked. “Maybe socializing isn’t so important…”

“Mika’s here!”  Hanae, the bear girl called brightly as she emerged from the changing rooms. She picked Mika up in her arms and carried her toward the faucets.

“Eeep!” Mika squeaked fearfully as her feet left the ground.

“Mika!” The others called in unison except Sayuri who was still blinded by soap and Tamaki and Sora.

“Are you here to take a bath, Mika?” Iori, one of the dog girls asked, puffy white tail wagging fiercely behind her as the mouse girl was bear-handled into the wash area.

“No,” Fuyuko rolled her eyes dramatically. “She here to learn how to fly.”

“No way! I wanna learn, too!” Iori’s eyes burned with a fierce desire as her small fists clenched dramatically over her chest.

“She is being sarcastic, dear,” Chiaki narrowed her eyes in warning at Fuyuko.

“Whoa!” Iori breathed as Sora and Tamaki raced past her toward the bath. “That sounds dangerous!”

“You’re dangerous,” Fuyuko muttered.

“No,” Iori shook her head vehemently. “I am a good girl. Startastic is dangerous. I saw it on an anime. The earth was doing earth things and then BLAMMO!” Iori’s eyes grew wide with fear and her arms windmilled fiercely. “A butthole opened right on top of us and pulled down a giant star and everyone who wasn’t in the space station got dead! It was scary.”

“I think you mean ‘black hole’, dear,” Chiaki giggled. “Not ‘butt hole’”

“Huh?” Iori cocked her head to the side.

“Are you going to bathe with us, Miss Song?” Hanae asked as Mika reluctantly got undressed under her watchful eye.

“Friend Minji?” Sayuri whipped her head back and forth blindly, searching for me, complicating Chiaki’s efforts to wipe the soap from her eyes.

“I- “I began to refuse but Iori hove in close, big, soulful eyes hopeful. “I…suppose I will be doing that.”

“Yay!” Iori celebrated, dancing a strange kind of jig.

The bath stretched across most of the north wall, a mural of a peaceful wooded waterfall and pool and the dim, welcoming lights contributing to the sense of restfulness and calm. Sayuri, Sora, Hikari, Tamaki and Hanae were deeply engaged in a game of Marco Polo with Sayuri evidently being whatever constituted “it” while Mika, Chiaki, Fuyuko, Megumi and Iori sat with me and relaxed in the hot water. I lay my head back and sighed, swirling my hands in the water. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but I really needed this, I thought.

Akira was scheduled to return from Tokyo in a couple of days and the stress of dealing with a business and out of control kemonomimis had begun to get to me. The new teachers we’d hired were taking some much-needed pressure off me, but their constant bickering had also served to get on my last goddamn nerve. I scowled irritably. Suddenly I felt a finger on my shoulder, and I jumped slightly in surprise. I opened my eyes to find Iori tracing an old scar worriedly.

“Does it hurt?” Iori asked worriedly.

“Oh! No, sweety,” I smiled. “I did that when I was 7 when I ran through the glass door of my house.”

“Why?” Iori cocked her head to the side curiously.

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“Because I was stupid,” I explained truthfully.

“Why?” Iori repeated.

“Because my mother raised me poorly, and I lack common sense,” I scowled.

“Why?” Iori repeated again.

“Because reasons,” I said. Iori seemed to accept that excuse readily and nodded.

“I have owies, too!” She declared, turning around and lifting her pale hair to expose her back. Dark pinpricks which looked like burn scars peppered her shoulders and ragged tearing scars crisscrossed her back.

“Oh, I am so sorry!” I whispered in shock and horror.

“We’ve all got ‘gifts’ from before we came here,” Fuyuko scowled, lifting her leg free of the water to show off the jagged scar on her thigh.

“It must have been difficult for you all,” I mumbled lamely.

“Well, none of us can do what Sayuri can,” Fuyuko shrugged, washing a bedraggled Megumi’s hair vigorously.

“How do you mean?” I asked curiously, not entirely sure how any of the kemonomimi thing even worked.

“So, I’ve got two forms,” Fuyuko explained, scowling as Megumi giggled when the cat girl passed her washcloth under her armpit. “This form and my cat form. Megumi barely has a human form, she’s mostly dog. We all have two forms. Sayuri has three. Tough to defend yourself from predators, mostly human ones, when you’re either a tiny cat or a weak human.”

“Marco!” Sayuri called, wandering blindly. Come to think of it, her panther form had been truly impressive. I wondered if there were any more kemonomimis like Sayuri out there.

“Not all humans are terrible, Fuyuko, dear,” Chiaki pointed out patiently. Though taller and more mature sounding and looking than the other girls, Chiaki was, actually, probably the youngest.

“Name one!” Fuyuko challenged angrily, vigorously scrubbing Megumi’s ears, causing the dog girl’s leg to vibrate on its own. “You don’t need to enjoy this, dog.”

“Oh, sorry!” Megumi tried and failed to stop her leg from bouncing, finally settling for trying to hold it down physically.

“Miss Song isn’t like that,” Chiaki said. “Neither is Miss Moon or Miss Ashvallen or Miss Akira or Miss Catori or…well, Miss Jaxxin makes me nervous.”

“Whatever,” Fuyuko rolled her eyes. “They’ll throw us away once they get tired of us.” Fuyuko sighed as she seemed to realize I was sitting right there. “You know what I mean. I know how the world works. Once we get older, we’ll be replaced like a defective sub compact car who’s tire’s fallen off.” The other girls looked nervously in my direction.

“No,” I shook my head. “I promise Sayuri and Sora forever homes and I promise you all the same. This is your home, now, and will be for as long as you want to stay. I won’t make you, but as long as I’m here, you all have homes.”

“Heh,” Fuyuko chuckled harshly. “Nice words. I’ve heard it all before, though. When I was a kitten, I had a couple ‘forever’ homes.” She gestured to the bathhouse with a smirk. “You see how well that worked out.”

“I know it’s hard to believe when you’ve been lied to,” I sighed, closing my eyes, and shaking my head. “I know what it’s like to be betrayed by someone you wanted desperately to trust. I know what it’s like to be hurt. Believe me. I can make assurances until I’m blue in the face and I know they’re all meaningless. But when I say this is your forever home for as long as you want it, I mean it.”

“I believe you!” Iori declared, standing dramatically with her small fists clenched at her side.

“Me, too!” Megumi chimed in.

“Oh, good, the dogs have spoken,” Fuyuko rolled her eyes again.

“I believe her, too,” Chiaki nodded.

“M-Me, too!” Mika squeaked nervously.

“I don’t,” Fuyuko shook her head, long hair hanging onto her shoulders. “But I’m not saying I won’t enjoy it until I get sent packing.”

“Then you’ll have a long time to enjoy it,” I smiled at her.

“W-Whatever!” Fuyuko blushed.

“Oww!” Sayuri yelped as Tamaki whipped her butt with a damp towel, the snap of the fabric echoing through the room.

“Run, Sayuri!” Sora screamed in alarm.

“Let’s start the torture!” Hikari giggled.

“A-Are they going to waterboard her or something?” I asked with no small amount of alarm.

“Eeep!” Mika squeaked, leaping from the water, and rushing toward the door, long narrow tail curled between her legs in fear. I supposed it was a marathon not a sprint getting her out of her shell. Especially with Tamaki and Hikari around. It would take trust and patience and time. A lot of it. But I had that.

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