"Yo, finally finished washing up?"
When Asakura walked out of the bathhouse, Hiratsuka Shizuka was already sitting on a massage chair, enjoying a massage while sipping on some "barley juice."
"For a guy, you sure take your sweet time, just like a girl."
Having finally found a reason to tease Asakura, Hiratsuka Shizuka looked at him with a happy and mischievous expression.
"A passionate old guy dragged me into the sauna for 'three steams and three dries' while he was trying to sell me something..." Asakura sighed. "If I had stayed any longer, I feel like I could have reported straight to a traditional medicine shop..."
"That sounds like something that would drastically lower one's favorability if they ate it."
Hiratsuka Shizuka deadpanned: "By the way, what's the deal with being sold something? What did they try to sell you? Health supplements?"
Asakura glanced at Hiratsuka Shizuka.
Having just emerged from the bath, she was wearing conservative but slightly loose pajamas. Her fair skin still clung to a bit of lingering steam. Perhaps due to the barley juice, her cheeks—free of any makeup—were flushed with an alluring crimson. Her eyes were misty and a bit languid, and she swayed slightly in the massage chair as if she might lose her balance at any moment, exuding a unique charm belonging only to mature women.
"If I had to say..." Asakura weighed his words, "it was probably something like 'unsellable stock.'"
"Why would someone go to a bathhouse to hawk unsellable stock..."
Hiratsuka Shizuka squinted her eyes and muttered in confusion.
"Setting that aside, Hiratsuka-sensei, your relationship with the customers here is unexpectedly good. It feels like many people know you."
Asakura quickly shifted the subject.
"That's a bit complicated to explain. Let's put it this way: if you saw an old person fall down on the side of the road, would you help them up?" a tipsy Hiratsuka Shizuka asked.
"In my last life, no; but in this life, yes..." Asakura said with a smile.
"...What a nonsensical answer. Besides, aren't you afraid of being extorted?"
"I'm really not afraid of that right now."
Even if he were extorted, it wouldn't matter. After all, one wouldn't get angry at a nest of snakes, nor would they pay a nest of snakes.
"Surprisingly, you don't sound like you're lying... Although it's a bit inappropriate for me to say this as a teacher, if you're too much of a pushover, you won't survive in this society."
Hiratsuka Shizuka said earnestly, "Isn't there an old saying from the Middle Kingdom? It says to look after yourself when you're poor, and help the whole world when you're rich..."
"Maintain one's own integrity in poverty, and benefit the whole world in success?"
"Yes, that's the one. As expected of the top student of the year."
"You're the one who should pull yourself together, Language Arts teacher!"
"Anyway, I'm the kind of person who is rich enough to help old people up."
Hiratsuka Shizuka ignored Asakura's retort and let out the voice of a wealthy woman: "The aging population around here is quite serious. I help whenever I can, and over time, I've gotten on good terms with them."
Rich enough to help old people up whenever she wants?
If he were still in the destitute state he was in two months ago, he probably wouldn't be able to stop the thought of "becoming a sugar baby" from popping into his head...
Speaking of which, Hiratsuka Shizuka clearly has the looks, the finances, and the... well, her personality has some major landmines, but why can't someone with such great conditions get married?
Asakura could only lament in his heart. The 2D world really is different from reality; I just don't get it...
Seeing that Hiratsuka Shizuka's consciousness seemed to be hovering on the edge of a drunken stupor, Asakura couldn't help but say, "Drinking is one thing, but getting this drunk out in public isn't good, no matter how you look at it."
"I'm not drunk."
"Everyone who's drunk says that."
"Don't worry, I know my limits."
Hiratsuka Shizuka patted her chest. Her pajamas rippled from the careless gesture; it seemed she wasn't wearing a bra underneath.
However, no strange protrusions could be seen from the pajamas alone. He didn't know if the pajamas just had good safety measures, or if she was using nipple covers in a place like this... It couldn't be Band-Aids, right?
"Normally I wouldn't drink this much. It's just that Asakura is here today, so it's fine to drink a bit more. This is my trust in you, Asakura, so accept it with gratitude."
"This kind of trust only brings trouble to others."
Asakura went to the vending machine, made a quick selection, and bought some coffee milk.
Popping the cap, Asakura downed the entire bottle of coffee milk in one go.
"Pwah!"
The cold, refreshing coffee milk revitalized Asakura's spirit.
Regardless, Hiratsuka Shizuka truly wasn't the type to get dead drunk—at least not in public.
After resting for a while in the bathhouse lounge, she led Asakura back home.
"Asakura, you sleep on the bed today. I'll just sleep on the floor."
A tipsy Hiratsuka Shizuka spoke to Asakura as she pulled out spare bedding from the closet.
It seemed she really was a bit drunk. Otherwise, according to her usual persona, she should be the one in the bed while Asakura slept on the floor or the sofa.
Asakura originally wanted to politely refuse, but he found it hard to resist the temptation of seeing Hiratsuka Shizuka's regretful expression tomorrow morning when she woke up with a sore back from sleeping on the floor. In the end, he half-heartedly accepted the offer to sleep in the bed.
Lying down, Asakura thought there might be some romantic cliché like "smelling a faint fragrance..." but that wasn't the case.
There was a scent, but it was just the smell of shampoo and body wash. Other than that, he could hardly smell anything from Hiratsuka Shizuka. Instead, there was a subtle, faint hint of something like tobacco.
Rather than feeling like he was sleeping in a young woman's bed, closing his eyes made Asakura feel more like he was sleeping in a middle-aged man's bed. It made him feel no discomfort at all about sleeping in a woman's bed; it was strangely reassuring...
"Goodnight." He let out a yawn as sleepiness began to wash over him.
"Goodnight... tsk, it feels so strange to say goodnight to someone else in my own home..."
Hiratsuka Shizuka muttered in a nasal tone, but she soon fell silent.
Some time passed.
Asakura suddenly snapped awake.
Something soft was coiled around his body, tightening like a predatory python. It squeezed the air out of his lungs, giving him an illusion bordering on suffocation.
He opened his eyes and tried to see what was happening, but something white and blurry was pressed right against his eyes, making it impossible to grasp the situation.
Fortunately, the passive effect of his "Snake" spell was always active. Once he calmed down, he switched to infrared vision and realized what was going on.
Hiratsuka Shizuka had likely crawled back into her own bed in a daze and hugged Asakura as if he were a stuffed animal. Her chest was pressed directly against his face.
This is bad. If this keeps up, I'll really run out of oxygen.
But that soft sensation gave Asakura an impulse—actually, it wouldn't be so bad if this continued or let me drown in this "cleansing milk." The conflict between his emotions and his reason made him feel quite miserable.
Damn it!
As things stand, let's just sleep for now.