"Oh, come on, Sister Cipher, what are you so shy about? It's just a bath! No men are going to sneak in here and peek at you. Besides, you'll feel amazing afterward!"
Lu Zhaoran chirped as she pushed Cipher toward the bathroom.
Mentally, Cipher resisted the idea of a bath, but biologically, the moment she noticed her body stained with blood, she felt as if her entire feline self was crawling with discomfort. Furthermore, she hadn't bathed in two days. For someone who was a Southerner in her previous life, going a single day without a shower was a cardinal sin!
Yielding to Lu Zhaoran's persistence, Cipher allowed herself to be semi-willingly shoved into the bathroom.
Seeing Cipher enter, Lu Zhaoran leaned her head through the doorway, flashed a smile and a "bye-bye" gesture, and made her exit. Before leaving, she conveniently pulled the door shut.
Staring at the closed door and the bath towels and robes laid out to the side, Cipher took a deep breath. There was no turning back now.
She quickly shed her outer garments. Soon, she was down to her final two pieces of intimate wear. When her fingertips brushed the fabric, Cipher suddenly froze. Aside from her slightly trembling fingers, the rest of her body was as rigid as a statue.
But she forced her eyes shut and rapidly stripped away the last of her clothing, tossing them onto the nearby rack.
"Phew... all off. Next, I just have to turn on the shower..."
For some reason, an act that was second nature in her previous life now required her to mutter the instructions under her breath just to remember the simple operation. After her self-reminder, she accurately found the shower handle.
Splaaaash—
The sound of the spray filled the room. Warm water cascaded from above, embracing the somewhat bewildered cat-girl standing beneath the showerhead.
The stream first soaked her soft, silver-white hair, followed by the sensitive pair of cat ears atop her head. The fluffy fur became saturated, and as water droplets slid down the fur to settle heavily at the base of her ears, a strange, tingling numbness washed over her.
"Nyaa-woo..."
The bizarre sensation forced a short whimper from her throat. Her ears twitched instinctively, shaking off a few crystalline droplets.
But before Cipher could recover from the stimulation, the water quickly soaked her tail as well. Since she wasn't actively controlling it, the tail became heavy after absorbing the water. It pressed firmly against the inner side of her thigh, swaying slightly in small arcs.
The water flowed along the tail and over the skin of her inner thigh. The wet fur intermingled with the stream, and every movement of the tail created a friction that felt like a dozen wet feathers tickling her at once.
"It itches..."
Feeling her body under the indiscriminate attack of the water, Cipher's face flushed a deep crimson. She reached up and gave her cat ears a quick rub. Though the sensation nearly made her body shudder uncontrollably, it succeeded in squeezing out most of the trapped water.
Then, she reached out to pull her soaked tail away from her leg. Inexplicably, the tail seemed to lose control, thrashing violently to evade her grasp.
"Hiss... stop moving, tail! It itches!"
Perhaps she was a bit lightheaded from the sensory overload, or perhaps it just itched too much, but the words slipped out before her brain could stop them. When Cipher realized what she had said, her already flushed face turned a shade deeper, resembling a ripe red apple.
Why did I tell my tail to stop moving! That's exactly like a human telling their own hand to stop hitting them!
Refocusing her mind, she finally asserted mental control over the tail and moved it away from her thighs.
"Phew... finally, that's better."
With the ear and tail crisis resolved, Cipher let out a sigh of relief. As she felt the warm water washing over her, a look of comfort finally appeared on her face.
'By the way, what does my body actually look like now?'
After standing under the spray for a while, the question suddenly popped into her head. Why was she so unwilling to bathe? Wasn't it precisely because she was afraid to face her own body?
But she was already in the middle of it, and since she would have to bathe sooner or later anyway, why not take this chance to... sneak a peek?
Unable to suppress her curiosity any longer, Cipher cautiously opened her eyes just a tiny crack.
Amidst the billowing steam, a mirror directly facing her remained mysteriously clear of fog for some reason. It perfectly reflected the breathtakingly beautiful form on the other side.
Cipher stared through the mirror, seeing her body clearly for the first time.
Every inch of her skin appeared delicate and smooth, devoid of any blemish. Because she rarely exposed herself to the sun, her skin was incredibly fair. The lines of her shoulders and neck were elegant and fluid, the curves of her chest rose like gentle hills, and the small mole on her left breast added a unique touch of allure.
Her waist was slender enough to be encircled by a single hand, and her legs were straight and long. Water rolled from her silver-white hair along the perfect curves of her body, leaving winding trails behind. Some stray droplets remained on her skin, glistening like polished pearls under the bathroom lights.
Staring into the mirror, Cipher was momentarily dazed by the sight. She recovered quickly, however, and reflexively covered her eyes with her hands.
It was too beautiful... so much so that she lacked the courage to look again. It felt as if continuing to stare would be a desecration of the body itself.
'I can't keep doing this, Cipher! Remember, you came in here to wash!'
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. Recalling the layout of the bathroom before she closed her eyes, she accurately grabbed the body wash and began to lather her entire body.
After rinsing, she put the body wash back and reached for the shampoo. Aside from her sensitive cat ears, she lathered her hair and the tail behind her.
After another fierce battle between bubbles and water, the endless stream finally emerged victorious. Through her tireless efforts, Cipher rinsed away every last bit of foam.
With that, Cipher's first bath in this other world finally came to a successful conclusion—even if she had kept her eyes closed for almost the entire process.
★ ★ ★