The two of them arrived at the second room on the right side of the second floor. A small wooden plaque hung on the door, carved with two words: Starfall.
Sliding it open revealed a traditional Japanese tatami room with the faint scent of cedar drifting in the air.
Inside the closet hung two yukata—one dark blue with white stripes for men, the other cherry blossom pink for women. Folded neatly beside them were white split-toe socks and a pair of wooden geta sandals.
Hoshino changed into his geta, the clack-clack of wood echoing softly as he walked to the glass sliding door on the right-hand side. Beyond it was a small private open-air bath.
Not big—maybe 1.2 by 0.8 meters by eye.
The water was clear and steaming, with smooth pebbles lining the bottom. Bamboo fences surrounded the bath, blocking any view from outside. Fresh towels and a chilled pitcher of barley tea sat neatly on a rack by the edge.
Directly ahead, a paper sliding door opened onto three wooden steps leading up to a raised viewing deck. Soft cushions were laid out on the floor, offering a perfect view of the bamboo grove and snow-covered mountains glowing red under the sunset.
"Not bad," Hoshino said, satisfied.
"Mhm!"
Kobeni pressed herself against the glass, eyes glued to the snowy scene and rising steam outside. The exhaustion in her gaze melted away, replaced by a quiet spark of wonder.
Hoshino checked the time—5:40 p.m. "Wanna grab dinner first?"
Kobeni shook her head, nose and forehead nearly stuck to the window.
Clearly, she wanted to bathe first.
"Together?"
"…"
"Hmph! Today you ignore me, tomorrow you'll be begging for my attention."
With mock indignation, Hoshino spun on his heel, took a quick rinse in the bathroom, and changed into the men's yukata. "Fine! I'm going to the public bath!"
"Thank you."
"Oh—right!" He turned back at the door. "Remember to rinse off before getting in! I don't wanna soak in your bathwater!"
"…"
After he left, Kobeni's lips curled into a small smile, a soft hum escaping her nose.
Clack, clack, clack—
The air carried a faint trace of sulfur as Hoshino walked past a blue curtain labeled Men's Bath.
"…"
Clack, clack—
As he kept walking, the corridor seemed to grow brighter.
"Hoshino-san?"
Mai Asakura came up the stairs and nearly bumped right into him.
"Mm." Hoshino gave a curt reply and quickened his pace after a brief hesitation.
"Hoshino-san!" she called again.
He stopped. "What is it?" he said, visibly impatient.
"Where are you going?"
"Just looking around."
"The men's bath—you already passed it," Mai said helpfully.
"Impossible."
"I'm serious! I grew up here!"
"You just grew up here. Doesn't mean you know your way around."
Clack, clack—
"Tch! Figures—you're such a jerk!" Mai spat in his direction. "I swear I'm putting you in my next novel!"
The clacking stopped in front of a gray curtain.
On it were two bold characters: Mixed Bath.
Smack!
Hoshino slapped a hand over his eyes, his face flushing in alarm.
"How could such a vile, corrupted place exist in this world?"
He lowered his pinky slightly, revealing one shining left eye beneath.
"I can't just turn a blind eye—my Muscle Devil won't allow it!"
He yanked up the curtain, storming in like a knight charging into battle.
"This evil must be punished!!"
He marched through the dressing room of corruption, ignored the deceitful cedar sign, passed the indoor bath steeped in sin, and pushed open the Gates of Hell, stepping into a mist-shrouded domain of vice.
Shadows moved. Silent. Ominous.
"Hmph. So quiet… There must be unspeakable acts afoot!"
Frowning deeply, Hoshino could feel the heat attack his body. His blood reversed course, muscles stiffened and the fiery air, failing to defeat him, began burning away his clothes one piece at a time.
But he would not yield. Clothes were just worldly attachments. He could do without.
After what felt like eighty-one trials of suffering, he reached the bath's edge.
"…"
Hoshino swore he had never, in any lifetime, felt such rage.
What greeted him was a chorus of sixteen bald old men, laughing so hard their faces turned purple.
…
"If only they were JKs…"
He didn't even remember how he made it out.
His mind echoed with the old geezers' howling laughter—and their bizarre exclamations that somehow drowned it out.
"Dekkē!" (huge, gigantic, or massive)
"Majika yo!?" (Seriously!?)
"Uso deshū!?" (No way!)
"Sugee!" (amazing)
"Sugoi!" (incredible)
"Yabai!" (awesome)
…
Forty minutes later, Hoshino emerged from the actual men's bath, feeling refreshed and completely healed.
"feels good~"
The guys there weren't that old—thirties or forties, maybe. All super friendly. When they found out he was visiting, they started chatting away, giving all sorts of advice:
For first-timers—soak your feet first, get used to the temperature before going all in. Don't stay submerged too long; take breaks and rehydrate often.
Do it wrong and you could faint, or worse—drown.
They also mentioned that the Okura Snow Story festival was being held in the village square. Everyone was building snowmen—just one huge community snowman this year.
Okura Village planned to create the largest snowman in the world—aiming for thirty meters tall to break the Guinness World Record.
Usually, the festival took place in mid-March, but this year it started in late February.
They cursed the weather forecast too—TV said there'd be no major snow from late February to mid-March, yet two back-to-back blizzards hit right after ten straight sunny days, throwing the schedule into chaos.
Luckily, both storms were short, or they'd have missed the deadline entirely.
One of them laughed and told Hoshino he had good timing—if he'd come a day later, every room in the Onsen Area would've been booked solid.
In four days, the whole village would be here for the festival.
But what really lifted Hoshino's spirits was—
He'd found a lead on the Silkworm Devil.
Before coming here, he'd asked Makima for information, but there wasn't much. Its ability involved molting and transformation.
It had been sighted in late November in Nishikawa Town, in the form of a giant moth. A civilian devil-hunting group had tried to capture it during a snowstorm, but it escaped—heading straight toward Okura Village, which bordered Nishikawa.
Still, no one could be sure—it might've gone to Sagae City instead.
Hoshino had chosen Okura anyway. Time was running out, and the research he'd done pointed here.
Silkworms and mulberry leaves couldn't survive cold; they overwintered as eggs or early larvae with almost zero metabolism, hatching around March.
And wild silkworms between September and November usually appeared as moths—an adult stage that lived less than two weeks, eating nothing, only mating.
So, he reasoned, the Devil wouldn't have traveled far in the storm. Reproduction came first.
When Hoshino mentioned at the bath that he was looking for a giant wild silkworm in Okura, the guys nearly died laughing, calling him a natural comedian.
Except one man in his thirties, who spoke up seriously.
He said that on a business trip in early December, near the Okura Village administration center, he'd seen a white, winged shape floating in the Mogami River—fish nibbling at it.
If not for the five-meter wingspan, he swore it was a silkworm moth.
He was dead serious—said he raised silkworms back in Sagae City, near the Onsen Area. A childhood expert, he wouldn't mistake it.
That made Hoshino freeze.
If he hadn't heard both accounts together, he might've gone straight to Sagae instead—
—not knowing Sagae was fit for sericulture, while Okura wasn't.
He decided to set out the next morning for the village administration center, fifteen kilometers away.
Back in the Starfall Room, Kobeni was nowhere to be found.
"Kobeni-san?"
He knocked on the bathroom door. No response.
"I'm coming in~" He poked his head through the doorway.
Empty.
He stepped back out and glanced toward the viewing deck.
Also empty.
"Don't tell me she's still soaking?" Hoshino frowned, walking up to the glass door—
"!!!"
Through the rising mist, Kobeni leaned back against the edge of the bath, her pale cheeks flushed coral. The corners of her reddened eyes looked like crushed cherry blossoms on snow.
Her lips were dark, her eyelids shut tight, the veins in her neck pulsing faintly—
All signs pointed to one thing:
She'd fainted.
As if to confirm his fear, her body began to slip, sinking into the water.
"Shit!"
Hoshino slid open the glass door and crouched at the edge, sliding his hands under her arms and hauling her up—
—and saw everything he shouldn't and shouldn't have seen.
But that wasn't on his mind at all.
—He didn't know any first aid.
"Mouth-to-mouth? Chest compressions? What else?" His knowledge was purely theoretical.
"Call for help!" He made the snap decision to lay her flat on the wooden floor by the bath and bolted for the door—
—but halfway there, he stopped and turned back.
"I can use the Pain Devil's power."
He'd wanted to test it anyway—to make her organs younger by a few years.
A forty-something body couldn't handle fifteen-year-old organs.
The problem was, transferred pain didn't just disappear. If not released within five seconds, it rebounded onto him.
That didn't bother Hoshino much.
A mere human body couldn't compare to one blessed by the Muscle Devil.
"Two years," hissed a sharp voice in his mind.
"Fine."
The Pain Devil materialized from thin air—its body purple, limbs jointed one extra time, every joint bent the wrong way. Its skin was pierced with backward-pointing spikes.
Its face was twisted in agony, with only eyes and a mouth—a mouth that took up half its face, yawning open into blackness.
Blood dripped constantly from its human-like eyes.
It reached out a warped finger and lightly touched Kobeni.
In an instant, her breathing steadied. Color returned to her face, visibly spreading across her cheeks.
Then the finger turned toward Hoshino.
"?"
"Oh, shi—"
A wave of nausea shattered his consciousness.
Just before blacking out, one thought crossed his mind:
Oh right. I already soaked for an hour. (Lmao bro's cooked fr)
Kobeni slowly opened her eyes.
She'd had a dream—chasing a Devil through a volcano. She'd hidden far away, but the Devil still caught her, dragging her into molten lava.
It was so hot she couldn't breathe. The deeper she sank, the darker it got.
Eventually, the Devil got disgusted by how hard she cried and let her go.
When she surfaced, the glow of lava faded into the familiar eaves and the black night sky of the ryokan.
"Oh… so I passed out," she murmured.
"Hm?" Something felt off.
Even though she was awake, her breathing was still strained. Her chest felt heavy, as if something was pressing down on it.
She tilted her chin, glanced down—
—and found a boy's pale face resting squarely atop her chest.
A beat of stunned silence.
Then—
"Eeeeeeeeek!!"