Meteor Arts Saga

Chapter 24

Meanwhile in the women's bathing facilities, filled with steam and density, Issei stood firm with his arms crossed at the sideline like a statue. He had been watching Hitomi resting in the hot bath. She was already washed and cleansed up and had her long hair tied up in a knot all nice and neat, without ever touching the water. She sat by the edge of the tub, facing up the ceiling slowly breathing in and out. Nothing but relaxing sighs from her, letting the hot water soothing and tingling her body. She had the entire bath all to herself.

None of all that meant anything to Issei, for he was more concerned about his pride. Stoic as he remained, he could not shake off how bad his pride was tainted after being scrutinised by Saya for allegedly being remarked as perversive and rough around the edges. When he was following Hitomi to the women's bathroom, he was quietly angry. He had cringed at himself and gnashed his teeth so tensely that he asked himself how he did he got into this. How could this happen? As a Meteor Samurai, how did he arrive at the point he was being degraded into watching some lone, defenceless-looking woman, who he found her to be quite of a nuisance and quite of a tease. Everyone in the Renmei hideout had been giving him funny looks when he was watching and following Hitomi behind her back, and he was sick of it. And now he had to watch Hitomi spending her precious time in the bath. What a pain, he thought. There was nothing he could do but just watching her enjoying her sweet and quiet moments in the hot tub until she would finish.

While he has his Meteor Samurai uniform on, Issei had to enter the bathroom barefoot and with his hakama folded up, void from touching the wet floor. Overtime, the steam damped his body and sweat was leaking from his face, and his upper body had grown so hot he decided to strip down his gi. Monitoring Hitomi aside, this was the very first time he has ever seen a woman in the nude. While trying his best just to survey her, why was there an elicit feeling running in his veins, he thought. Was it the libido switching him on, or just the steamy mist hallucinating him?

For so long he had been waiting and watching Hitomi, until he thought he saw her made a movement so strange and so suspicious. All that discomfort just disappeared, as he turned fierce and fixated that he hastily walked over to her, but then he froze when Hitomi turned her face around. The interval between them turned awkward and dramatic.

"What's wrong, Issei? Did I somehow bother you?" Then she said in a crafty and playful manner, "Or did I finally got your squishy side that you couldn't help yourself just want to have a closer look of me just 'cause you could no longer help yourself?"

He ignored any nonsense and asked her straight, "I thought I saw you did something. What did you just do? And what's that you're holding?"

Hitomi turned back to the necklace with a small, silver locket she wore around her neck. She showed it to him. "You mean this?"

Issei reached out his arm and his hand open. "Let me see," he simply demanded.

Hitomi studied him for a bit. There was caution in her eyes, but she detached it from her neck and lent it to him.

He stared at the necklace as he hung its chains with his fingers. "What's this?" he asked.

"What else? Inside are the photos of me and my mother."

He took a closer look at the two small photos on each side, a young girl on the left and an adult woman on the right. "I take it that the little girl on the left is you?"

"That's right. Oh, what's interesting is that if you press that small button on the top there, the rear frame will turn over and shows the other photos."

Issei pressed the small button with his fingertip. The frame turned like a book page and showed more photos. He assumed the photos featured the same people except much older. However, he sensed something odd about her locket. He pressed the button a few times and heard a peculiar click as the middle frame turned left.