Jiro and the Bathhouse of Desire [Monster Girl & Ecchi]

2. A Monstrous Problem

Jiro waited until Kaori slid the glass door of the bath shut behind her. Then he allowed himself to relax. He sat back into the bath, uncrossed his legs, and let the warmth seep into him.

Kaori was a strange woman, thought Jiro. Of the staff members he had met in his three days at the bathhouse, she had been the only one willing to speak to him. Even before Gramps had run off and abandoned them, the other staffers had been cold, distant, hateful even. But why? What was going on in this bathhouse? And why couldn't he just have an ordinary Working Holiday?

When little Jiro was ready to go, Jiro dried off, changed back into his uniform, and, padded down the corridor in the direction of the meeting room.

The meeting room was on the other side of the first floor, down a corridor behind the front desk. When Jiro passed the stairs, he saw Yui coming down with a stack of towels in her arms, short hair bobbing up and down with each step. At nineteen, she was the youngest member of the bathhouse staff.

"Hi Yui. How's everything?" Jiro said, flashing his best approximation of a charming manager smile.

Yui didn't even blink. It was like she hadn't seen or heard him at all. She pushed right past and strode down the corridor in the opposite direction. He could feel her hatred from the way she hammered her slippers into the oak floor.

"Good to see you too ..." He called after her, mostly out of spite. "This is some holiday," he muttered to himself. The whole bathhouse staff hated him, and he hadn't even done anything wrong. Except be born as a blood relation of his grandfather. Born in the wrong place. Tied to the wrong people. A useless little fly caught in a web of someone else's making. That felt like the story of Jiro's whole life.

Kaori was in the meeting room waiting for him. A low table stood in the center of the large room, and Kaori was kneeling there, Japanese-style, with her elbows resting on the wood. The room must have once been something more than a place for meeting, thought Jiro. With its arched roof, thick wooden beams, and the carvings of strange beasts that ran above the doors, it was too grand of a place for a purpose so ... administrative.

Jiro sat down across from Kaori, but she sidled around until she was next to him. He could almost feel her knee pressing against his thigh through the fabric of her kimono. Almost sneezing distance. He caught a whiff of lavender, and swallowed. What was this woman trying to do? Did she get off from teasing him? Did she want him to do something stupid, something not entirely legal?

"What did you put in my drink?" he said, leaning away from her.

"Don't worry," Kaori said, breathing into his ear. "It was just tea. No stimulant in there but caffeine. It wasn't very good tea, but tea nonetheless."

"I hope this isn't what we're serving the guests."

"It would be, if we had any guests."

"No guests ... tonight?"

"No guests tonight, or on any other night."

"There were some guests here yesterday."

"Do you think they'll be coming back?"

"No."

They were both silent for a time. Jiro fiddled with his thumbs and tried not to think about how close Kaori was. Again, he caught a whiff of lavender.

"So we have no future bookings," Jiro finally said. "At all?"

"Zero."

"That's not good." The bathhouse, Jiro had learned in his three days here, operated less like a modern bathhouse, where people paid money for a few hours in the baths, and more like a hotel or traditional Japanese inn. Guests paid a fee to stay for few nights. During their stays, they could wine, dine, play, forget about their worldly worries, and (of course) rejuvenate themselves in the establishment's many bathing facilities. Or, rather, the guests would have been able to do these things, had there been any guests in the first place.