Natsuko felt a tingle run from her scalp down to her spine as Ailing grazed her long nails through her hair and down her neck. Natsuko’s scalp gently ached from her hair being up in a ponytail all day, so the gentle tugs were like a massage for the inside of her skull. Gods it was nice. Shuixing had never done anything like this for her, thought Natsuko had ever thought to ask. Truth be told, Natsuko didn’t always know what she wanted. Although, Ailing seemed to know.
“Ugh,” Natsuko moaned. “I thought I’d been sleeping well, but then in the middle of a questing scene…”
“Darling, your body is getting used to a new chemical balance now that you’ve stopped drinking. Has it been a week yet?”
Eight agonizing days is what it had been. The only thing that got her through the discomfort was Ailing’s pampering sessions. They worked far better than Shuixing’s endless guilt-tripping. She was almost to the point where she could understand why some Heroes stayed sober.
“A little over a week. Any idea when I’ll actually feel awake?” Natsuko asked.
“I haven’t the faintest,” Ailing said.
Before Natsuko could respond, Ailing did a little swirling motion with her nail tips, skittering along the nape of Natsuko’s neck and turning her words into a little gasp. Natsuko would’ve melted even more except she was already a puddle on the floor between Ailing’s legs. From her position on the couch, Ailing kneaded all the buzzing, turbulent thoughts out of Natsuko’s head leaving a fuzzy warmth in their place.
“How did you get so good at this? Did you practice on Daisy?” Natsuko said as her neck rolled side-to-side.
There was the briefest pause of Ailing’s delicate fingers before she said, “no, Daisy didn’t care to be touched. This is all instinct. And knowing what I myself like, of course.”
Natsuko craned her neck up. “Wanna switch places?”
Ailing chuckled and shook her head. “No, that’s alright. I just want you to relax. You’ve been working so hard lately to keep us on top. Just focus on unwinding, dear. Don’t worry about numbers or rankings or anything. Just relax at my hands."
Natsuko found it hard to argue with that so she resubmerged herself into the pampering. Soon she found herself lightly dozing while Ailing hummed. In the twilight of blissful sleep, Natsuko thought she felt something dark lingering on the fringes. Formless and shapeless, a dream under construction, and yet it held an importance that made her think she was missing something. She needed to know what this dark lingering was, so she called out to it and it seemed to come closer. But the thought then occurred to her that this darkness might be the things she was trying to get away from: Her alcoholism and despair and self-defeating attitude.
She woke up with a start.
Ailing’s hands rested gently on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, darling, but you were muttering something in your sleep, so I woke you up.”
“W-What was I muttering about?” Natsuko asked.
“About being angry at yourself. And about the Yishang.”
“Oh,” Natsuko said. So that was all. She felt like there had been more to it than that.
“That’s normal while you’re detoxing. But, would you promise me one thing, Natsu?” As Ailing asked this, her palm cupped under Natsuko’s chin and over her cheek. The pressure was slight, but she felt Ailing drawing her backwards, closer to her. Her face and ears burned.
“Y-Yeah?”
“I want you to take a break from worrying about all those numbers and just live in the moment. Will you promise to forget about your stats for a while?”
“I promise…”
The next couple days passed in the blink of an eye. With a full day to relax and the worst of the detox behind her, by Monday Natsuko felt the best she’d ever felt. She was holding to Ailing’s promise to forget about numbers and live in the moment, but the news had trickled down to her that numbers were going back up. Ailing had been right after all: If Heroes did their part, the Yishang would do theirs, and Celestials would rush on back.
Monday was spent doing more grinding, but Natsuko turned it into a personal challenge to come up with the fastest clear rate, which prompted Boulanger to turn it into a race. It was a peculiar meeting-in-the-middle for the both of them, but Boulanger ended up getting into it as much as Natsuko and in the blink of an eye, the training day passed.
Boulanger huffed as he popped out the exit of Planetview Cavern.
“Almost! You’re getting close," Natsuko said with a snort.
“You’re three minutes ahead of me, that’s not close,” he replied.
Boulanger’s tone wasn’t as sour as his words. There was a hint of a smirk on his face, as though maybe he thought he had found a cheat skill to get Natsuko to work harder. In reality, this was just her in a good mood. This was how she was back when she first started adventuring.
“How much experience do you figure we gained?” she asked.
“Just about 30 million,” Boulanger replied. “Should be about halfway to level 110 by now.”
“Hell yeah!"
Her first instinct was to go celebrate by cracking open some Moonwater, but she caught herself. No, Natsuko, you’re going to celebrate sober, she thought. But she couldn’t keep asking Ailing to play with her hair every single day. Not that her teammate would say no, but it felt like she was imposing, especially since Ailing kept refusing her requests to reciprocate. An idea came to Natsuko, however, as she passed the threshold of the Capitol building. Perhaps she had been putting off talking to Daisy for too long. Unlike the Halloween party, she now felt like she was in a state of mind to talk now.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Hey guys, I’ll catch up with y’all later, I’m gonna go grab a cup of tea with Daisy.”
For half a second there was a strange, cold look on Ailing’s face that startled Natsuko, but it was brief enough that she chalked it up to Ailing’s resting face, which had never been the most welcoming. The Yishang had unfortunately given her a natural expression of smug condescension, which was not at all in Ailing’s nature.
“I think we were all planning an outing later, weren’t we?” Ailing said.
“Huh?” Natsuko said. “I don’t remember—”
“To the indoor pool,” Boulanger said in his firm tone. “You might have been groggy.”
“Uh… I guess so? When were y’all planning on going? I probably have time to—”
“Right after we drop our stuff off,” Ailing said. “We were going to go change and then head off to the pool.”
“Do you mind if I’m late then?”
“It’d be better if you came with,” Boulanger said.
Before she could protest, Ailing scritched her nails at the back of Natsuko’s neck and sent a storm of tingles down her spine.
“You’re not self-conscious about how you look in a bathing suit, are you, dear?” Ailing asked. “I could help you pick out something flattering.”
Natsuko flushed. “N-No, that’s not it, it’s just been a while since I talked to Daisy and… it feels like something I have to do.”
Koyon swiveled around so that he was walking backwards and facing Natsuko. “If she wanted to see you that bad, wouldn’t she have reached out to you first?”
“Well, she did. At the Halloween party. But—”
“But she hasn’t felt like you were worth her time since,” Boulanger said flatly.
Natsuko gazed up at the blinding yellow lights that overhung the wide avenues of the Capitol Building. With the lights coming from every angle, there was no room for shadows, and that lingering darkness she had felt two days ago receded entirely.
“Fine. I guess I’ll go straight to the pool,” Natsuko said.
True to her word, Ailing went on a side quest with Natsuko to go buy a swimsuit for her. The trouble was that Natsuko felt awkward in everything she tried on. Partly it was the bitter memory of trying to manipulate her Use-Number with skimpy outfits and her humiliating failure, but there was also the fact that she had the body proportions of a 2x4. That was the one thing the Yishang had not buffed during her redesign.
“So, we obviously can’t go cutesy, because while I think you’re cute, that’s not your archetype. Spunky? Yes. Cutesy? No. No frills and ruffles,” Ailing said.
Natsuko was glad to hear that. She was happy to place herself in Ailing’s hands, especially regarding fashion, but frills and ruffles were the exact opposite of what she was about. Those were very much a Sofiane thing. Daisy… well, she could probably pull them off, but she was more about the sleek, sweeping curves than texture. Shuixing... she couldn't imagine swimming at all. She would be in a sundress reading a book.
“Darling?”
“Hmm?”
“You’re distracted again,” Ailing said. “Tired?”
Natsuko shook her head. “No, I— well, maybe from the grinding today. I did push myself pretty hard.”
Ailing smiled. “That’s alright. Let me get your opinion about these. I think they both have their upsides.”
Her teammate-cum-stylist held up a pair of short red trunks that looked like compression shorts paired with a thin white band that Natsuko guessed was supposed to be the top. In her other hand was a white, triangle bikini set that resembled something like a fundoshi. Natsuko winced.
“Are these really my only options?” she asked.
“No, they’re your only flattering options, darling.”
Between the two, the compression shorts and bandini seemed to cover more so she went with that. The Yishang had certainly put her in worse, and it wouldn’t be terrible to have an emanation with a swimsuit outfit, even if it was out of season. Rising numbers were rising numbers after all. She’d be dumb not to try to catch as many of the new Celestials as possible. With her new swimsuit equipped, Natsuko and Ailing joined their teammates at the indoor pool complex. It had everything from a hot tub to a slide to a tinted sunroof which allowed in enough sunlight to tan.
“You two look good,” Boulanger said.
“Why thank you,” Ailing replied, hips swaying as she strolled over to set her things down on a beach chair.
Natsuko swallowed. Boulanger had been looking at her when he said that, not Ailing. She knew what the look meant, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Boulanger wasn’t unattractive by any means, but there was something firm and coarse about him that didn’t appeal to her. Plus, she’d never really been one for dark, brooding, and overly-serious. The only response she could think to give was a tight smile and a nod.
There were only a few Non-Heroes when they arrived, but the news spread quickly that Team Natsuko was going for a swim and other Heroes trickled in. Daisy was not among them. Natsuko’s disappointment, however, was eased by the presence of a giant waterslide which no one could peel her away from if they tried—and a few sycophantic Heroes did. The top was 50 feet above the pool and it went through six twists and turns before dropping sharply into the water. The second Natsuko hit the water, she doggy-paddled to shore and sprinted back to the stairs so she could go again. The first few times she went down on her back, but then she experimented with going on her belly, head-first, and finally while trying to stand the whole way down. She wasn’t successful, but at least once managed to make it halfway before falling on her butt.
By the time the others were ready to leave, her eyes and nose burned with chlorine. Overall, it was a great time, and for a moment she was able to forget everything but the sweet, sweet sensation of cruising down a plastic tube over and over. No alcohol cravings, no agonizing over numbers, no worrying about old friends. Just water slides.
By dinner time she had no energy left, and even turned down one of Ailing’s relaxation sessions because she was too tired to enjoy it. The second she finished eating she went upstairs, drew closed the curtains that faced the central annex, flopped onto her bed without changing out of her swimsuit, and passed out for what she hoped would be a relaxing and dreamless sleep.
It wasn't.
What began as a pleasant, wavy, buzzing feeling became more incessant, and she soon felt like she was adrift in a row boat in the middle of a storm. The same strange sensation of darkness cropped up again, but this time she had nowhere to run, and Ailing wasn’t there to wake her up. The darkness approached like a thundering anvil cloud, bringing with it a sense of looming dread. Her thoughts tried to turn to her teammates and her comfortable life, but the more she thought about them, the sicker and dizzier and more frightened she became. Cold panic rolled in with the cloud and at any moment she expected to be thrown from the boat and dragged down to the depths.
But as the storm came closer and closer to a crescendo that never seemed to arrive, she realized there was something silly and overly-dramatic about not only the storm, but its means of arrival. It reminded her of…
Natsuko shot awake, pulse pounding and sweat down her back.
“Pechorin!”