Yuri Worlds

[67] Presence

Misaki wasn’t about to let something like that go so easily without additional scrutiny. Something similar happened to Yuka when she was a silenced passenger within her body. It couldn’t have simply been some strange, sudden hallucination. She’d seen too much going on to let whatever this was get away with that kind of trickery again.

She lingered in the aftermath and splashed herself several times, scarcely taking more than a few moments to blink, aggressively watching for any sign her reflection might try to step out of line again. Juking in a couple different directions did absolutely nothing to trick it and only left her with a vague hint of dizziness. Clinging to her towel, she cloaked her eyes with it without completely obscuring her vision. She could look down through the shadowy slopes of her chest and glimpse the stark, pale tile at her feet. That was enough to get her back to the bath without needing to look again at her reflection.

Not that she was afraid of it, especially with the bold light of noonday pressing through the side windows. But she could imagine faint sounds, more than the tired creaks of this ancient place, hints of movement and menace reaching out for her. She hustled carefully with her impromptu shield.

Everything seemed exactly as she had left it. Yuka waded over to the edge of the bath with a smile that soon twisted in concern when she saw the way that Misaki was hiding her face. Plenty of plausible explanations fluttered through Misaki‘s mind at that moment. She could credibly say that it was for something approaching a headache, but she knew that the truth was a better exercise.

"What you saw with your hair and eyes turning dark yesterday also happened to me, and I’m not sure what it means. Likely some side effect of that thing left inside of me." She kept the description to that instead of saying ‘land mine’, which might confuse and concern the rest of the women in the vicinity. Fortunately, Yuka got what she meant. Bitter tension tightened along her jaw, even though she did her best not to show an angry face to the girl she loved.

Misaki washed up before she returned to soak. Yuka wrapped her arms around her. She took deep breaths and made soft noises like she had so many things she wanted to say about everything that had been happening lately and, at the same time, she didn’t want to sully their quiet moment with any words. Eventually, she did have to speak.

She made sure that no darkening remained in the artful harmony of Misaki‘s hair. She practically counted every violet-leaning strand and watchfully examined her bold, raspberry-toned eyes. In turn, Misaki lavished gentle appreciation on her partner’s features. The ease and methodical relaxation of so many moments before felt very far away from their minds and bodies. Like easing into the edges of rest and comfort while nagging fears dragged them back. Despite all this stirring inside their heads, they managed to partake in some rejuvenation from the waters.

Getting dressed in complimentary robes instead of their regular clothes, they each lingered at the entrance to the bathhouse in a strange coordination close to and yet so very distant from a dance. They held arms and gently guided flexible joints to rotate, stretch, and pop. Misaki pondered the idea of rolling herself up or flexing her legs up towards her head. Neither seemed like an impossibility with his body, but it seemed like tempting fate on a day in which she’d done plenty of that.

Lunch was already being prepared, with several suites commandeered for the sumptuous setup. It was all perfectly familiar from the hands and hearts of the Sasaki moms, yet always delightful. Tracking down Bianka, fortunately, didn’t have to turn into another ordeal as she came to them for lunch. She had an extensive collection of nature photos from one of the nearby trails arranged and sorted on her phone to share. Compared to their anemic discoveries of critters, Bianka not only had at least one representative of all the major species but also several impressive color variants. They weren’t perfect shots, but she treasured them all the same.

When they finished eating, Misaki opted not to face Bianka alone, even though she had no concerns that the conspiratorial girl would suddenly burst out with strange messages or scary faces. Bianka had already gathered some details about suspicious happenings, and she was grateful the health scare from last night turned out fine. The mass of possibilities that Misaki and Yuka presented to her defied easy understanding. Strange creatures that could infect legs and other parts with blackening. The wristbands that she was only vaguely aware of showed oily blob monsters, scared of blood but eager to consume whatever was in their way. Spirit transfers. Spirit land mines. The handedness of the universe and the possibility that permanent relocation wasn’t possible. Blurry double vision of Grandma Okura. Misaki made sure to catch both of them up on the broad and important details.

There were things she didn’t say aloud or share with Bianka, but this felt like enough to bring the girl into the loop and hopefully get her mental gears turning about possibilities. She didn’t expect that Bianka would sincerely Hoover up every single detail and take notes, not only on her phone but on a physical paper pad. She explained that it was a backup. She did trust the protections she’d fashioned for her online communion, but she also knew that anything in that sphere was still less than a hundred percent sure.

Details of the spyware contained on their phones also came to her attention, and she casually offered to at least take a look at them to see if she could scrub off the worst. Misaki chewed on her lower lip and begrudgingly turned over her phone for Bianka to run experiments. Several data-encrypted copies of the wristband creature photographs were made and hidden remotely by Bianka.

Once all the little things were accomplished, she plumbed her resources for anything that might provide elaboration or context to what this company intended for their worlds. Searching their websites was something she’d done several times, even before this last week. The site subtopics referenced new avenues of trade, unforgettable cultural experiences, and health and life extension research. The indices were a mess of confusing jargon, clear shell companies, and inscrutable connections. Still, she caught several things worth investigating deeper.

The Radish Protocol. Not much on it, just the vague implication that it could encourage free market resource capitalization between distinct economies. Whatever that meant. More interesting was the tab marked Blue Moon Projects. Rationally, she reminded herself that a blue moon was a commonly used phrase, so it wasn’t strange for the phrase to pop up. She also knew that Ayame had made a stray reference to a radish.

All that was depressingly little to go on, but Bianka still made sure there was a note about that on the paper pad. Good thing she did that, as her computer, moments later, had a hard reset, which put quite a damper on the blonde’s mood as she had to go through a painstaking, annoying effort to get her device back to normal.

To take some stress off, they played several more episodes through the recovery process. It wasn’t quite as cozy and romantic, but Bianka soon nodded off, only to perk up again when the process alerted her to a new development.

The episode that came up next was about a mining operation on a distant planet, and several of the ladies working in the mine were killed by a strange, nonhuman creature. Misaki was intrigued by the representation of asexual reproduction. The silicone-based life form at the center of the story wasn’t killing out of malice or even hunger, but rather to protect her offspring daughters. Humanity taught it pain and the need to defend itself. Fortunately, they were able to communicate the situation to the creature, and it wanted to help. It wasn’t a simple monster to be feared and hated.

Stolen novel; please report.

Once they learned about it and it learned about them, it was no longer their enemy. Misaki enjoyed that thought, even though she severely doubted that such wisdom might help in this situation. Sometimes things are actually as bad as they seem, she told herself. If only it could be more like such stories, and all they needed to do was communicate with the monsters and figure out that they weren’t so bad after all.

But they tried to break Yuka’s heart and do even worse to her best friend. So, that was beyond redemption.

At some point after that episode, Bianka managed to get her laptop into a recovered state without any major problems. Unfortunately, attempting to reconnect to the Wi-Fi or do much of anything on the Internet failed at every attempt, even though the device and the browser told her it was fine. Misaki could see that the girl was rattled by this event. She actually caressed her laptop as though it were a shiny, flat cat that just got back from the vet.

Scrubbing the phones was now a distant priority. Misaki‘s phone at least got a brief look-see at Yuka’s insistence. A similar recommendation to what Chika did for her phone was the best that Bianka could offer with her current resources. She looked around suspiciously at every wall socket as though they were stalking her baby. Misaki suspected that she could’ve leaned into her a little stronger but knew that Bianka had done quite a bit for them, and it wasn’t fair to push her for more. Instead, they settled into a little discussion and calm relaxation, with the show again on pause.

What to do next seemed strikingly elusive to the trio, as though this early afternoon mystery were a microcosm of wider events. Another bathhouse soak wouldn’t make sense until the evening, at least. During lunch, the Sasaki moms reiterated their support and love for the fledgling couple but soon went their separate ways. So many things were still left undone or unexplored at length. And a single dangling thread continued in Yuka and Misaki’s thoughts. How were Kosame and Naoko faring in their second romantic attempt? It wasn’t long before Bianka slipped into a proper nap with all the nearby blankets insulating her from the overhead lights.

Once again, Misaki opted not to go it alone. Not that any convincing was necessary to get Yuka on board and eager to check in on her friend. Instead of texting her right away, they opted to roam around and see if they could run into her by chance before attempting a more direct method. This way of doing it led them through a scenic route of the inn.

Just roaming, it was impossible to tell it had been around for more than a millennium. The decor was clearly not the original stuff. Fragments of that true past existed in ornate wood, framing wide vistas with modern lounge seating and snippets of what once was. Square bamboo ceiling fixtures could have once contained oil lamps. Now, they glimmered with LEDs.

Or they could’ve been purchased at a department store and recently installed. Misaki acknowledged that it didn’t really matter if everything at the resort was actually a thousand years old and still in working order. Rather, the important parts were impression and presence.

Eventually, they discovered Naoko, wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket with a still damp towel nearby, on one of the long loungers, looking out across the scenic countryside. She greeted them warmly and invited them to sit. A different mood surrounded her compared to the last time they talked. It was hard for Misaki to really pin down the flavor of it. She didn’t seem reserved, subdued, or even melancholy, though she sat there quietly, breathed with careful breaths, and waited a ponderous amount of time between answers.

She assured them that everything was going perfectly fine between her and Kosame. No falling out since their vigorous reconciliation. Kosame just went to get a few things and would be back shortly. That was good, but it still left mysteries around Naoko’s Zen calm. She hadn’t been subject to any near-death experiences? Naoko affirmed this with a flash of amusement across her features.

Cradling her stomach under her bust, she eventually explained, "It’s just too short. Every moment and all the immense possibilities. Lately, I’ve set every spare minute of my life on fire at the altar of my education and prospects for a healthy career. I absolutely hate it. So much time was lost dragging my nails across metaphorical mud, a millimeter at a time. I know it’s what I have to do and it’s the choice I made, but there’s a crazy part of me that imagines making a different choice, for the hell of it. Does that make sense?"

Misaki could relate, from just about every day of her current job to so many years in college. Yuka had her own touchstones, but she also warned Naoko against quitting. Naoko assured them that wasn’t her intent. She was just exhausted—mentally, physically, and in ways she didn’t have a name for. She kept up appearances for the vast majority of this trip, and she didn’t blame her roommate Yasha for staying up late and rustling in the light stages of her sleep. Yuka urged her to swap if she had a problem, but Naoko again reassured them that it was fine. She actually got plenty of sleep despite any distractions, which is why she felt so comfortable this afternoon.

The other end of her relaxed sentiment acknowledged that since time was limited and fleeting, which meant that bad things would also pass. Pain and discomfort would cede their most pronounced qualities, along with fear and uncertainty. Misaki had doubts about this assessment, but she still listened and gave Naoko her due. It was surprising that the science nerd girl arrived at such a downright spiritual sense of acceptance and a random desire to rebel.

Just to be sure, Misaki scrutinized her entire body, especially her arms, to make sure that one of those wristbands wasn’t secretly leading her in this direction. But there was nothing. Furthermore, there was not even the vague impression that something was or had been there. The same as when she looked at Yuka’s moms. They were all clean. She couldn’t quite say the same about everyone they’d run across. Not that she suspected Grandma Okura was secretly harboring one of these things, but that old lady definitely had something up her sleeve.

There was someone else she had concerns about, but, for some reason, whenever she tried to focus on who it was, her sense of worry dropped as precipitously as it had for Naoko. She couldn’t even articulate it internally or externally beyond this frantic notion of alarm.

So… why worry about it? And it was gone.

More important than that was the idea Naoko was inspired to share and had passed around experimentally to the group soon after breakfast to see if anyone else was interested. She was thinking about holding a test of courage with everyone paired up and walking into the woods at night. A fun way to finish up this trip, with everyone enjoying the cool mountain air and maybe making some new connections before they head back. She checked with whoever she could talk to at the front desk around the time she took her bath and had an encouraging response.

Misaki knew the basics, so she didn’t need an explanation. At the start of their journey, she would’ve expected the old hotel to be the venue for something like this, but after experiencing it firsthand and testing her courage on it, she was perfectly fine with the woods instead, and she knew exactly who she hoped to be paired up with.