Volume 17 - Like Family, Chapter 132 - When It Rains...
Yuisu and Haru were finally engaged, but there was a long journey ahead of them before they could be legally married. Despite their nearly overflowing excitement, they decided to hold off on announcing their engagement for now. They wanted to wait until they understood all their options and had a plan on how to proceed.
They both started researching how Japan handled same-sex marriages, particularly when one of the participants wasn't Japanese, and whether getting married in another country would help. Sadly, the policies were clear and solidly against Yuisu and Haru's hopes: if either member of the marriage was a Japanese citizen, the government would not recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another country.
Some Japanese homosexual couples had used a loophole where the older person legally adopted the younger, which granted some rights like hospital visitation and inheritance. Since Haru was older than Yuisu and not yet a Japanese citizen, even that route wasn't an option.
In the end, their best route was to pester Agent Will to push through an exception to the law for liminal marriages. Quess and Iormu's unusual marriage had set some precedent that he might be able to leverage.
Agent Will was out of town for another two weeks and Yuisu planned to ambush him the second he returned. But before that, she needed to get through a period of spectacularly bad weather. It was typhoon season, bringing blowing wind and heavy rain to Okayado with no end in sight.
The storm was particularly bad news for the inn. Attendance at the Mountain Lily Inn's day spa quickly dropped to zero, then some inn guests canceled their stays, not wanting to vacation in a torrential storm.
"Hey, Hakuto," Yuisu started at dinner one night, picking at her food unenthusiastically. She had cooked the meal but wasn't feeling very hungry herself. She had too much on her mind.
The rabbit-woman finished chewing a large leaf of lettuce, her nose wiggling the entire time, then she said, "Yes, Yuisu?"
Yuisu tugged on her hair, which was in a side ponytail that day. "Um, you can control the weather, right? Is there anything you can do about this storm?"
Hakuto's ears flopped down, almost covering her face. "Sadly, no. I can influence the weather a bit, but this typhoon is too strong and too widespread. It's affecting the entire region."
When Yuisu wilted pitifully, Hakuto quickly added, "But it's probably the last big rain before the snow season. Business should pick up then."
Yuisu nodded, but her mood was still low. Between the canceled rooms and the lost income from the day visitors, money was going to be a little tight for a while. As she resumed her meal, she fretted about the cost of weddings. Yet another thing preventing our marriage…
Yuisu wasn't the only one in a sour mood. With the constant rain, Haru and Chione couldn't fly, leaving them moping around inside instead. Aluru became especially grumpy and withdrawn from the lack of sunlight. The massive flower around her hips even closed up entirely, hiding most of her body like a conservatively-cut dress.
The only ones in the house who seemed happy were the three women who formed the so-called 'trio'. The weather had forced a pause on Korbin's work on Ski Lodge Kobold, returning Tsuen's schedule to normal, and Rem and Mara were loving the extra time with her. At almost any hour, some combination of the three could be found chattering cheerfully or snuggling adorably.
Of course, Tsuen still needed to get to Sports Club Kobold for her regular shifts. Running downhill on muddy roads was risking a bad fall, so Yuisu had to drive Tsuen to and from work. Yuisu did the same for Haru for her shifts at the butcher's, but the smaller harpy had the advantage of being able to fit in the enclosed cab of the truck.
While it was better than running in the rain and mud, riding in the back of a truck in the rain was far from comfortable. After a particularly wet and cold ride into town, she couldn't help but complain about it to a coworker in the gym locker room.
"Even with a raincoat, I'm totally soaked and shivering by the time I get to work," Tsuen said as she hung her wet clothes on a hook and stepped into the shower. The hot water splashed over her soft brown fur and her bare skin, blasting away the chill of the outdoors.
"That sounds awful," a purple-haired woman replied as she grabbed a fresh towel and wrapped it around her own dripping body. She had to maneuver it around a mass of orange tails, then she grabbed another couple of towels for them. She was a six-tailed kitsune named Rokune.
"It really is. I have a high body temperature, but it still gets to me," Tsuen said. She was secretly glad that Rokune had covered up, since the beautiful woman's nudity was extremely distracting.
Then Tsuen added, "Sorry for complaining so much, and thanks for listening." The gym's hot showers did wonders, but she just had to vent sometimes.
Rokune shook her head as she toweled off a fluffy tail. "Don't worry about it! Lending you an ear is a low price to pay for all you've given me. I wouldn't even be working here if it wasn't for you!" Then she looked at the clock on the wall and hurriedly finished dressing and gathered her belongings. "Oops, gotta get going to make my class. Seeya, Tsuen!"
Tsuen waved after the departing kitsune, then returned her attention to the wonderful shower, at least until she needed to head to a personal training session of her own. With the negativity and cold out of her system, the day went swimmingly. Not literally, however; swimming was one of the few kinds of exercises she rarely taught, since centaur swimming techniques didn't carry over to many other species.
Later, someone approached her as she wrapped up a one-on-one class. It was her boss, Korbin.
"Tsuen, can I have a moment?" The furry kobold was dressed in his typical attire of running shorts and a Sports Club Kobold t-shirt stretched over his impressive muscles. Tufts of fur stuck out from under his clothes and from the tips of his ears. He didn't look a bit like the millionaire businessman he was.
Tsuen blinked like a deer in the headlights. She hadn't been expecting to see Korbin around the gym, since his focus had been on the new Ski Lodge lately. She was also a little worried that he would ask her to take on additional work again. In her current situation, any more stress might wear her down and get her sick.
"Uh, sure," she finally answered.
Korbin walked with her toward her next class without needing to ask where it was. He seemed to know the schedules of everyone who worked at his facilities. With a kind tone, he said, "I heard about how you're getting to work. Being exposed to the rain like that, you're bound to catch a cold. I can't have that."
Tsuen was about to say that she didn't really have a better option, but Korbin continued, "Starting with your trip home tonight and until the typhoon ends, I'm sending a shuttle for you: a large van from Tokai Taxi and Limo's new accessibility initiative. It's exactly the kind of service I like to see coming to Okayado, so I'm happy to throw them some business."
Tsuen blinked in stunned silence again, but for significantly more positive reasons. It warmed her heart that Korbin was thinking of her and was willing to foot the bill on a shuttle. She was also excited to hear about the taxi company's new initiative. Way back at ComicMon that spring, Tsuen had actually helped convince the company's owner of the value of such a service.
The new owner of Tokai Taxi and Limo was an odd and slow-moving man, but he had a good heart and a good eye for business. Other than the slow speed, he actually reminded her a lot of Korbin.
Finally, she shook herself back to reality and said, "Oh, thank you so much, Korbin. I truly appreciate that." She also made a mental note to tell Yuisu she wouldn't need a ride.
Korbin smiled broadly and waved goodbye, saying, "You're welcome. Now I must be off to another meeting. Have a good one, Tsuen."
After that, the rest of Tsuen's day flew by. When she stepped out of the gym's front door into the rain, she found a large black van waiting for her with 'Tokai Taxi and Limo' written on the side in tall white letters. The side door was wide open and the bottom of the van had been fitted with a lift platform for liminal or disability accessibility.
The driver was a peppy young satyr with short blond hair and long, curved horns. His age and mannerisms suggested that he was a homestay with the Cultural Exchange Program, and that he was pretty new to the job. In any case, he already knew Tsuen's name and helped her get situated inside the spacious van, then drove skillfully toward the Mountain Lily Inn.
As Tsuen looked around the comfortable and spotlessly clean interior of the shuttle and listened to the pattering of rain on the windows, she thought, I could get used to this.
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In the middle of yet another rainy day, someone knocked on the inn's front door. Yuisu looked up from her laptop and wondered why someone was knocking on the door of a public business. Even the delivery guys had learned to go straight to the front desk.
Rather than dwell on it, she paused her research on the marriage laws of liminal lands, closed the laptop, then stood up. She approached the front door, opened it, and found herself face to face with someone she had never expected to see again.
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The woman had straight black hair, cut short around her ears in a way that made her look rather young. The slight wrinkles around her green eyes gave away her real age of 40. She wore a loose tan sweater over an ankle-length chocolate brown dress, and she held a simple black umbrella over her head.
She was Yuisu's mother Kazumi, who Yuisu hadn't seen in almost four years. Yuisu had been barely nineteen when she moved out and never looked back. They parted on bad terms, since Kazumi wanted Yuisu to go to college but Yuisu wanted to move to Okayado to care for her sick uncle.
"Mom?" Yuisu said at barely more than a whisper. A bit louder, she asked, "What brings you here?" Her voice was level and cold, and her face made no attempt to hide her displeasure.
Kazumi forced a polite smile and said, "I happened to look up Ichiro's address and I saw that it was registered as a business now, some sort of inn. I came to see what was going on. I was worried you might have run into financial trouble and had to sell the property."
"Uh-huh," Yuisu said, not believing for an instant that that was the full story. She would bet money that Kazumi wanted to reconnect, which was something Yuisu had zero interest in doing. Her mom might have been willing to pretend that everything was magically okay between them, but Yuisu was not.
Kazumi took a half step forward, tipping back her umbrella to keep it from hitting the doorway. "May I come in from the rain?"
After fighting an urge to slam the door in her mom's face, Yuisu stepped back and to the side and said, "Of course. Welcome to my business, the Mountain Lily Inn." After seeing her mother's lack of confidence in her, Yuisu made sure to stress the fact that she was in charge of the inn.
Kazumi stepped inside and put her umbrella in the rack by the door, then she said, "It's good to hear that you haven't sold the property. An inn is an interesting thing to do with the place."
Yuisu could tell that 'interesting' had been a thinly veiled way of saying 'strange'. Eighteen years with the woman had taught Yuisu a lot about her, and Yuisu knew that when Kazumi was in a bad mood, value judgements had a way of creeping into everything she said.
Yuisu stepped up the single step from the entryway to the hallway to get some height, then looked down at her mother. "I also use the house to host several liminal women through the Interspecies Exchange Program." She didn't offer to introduce them.
"Oh, that's interesting," Kazumi said dismissively. She looked around the entryway and at the front desk that was built into the left wall. A corkboard on the wall was covered in printouts about the day spa facilities, and a small sign on the desk detailed the inn's prices and availability. Unlike some Japanese hotels and inns, the Mountain Lily Inn accepted walk-up reservations.
Then she looked back at Yuisu and said, "It's so different than when I was here last. Can I take a look around the house?"
Yuisu ignored the question and said, "Mom, why are you really here? I don't like surprises, and this is a particularly unpleasant one."
Before Kazumi could answer, a fluffy ball of white bounced up behind Yuisu. It appeared to be some sort of winged woman with wide golden eyes, and she was wearing a tight white t-shirt that showed off her bust a little too much. In that exposed cleavage was a wing-shaped platinum necklace with a bright blue gemstone in the center. Long talons gleamed below the tattered edge of her blue jeans.
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"Hey, Yuisu, sorry to interrupt, but something urgent came up with the Exchange Program," Haru said in a sweet, low voice while tugging insistently on Yuisu's arm.
"Sure," Yuisu responded. Then she turned back to her mom and said, "One moment." She allowed herself to be dragged to their bedroom just down the hall. Once the door was closed behind her, Yuisu asked, "So what's up with the program, Haru?"
Haru shrugged and smiled innocently. "Nothing. I just needed to get you alone. I overheard that whole conversation and I had to stop it before it got even worse."
Yuisu wasn't particularly happy with that response. "I was about to send her away, once I got her to admit why she's really here. On second thought, I don't even care why she's here. I don't want her in my life."
She grabbed the doorknob and moved to leave, but she stopped when Haru called out, "Wait. Please."
Yuisu sighed. She really didn't want to get into an argument with her new fiancee, especially not over her estranged mother. She turned back and waited for Haru to continue.
Haru stepped close and wrapped Yuisu in a feathery embrace. Then she said, "I've seen how this topic hurts you. You've got open wounds that you need to close. I think you should give her a chance, because… one way or the other, you need some closure." The emotion in Haru's voice was heavy and clear. She had a positive relationship with her own mother, and she wanted the same for Yuisu. She wanted Yuisu to have a mother to confide in, a mother to visit on the holidays, a mother to love and be loved by.
After a long moment of thought, Yuisu returned the hug and nodded unsteadily. Then she slipped free and said, "I'll give her a chance, but I'm not promising that things will work out."
Haru smiled wide. "That's all I ask."
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"Sorry about the interruption," Yuisu said as she returned to the entryway a couple minutes later.
Kazumi had been milling about, reading the signs on the corkboard and some pamphlets on the tourist activities available in town, but she turned back to look at Yuisu.
The hard expression Yuisu had worn earlier had faded, replaced by a friendly professional smile. Kazumi couldn't have known, but that was Yuisu's 'innkeeper face' that she wore when dealing with customers.
"Would you like to stay at the inn, just until the weather clears up?" Yuisu asked. She had rooms to spare, thanks to that weather, and she found it easiest to handle her mother if she just treated her like a guest. "It's on me," she added.
"That would be nice," Kazumi answered, not revealing whether she was bothered by the fact that her stay seemed to have a time limit.
Yuisu grabbed a cabin key from a drawer in the desk, then lead her mother back out the front door and up the side path to the cabins. She didn't feel like giving a tour of the house just yet.
Despite the chilly air and constant dizzle, the mountainside was quite beautiful. Green ferns and pine needles glistened in the rain and a few leafy trees had turned vibrant shades of red and orange. Raindrops pattered on leaves and grass and trickled over rocks in tiny streams.
As they walked up the path under their umbrellas, Yuisu said, "Your cabin is the third one up this path and you have the southern bedroom. I hope you don't mind sharing the cabin with a liminal woman. I believe she's a flightless variety of harpy, but she's out and about right now."
Kazumi shook her head. "I don't mind at all. I actually interact with liminals rather often as a receptionist." Kazumi had been working jobs like that for as long as Yuisu could remember, often working more than one to make ends meet. Kazumi had given birth to Yuisu at just eighteen and with Yuisu's father out of the picture, Kazumi never got a chance to earn a college degree to get better opportunities.
Yuisu thought, Good, at least she isn't racist, but she kept her innkeeper smile in place.
As they stepped into the cabin, Kazumi looked around and said, "Oh, this is nicer than I expected it to be. I'd like to see what you've done to rest of the property, if you have time to give me a tour."
Yuisu's eye twitched at the backhanded compliment but she soldiered on, for Haru. "Sure, I have a few minutes right now."
Kazumi took a moment to set her suitcase down in her bedroom, then met Yuisu outside. Together, they walked down the path toward the hot spring.
"There are four other cabins like yours, and that larger one." Yuisu pointed out the original cabin, which was currently occupied by a pair of ogres, each over eight feet tall. "It's a similar layout, but it was built to accommodate large or cold blooded liminals, thanks to the radiant heating built into the floor. It uses water from the hot spring to keep the rooms a steady temperature."
"That's pretty clever," Kazumi said with unusual sincerity. "Did you think of that?"
Yuisu was tempted to take credit, if only to receive one genuine compliment from her mom, but she said, "No, that cabin was built by the Exchange Program for one of my previous homestays. I didn't know the details until after construction had already started."
Kazumi quickly moved to another topic. "I take it that this fence is for the hot spring?" She was pointing at the tall wooden fence that ringed the hot spring, giving it privacy.
"Yep. With the rain, I doubt anyone's in it, so I can show you the inside."
The spring was scheduled for mixed gender bathing, so Yuisu darted through the dressing room and peeked out to make sure no one was bathing, then waved her mother in.
Kazumi had noticed the schedule sign on her way in. She said, "I'm worried about this mixed gender bathing… I think it could lead to trouble."
Yuisu responded, "Mom, you know I'm a lesbian. If I can handle bathing with other women, then men and women can manage too." She shrugged and added, "I haven't had any trouble with it since we opened in January, and now there's a second pool that's swimsuit-required, if a guest finds nudity uncomfortable"
Kazumi walked around the pool, taking in everything, then said, "How did you afford all of this?" She didn't mean it as an insinuation, but it certainly came across as such.
Yuisu answered, "The exchange program paid for the first spring and the big cabin. I got an interest-free loan from a local businessman for the other five cabins."
Kazumi narrowed her eyes at that. She was thinking that Yuisu got a loan from the yakuza or someone else equally shady.
Yuisu sighed and explained, "Korbin's a good man. He owns the big gym in town, and he's building a ski resort on the other side of the valley." She didn't mention that he owned a nightclub too, since she knew exactly what Kazumi was thinking and that little detail would play right into her misconception.
Yuisu continued, "And I got a small loan from the bank to build the new day-visitor area. Before this terrible weather, it was on track to be paid off by spring. The shrine has really helped with that."
"Shrine?" Kazumi asked, blinking her vivid green eyes.
"Oh, right, I should mention that one of my liminal homestays is actually a Shinto mountain god. The other homestays built a little shrine for her and it's been bringing in a lot of visitors."
Kazumi nodded along, trying to process all the crazy things she was suddenly learning about her daughter's life. Running a business and paying down multiple loans, hosting extra-species women and apparently a god too…
"We can head over there next," Yuisu said, waving for Kazumi to follow her.
As they made their way toward the visitor area, Haru was headed their way, coming from the direction of the shrine. She was covered up in a big blue parka to keep her wings dry. Then, rather than stopping to talk, she waved and zipped by in a hurry.
Yuisu said, "Oh, that was my first homestay, Haru. I'll introduce you properly later." Yuisu and Haru had agreed earlier to tell Kazumi that they were dating during her visit, but they were still undecided about whether they'd mention their engagement. The brief conversation in their bedroom hadn't been nearly long enough to decide something so big.
Yuisu gestured around, pointing out the various features of the newest addition to the inn. "Me and the girls built most of this ourselves, from the changing rooms to the brick pathways. The picnic tables and shrine are freely available to the public, while the hot spring and hiking trails require a fee."
Kazumi followed along until she saw the little wooden structure of the shrine. The building was still too new to have gathered a stereotypical coating of moss, but it was quaint and charming all the same. The sloped roof was supported by sturdy pillars that were covered in little carvings of plants and animals, mostly rabbits.
Maybe it was because Kazumi had always liked rabbits, or maybe it was because the little shrine felt so real and grounded, but as Kazumi knelt in front of it, she felt herself finally unwinding. She didn't travel all the way to Okayado only to bicker with Yuisu, yet she had done just that without even realizing. If she wanted to move forward, she needed to let go of her negativity and open her mind.
Yuisu watched as her mother investigated Hakuto's shrine, wondering if she was actually going to offer a prayer. Then Yuisu's eye caught on something bright and white inside the shrine. On the altar inside, held down by a small rock, was a large white feather tipped with black.
Hmm? Haru made an offering just now? Yuisu thought. I wonder what she prayed for?