Wasn’t the door already open? Ylinat had left, but who was there right now? The sound of footsteps came from behind him.

“We’re coming!” He heard Narumi’s voice.

Suddenly, a fear of a different sort filled him. He was sitting beside that intricate lamp, and he found himself hoping that the steam around him was thick enough. “I’m already in-”

Before he could finish, he saw Narumi and Shizue walk into his view from behind a rock wearing white linen towels. But then, they started removing them.

Look away! He thought in his panic. Whatever the fuck happens, do not look.

His eyes affixed themselves at the interesting spectacle of hot water falling into the pool in swirls of steam, floating away as gentle vapours. He thought there must be an outlet as well, since the water level remained fairly constant. A trivial and commonsensical deduction - but that is where he wanted his eyes to be glued.

His eyes just moved on his own, and he saw Shizue right in the moment of climbing down.

Fuck. The worst fucking time.

“Ahhh, I love this bath!” Narumi said. “Don’t you love – umm, I mean, how are you feeling, brother?” Her eyebrows knotting up, trying to show that … yes, it was her brother she was thinking about.

Thank you for the heads up, at least, Narumi.

“Son,” Shizue asked. “You alright?”

“Yes, the pain’s … going. I think.”

She was sitting beside him, and his sister sat opposite, so it was the two of them this side of the the stone lamp which illuminated the water from behind him. He didn’t dare turn his head to his left. He saw Narumi splash water on him, with some reprimand from their mother, and then dip inside.

“Are you really okay, kid?” Shizue asked him.

“I really am.”

“You look red. Like you have a fever.” She put her hand on his forehead. “No point in measuring the temperature here in a hot spring, though. Do you want to sit outside for a moment?”

“No!”

“Alright,” she said, cocking an eyebrow. “I was scared for a moment there. I’ve never seen you in so much pain… well, in quite a long time.” She sighed. “For the last three years, I just wanted you to open your eyes and see me once again. And now, look at you.” She reached up to his cheek and squeezed them. “Here you are, acting all shy! Oh, I’m just so blessed.”

They heard a shower of water from behind the tall rocks. Narumi started singing a song he hadn’t heard before.

“Brother, do you want a shower? I can bring this one there!” she said, mid-song.

“No.” There was no way he was getting out like this.

“Slide down like this,” Shizue said, and she slid downwards, till the back of her head rested on the rock, and the water level ended up near her chin.

For which I am grateful.

“No, … I’m better off - it’ll be too hot like that.”

“You know, long time back, you and your brother had come here to recover from a certain tournament in Hisaka. Ah, memories!” she sighed. “I know you don’t remember it. I’m just … you know?”

“Nostalgic. And, thank you,” he said. “I don’t remember it, but at least I know I did things. You said a tournament?”

“Yes… these are healing waters. So, we stopped over to make your bodies rest.”

“Healing waters?”

“Legends say that in the mountains there are certain hot springs that heal all wounds, where a man will be rejuvenated no matter how close to death’s door he might be. Some claim that this one comes from one them, initially. It mixes into the mountain streams. A part of their power remains in the waters.”

“Interesting,” he said. “What sort of a tournament?”

Shizue was quiet for a moment, so he turned around to see her countenance, and realized that the patterned lantern was throwing its yellow light towards her, and that the waters of the hot spring were still enough that the light could illuminate the things hidden underneath the rising vapours just a bit too much.

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He looked away in a hurry.

“A tournament of the swords,” she said. “You were very good back then. Your brother, and you imitating him, had taken upon yourselves to fulfill your father’s wishes. Perhaps that was just the talent - but I remember telling him - don’t let him go, he’s nine, he can’t fight grown boys. Hey, but what was I to know about swordsmanship? Naoya won, and you went to the final, and won praise and applause. I sometimes think the world is mad - the noble houses will let their children be maimed for life, or worse, if they could just get into the Orders of the Knights. I just didn’t want you to go through pain, you know?”

He felt a chill in his right ankle. “I was a good swordsman?”

“As good as your brother - but, watching you lose consciousness, your clothes bleeding red, in front of me was the … second scariest moment of my life.”

“I have brought you a lot of pain,” Kuro said. “I am sorry.”

For a moment, he looked at the darkness, and at Narumi playing at the farthest end of end of the pool. Silence, except of her splashing and singing. He turned to look at Shizue and she was smiling in a pleasant sort of surprise.

“That is so cute!” she cried. “The past you would never say something like that! YOUNG LADY! Do not splash hot water. Sit here, and wrap your hair in the towel.”

Narumi pouted a frown with a great showing of frustration. She walked in the pool till she got to her towel, and started drying her hair in it, reluctantly. Then, while she was sitting down, splashed water on Kuro with a circular swing of her arm on the water.

Kuro felt the hot drops on his face, but looked away.

“Yes, Miss Karahashi?” Shizue said. Narumi had raised her arm.

“Mother, I want to complain.”

“Okay?”

“He is boring!” She pointed at him.

“Narumi,” Shizue said. “Firstly, your brother has just recovered from a medical incident. Secondly, it’s proper to sit in the hot spring with respect. It is a time to meditate in the quietness–”

A whirl of splashes crashed on Narumi, and she replied back in earnest. Water was being thrown across the seating area, in attacks of rapidly increasing intensity.

“I wish,” Shizue said, as she got caught in the crossfire, “that I could teach you both about ETIQUETTES!”

“I maybe weak right now,” Kuro declared. “But, I will never be weak enough to lose a game of splashes to a stupid kid.” Just for good measure, he waited till he saw Narumi turn again, and splashed a two arms sweep of water on her head again.

“Hey!” she said. “I wasn’t ready!”

“Your loss,” Kuro said, giving her a thumbs down.

She splashed one back, but Kuro had his arms up to defend it, so his lead was maintained.

“You can splash me,” Narumi said, “but can you chase me?”

“I can float on the water!” And he could. For a moment, he forgot all about his troubles, about the loss of his memories, about his aching foot, and all he had in his mind, just then, was to chase his sister down. He even forgot about the shame he was feeling, that the others didn’t. He crawled in the water, his leg floating. That side of the pool was deeper and darker. The light falling from indirectly from the rocks and hidden lamps.

He felt a spray of cold water on his back.

“Hey!” There was a squeal of laughter. “I’ll get you, you little shit.”

The cold spray came from the darkness once again. He wasn’t quick enough, and as he half turned, he was struck again.

Narumi laughed. “Fuck you!” And sprayed a stream of cold water on his face.

“HEY!” Shizue screamed. “LANGUAGE!”

----------------------------------------

After a few more minutes of chasing around, without any bad language, and finding his own cold water shower head, and before he could put it to good use, Narumi decided to go back early. Kuro said he would follow, but then he thought better and decided he would go back after the ladies.

He came back to the patterned lamp and found Shizue sitting in the water with a towel wrapped on her head. Her eyes were closed, and she was following her own advice about hot spring etiquettes. Narumi sped past them, drying her hair, making some sort of daredevil statement by running on the wet hot spring floor.

Kuro decided to follow his mother’s advice, and sit there with his eyes closed. The door closed with a soft thud.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t feel much pain. It’s magical.”

“Even better. This has something to do with spirits. Although, I’m sure if you go moving around like that with abandon, you will find your pain coming back.”

“Hmm.”

“I have something to tell you. Your father is seeking a match for your sister. He plans a betrothal sometime this week. Perhaps to one of Prince Hidenori’s courtiers.”

Kuro was astounded. “What?”

“If I have to guess, either the Nagatani or Akagawa, or maybe even the Ichijo, since his ambitions seem to have brightened recently.”

“Mother,” Kuro said. “She is a CHILD.”

“Son,” she said, in a whisper. “There is a reason I waited till she went away, and we had some privacy.”

“But, look at her!”

“I know. I am not taking his side.”

“How is this even allowed? Surely, there is a law against this?”

“I wish … but, this is just the way of things. Girls of a marriageable age are to be married away. Perhaps amongst the commoners, they wait. But, amongst the noble houses, girls get married off as early as thirteen. Your grandfather got me married off at sixteen, and there, I was lucky.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“I need your help, Kuro. Naoyasu will do as your father tells him. He brings a lot of power to our family. A lot of prestige goes with being a Knight of the Ashen Rangers. Usually, I have to fight with them alone. Now, your voice will matter. You think of me as conniving, don’t you? You’ve just come back from this … trauma, and I’m here talking about a mother’s problems. This time, will you support me?”

“Yes, I will. I will respect Narumi’s wishes.”

“I’ve raised a good kid,” she said. Her hand swiftly rose up and pinched his cheeks one way and another. “Such a goodsy woodsy kid! Ohhh, my heart!”

She got up soon after. “How long will you sit in the hot waters? You’ll get a heat shock. Come on, get up. Your skin will become wrinkled like an old woman’s.”

“I’m fine.” He really was. “I’ll be there in a while. You go ahead.”

“Alright. Come back soon. I fear we have overshot the dinner time…”

Shizue climbed up, but this time Kuro’s eyes remained fixed at the tap where the steaming water poured in. He heard her walk away, and he thought that there were problems in his life he was barely beginning to understand.