Book 2: Chapter 14

With the light flickering on us, we were still hidden under the bush. My mind shot into overdrive, and I immediately came up with a solution to get us out of our predicament. With a quick motion, I grabbed the top of Kira’s blouse. Several buttons broke off as her chest was exposed to me, still trapped with a standard white bra. Kira gasped, her eyes widening in shock. Secondly, I unbuckled my pants, giving her a wink.

“I said put your hands up. Come out from back there?” The voice demanded.

Looking from her chest to my pants, a realization covered her face and a blush crossed her cheeks. The pair of us slowly stood up. However, neither of us put out hands up. I pretended to struggle to get my pants buckled, while she covered her chest with her blouse desperately, trying to avoid looking at the man who caught them.

The person who was shining a light at them wasn’t a policeman or anything like that. He was one of the proprietors of the establishment, and probably only even mentioned police to try to scare us. Furthermore, the old man was expecting to see a pair of peeping toms, but instead a boy and a girl who seemed to be in the middle of something that appeared to be sexual came out. Naturally, that affected him and he blushed and turned away.

“I’m sorry… sir.” I said respectfully, bowing my head.

“What are you two doing back here?” The man said, trying to avoid looking at Kira while she tried to rebutton what was left of her blouse while still peeking.

“Ah… my wife and I are recently married.” I proceeded to lie immediately. “And we were looking for a place for our honeymoon.”

“Is that so?” The man’s eyes narrowed a moment suspiciously.

“Yes!” Kira nodded, finally repairing her outfit enough that her breasts weren’t exposed, even though she was showing much more cleavage than before. “My husband says a place never shows their real face at the front door, so he wanted to see if your establish was worth it. We’d read reviews and they were mixed.”

“And then my wife here…” I jumped, laughing awkwardly. “and I was overcome with the romantic mood of this location. It really is beautiful. With the stars and the night sky, we couldn’t help ourselves and indulged just a little. You know how newlyweds are.”

“Especially at your young age…” The guy said, slowly nodding.

I smiled and put my arm around Kira. She gave a toothy smile as well, her hand pinching me as she wrapped it around my hip. We were old enough that it was technically possible were childhood sweethearts marrying fresh out of school. At least, I was hoping that it was believable. As for my camera, I was smart enough to leave it lying in the bushes. That would certainly scream that we were perverts.

“Uh… We’ve decided. We’d actually like to get a room for the night. I can smell the hot spring from here and I really want to enjoy it.”

“Are you sure about that sweetie?” Kira asked, pinching me harder.

“I think it’s for the best… honey…” I responded through gritted teeth while keeping the smile on my face.

The pair of us stood in the darkness with a light aimed at our faces for what felt like minutes before the guy finally lowered it. “You young ones… always the trouble makers.”

His voice seemed to hold a bit of affection as if he was remembering a time from his own youth. He turned around and began walking away. The old man walked with a stoop, his hands behind his back. The pair of us looked at each other until he stopped and shot a look back over his shoulder.

“Well, you coming?”

I grabbed the camera, stuffed it in my duffle bag, and then followed the man. Kira followed behind me, pulling on my elbow and then whispering roughly in my ear.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? We should just get out of here immediately!”

“We still haven’t confirmed our parents are here, right?” I asked. “Isn’t that why you came? To see for yourself?”

Kira lowered her head and quieted down as the pair of us were led into the lobby. It was a beautiful lobby with a large aquarium and a fountain piece. There was an old woman who was behind the counter. Instantly, I had the impression that she owned the hot springs with the man.

“Did you find those peeping toms, dear?” The old lady asked.

“No… it was… newlyweds.” The man responded, laughing softly.

“Oh, how scandalous.” She responded, putting her glasses and giving us both an eyeful with squinty eyes that looked like they could barely see three feet in front of her. “My, what a pretty couple. Why are you here this evening?”

“We’d like to stay the night,” I said and then whispered in Kira’s ear. “Uh… can you spot me on this one? I’m out of money.”

“You…” Kira shot me a look, but then sighed and pulled out her information.

“You must be twenty to rent in this hotel.” The old lady said, “You are twenty, yes?”

Kira blushed but handed a card to the old lady without blinking. I curiously looked at it after she ran it and put it back on the counter. The age did indeed say 20, although I knew Kira to only be 17 years old. That meant that this was a counterfeit! I was actually really surprised. What would Kira, the student council president, be doing with a counterfeit license? The age limit for drinking was 20, so her license allowed her to buy booze that even I couldn’t get access to.

The way I saw Kira started to change. There definitely must be a dark side to her that I wasn’t really aware of. I had always seen her as a bit of a goody two shoes. However, that original vision of her had been shaken in a moment. Kira had a savings far better than my own, and we were about to get a room without any trouble. The process went smoothly and the old man graciously brought us to a special room, while winking to me several times and making such chitchat.

“Have a wonderful stay, and just ask for anything. We’ll get you anything you request. When you stay under our roof, we will provide everything you need!” The old man declared politely.

The building used a lot of traditional Japanese architecture that wasn’t seen very much anymore. Our room had tatami mats, a single large futon mattress, and shoji doors. The man gave one last polite bow and the pair of us were closed off in our room together. As soon as she was sure he had left, she spun around and glared at me with a flush.

“What are you doing, Hakaru? Why did I have to spend all that money for a night at a resort like this?”

“I already said, we need to catch our parents in the act, right?”

“Catch them, not be caught by them!” Kira snapped, “How do you think we’ll be able to keep them from recognizing us while we stay here? How are we going to catch them at all?”

“Did you not notice the signs up all over the place?” I asked, acting completely at ease.

“What signs?” Kira crossed her arms. “I was a bit distracted to be casually looking around!”

“Well, this is the week before Halloween. I guess they’re doing some Halloween party tomorrow. This entire weekend is costume weekend. All guests are encouraged to wear masks. It honestly sounds a little suspicious to me, but for our purposes, it’s perfect.

“Everyone can wear masks?” She asked, frowning.

“Of course…”

There were actually two masks sitting on our table, I grabbed them both and tossed one to her. You couldn’t go into a hot spring in full costume, so it was just the masks. There were classic festival masks. The one I tossed to Kira was that of a cute looking kitty complete with ears. It covered half of her face and had little blue designs drawn across it. It looked well made and a bit cute. As for my own, it was the face of a fox, with a red design on it.

“If everyone wears masks, your dad and my mom will be wearing them too!” Kira snapped.

“Relax, the masks are optional and we’re specifically looking for them. Meanwhile, they won’t have even an inkling we’d be there. As for my father, he’s home so infrequently and we barely ever talk. I really doubt he’s going to recognize me.” As I spoke, I had walked over to the closet, and was pulling out robes; they really did provide everything!

“Well… as for my mom… I don’t know…” Kira lowered her head. “Maybe… maybe we’re both wrong. Maybe we won’t see them here at all.”

“In that case, we should just enjoy ourselves.” I gave Kira my best smile.

Kira turned away, “Hakaru… I… I’m seeing someone…”

Her words felt like a kick in the gut that I never would have seen coming. Seriously, I didn’t expect those words to matter to me in the least. We had not been close friends in many years. I had dated many women and even fooled around. I had known that Kira was once interested in me. Perhaps I had taken that knowledge for granted. Now, she bluntly stated that she was in a relationship with someone else. It wasn’t like I had wanted something to happen. In fact, if she didn’t have a partner, there would have been no advantage in having sex with her. She would have just been extra garbage. Her being in a relationship made her more valuable to me, and more interesting. Yet, that didn’t make me happy in the slightest.

She was my friend. At least, she had been my friend once. After the fake relationship with Derek and the betrayal from Akiko, she might be the only true friend I had ever had. Thus, I didn’t want to see her as a temptation. I definitely didn’t want to trick her into cheating on her boyfriend and causing her pain and strife. She wasn’t someone like Akiko. She was a good girl. Wasn’t she? I remembered the licensed. Did I even know the real Kira anymore? Our relationship had drifted apart such a long time ago…

“Ah… I didn’t mean anything like that…” I explained, wiping the smile off my face. “I just meant… as friends… I’m sorry…”

“No…” Kira shook her head, looking a bit guilty herself. “I shouldn’t have just burst out and said it like that. I just wanted to be clear. There is only one bed here, and I didn’t want you to think that I was… I mean… I didn’t want you to… I just… you understand, right?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I understand. Let’s not let any of that get in the way of the mission, right? My father, your mother.”

Kira nodded, and then let out a cry. “Wh-what are you doing?”

“I’m going to the co-ed spring.” I said, pulling down my pants. “If we’re going to find them, it will be there.”

“Th-the coed?” Kira covered her eyes so she couldn’t see me naked, but I distinctly suspected with how intent she was staring that there was a bit of a crack in her fingers.

“Right… you don’t have to go if you want? They might not even be out tonight. I’ll just call it reconnaissance.”

“N-n-no!” Kira shook her head even with her hands over her eyes. “I’ll go!”

“You sure?” I asked. “You’ll be naked, and I won’t be the only guy there that can see.”

“I-I-I know that!” Kira shot back defensively. “But I promised I would see this through to the end. I won’t be satisfied until I remove all doubt!”

“Okay…” I spoke wryly as I pulled off the rest of my clothing and threw my robe on.

“Just… turn around!” She ordered.

“Eh? I’m going to see you in the spring…”

“I know!” She shrieked. “Just turn around for now!”

“Ah… okay…” I did as she asked, and listened to the rustling of her clothing as she too changed into nothing but a robe.

“Okay… you can turn back.” She said

I turned back and gulped. Her twin tails were gone and her hair flowed down her back. She was wearing a robe that only went as far south as her upper thighs, hinting at what was barely hidden. Her legs were white, smooth, and long. She wore a cat mask, and it gave her a sexy, mysterious vibe. I seriously considered jumping her just like I had jumped my sister. With some effort, I broke my eyesight from her body.

“Well… shall we go?”

The pair of us grabbed two toiletry kits that were provided by the hotel. As we did that, I glanced over at her one more time.

“If we do find our parents in there… then what?” I asked.

“What? Then I know my mother has been cheating on my father.”

“And? Will you tell your father the truth?”

“That would destroy him?”

“Do you tell your mother and make her break it off with father…”

“I-I don’t know…” Kira looked away.

“You might want to consider it. What happens after…”

“Have you considered what to do after?” Kira asked quietly.

“I have…”

“What will you do, Hakaru?”

I lowered my fox mask to hide my expression. “Ask me that again when you’re ready to take the next step.”

Kira hesitated for a moment but finally nodded. The two of us slid open the door and started heading to the co-ed baths. It was time to discover the truth.