Please to Kitsune-sama!

Chapter 135 : Kitsune-sama Enjoys Itou Hot Springs

The top floor— a Japanese-Western suite with an open-air bath. That was the type of room prepared for Inari.

The Japanese-style room had tatami mats, a low chabudai table, floor chairs with cushions. The Western-style room had two beds. Out on the veranda, there was an open-air bath shaped like a large ceramic tub. Both from the veranda and from the bath, one could gaze out at Sagami Bay, making for a splendid view.

The only flaw was that some of the facilities were a bit dated—but Inari paid no mind. She had once lived in a house furnished with outdated appliances and found nothing lacking. With this much, there was nothing at all to complain about. If anything—

“Such luxury! The view from the sixth floor is truly marvelous… this is a first for me.”

Neither the abandoned village, nor her first home, nor even her current low-rise apartment had offered such scenery. But here—six floors up, with the sea right there—it was a view that cleansed the soul. The wind made the waves a bit rough, but even that, Inari thought, added charm.

“Still… though it looks beautiful, the sea now teems with strange horrors…”

She tilted her head.

“Then again—perhaps it has always been dangerous, only now more so?”

Yes, whether one was threatened by the forces of nature or by monsters, the sea was dangerous all the same. Only the threats had multiplied.

In any case, there was plenty of time before the mayor’s arrival. So what to do? The answer was obvious: bathe.

The open-air bath, fed by natural hot spring water, was already brimming. Humming cheerfully, Inari passed through the dressing room, entered the bath, and slowly sank into the steaming water.

Atsuage, too, plopped in and began to sink, so Inari scooped it up and let it perch on the rim, where it looked content.

“Ahhhh… hot springs are indeed the best.”

Like Atami’s, the Itou hot spring water was clear and colorless, soothing both body and spirit. Though Inari was always in perfect health, such things were about mood—and mood was important.

Though called an “open-air bath,” for privacy reasons the view was limited mostly to the sky. But the mix of hot spring steam and fresh outside air created a most pleasant atmosphere—that was the true charm of an outdoor bath.

“Perhaps I should live in a hot spring town. Atami is good, but Itou is fine as well. If so, then perhaps I should travel the whole country…”

She trailed off, remembering. Akihabara, then Shinjuku. Both times, the temporary dungeons had been of a kind that only she could clear.

Yet Japan was not only Tokyo. There was Shizuoka with its Atami and Itou, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido—the country was vast.

And yet, the dungeons that required her always appeared in Tokyo. She had heard of no such cases elsewhere, and no summons had come. It was as if the dungeons were appearing for her.

And more—strong awakeners were clustered in Tokyo, and yet peace was somehow maintained across all Japan. Could that not be the same phenomenon?

“…And still, the monster disaster happened. If the ‘System’ were truly mankind’s ally, it would never have brought monsters to this world in the first place. Then does that make it our enemy? No… one cannot say that either. Hmph. The mystery only deepens.”

Sinking deeper into the water, Inari thought. The key to the riddle was not yet in her hands. Likely the System was indeed an ally, and dungeons, too, were bound to it. But the “godlike beings”—they seemed not to be its friends. That much she knew.

“You too are a mystery, Atsuage.”

Inari spoke to the creature, but it neither turned nor answered. Atsuage was a “Building-Block Golem,” a monster. Pet or not, it still had fighting strength and could even level up. That meant monsters were not entirely humanity’s enemy. And that, Inari could understand.

“Yōkai, too, may harm or help humans. Perhaps monsters are the same?”

Sugawara no Michizane, after all, was both a god of learning and of thunder, revered and feared. Non-human beings could curse or bless. Monsters might be no different.

“In that case… it is as though we’ve returned to the Age of the Gods. Yet it is not as if Izanagi and Izanami have thrust the Heavenly Spear once again…”

“Well, not that I’ve ever met either of them,” she said with a light laugh.

However it might be, the world was still in the midst of great change. Perhaps the truth she sought lay further ahead. But such ponderings melted away before the bliss of the hot spring, dissolving into steam.