Day 44: Women's Showers (2nd Shift)

[hajike_tobiume]

The sting of the water on Momo's wounds reminded her exactly where each and every burn was. Between that and the clear plastic wrapping the nurse placed around the long cut up her arm to her shoulder, she decided as little time in the actual spray would be wise. Sitting on a stool out of the direct stream, she went about scrubbing the grit and

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[mind_the_sukima]

Ah, shower time. It was a little gross to only get this twice a week, but considering that no one walked into breakfast smelling like blood, Yukari had to assume that some form of cleaning happened while they were unconscious. While this may not have been satisfactory for most people, as a youkai who often simply twisted reality into a state of cleanliness rather than take an actual bath, this sort of logic was good enough for her. Still, it was nice to get a chance to soak.

There were other benefits to the shower, such as the clearly naked ninja over there. Unfortunately, the girl had found relative safety in the form of Raine, though that seemed to be backfiring from the looks of it. As it was, Yukari wasn't about to barge in on them. She'd just subtly harass the ninja.

Walking over to a nearby shower head, the youkai turned on the water, shivering a bit at the initial cold and sighing as it warmed up. Yukari pulled mass of long, blonde hair over her shoulder, ostensibly to wash it, making visible both the bite mark on her neck and the long, red scratches on her back, which she promptly turned to face Sheena.

This action also brought her to facing the cute young girl that she could only think the nurses had made a mistake by placing her in the eighteen and older showers. Yukari gave her a pleasant smile.

"Hello," she greeted as she started working at her hair. So much work to do herself. "Make it through the night okay?"

[kagurazuki]

Kagura had set about washing up, but it wasn't long before the showers started to fill up. A woman with long blonde hair stood next to her, but she tried to be polite and only look straight ahead and kept to herself. Still, it was rude not to talk when addressed, and she did seem pretty nice.

"Good morning," she said shyly, her soft voice barely carrying over the sound of the water. "I... ah... y-yes. We didn't leave our room, we were u-um... taking a night off. It was kind of... nice."

[mind_the_sukima]

Aw, how cute, she was shy. That sort of innocence always left Yukari on the border between either playing nice or teasing them mercilessly. She'd go with the former at the moment.

"It certainly sounds nice," she agreed pleasantly. Yukari had also taken the night off, so to speak. It had been very nice indeed. She glanced over her shoulder as she turned her head to work at a knot in her hair and flashed Sheena a smile the girl inevitably glanced her way before turning back to the other girl. "It's always good to take a break now and then instead of running around in the dark. Especially after the night before." Just the memory of the zombies was enough to make her grimace momentarily; she resisted the urge to start scrubbing her body frantically at the thought and continued combing out her hair with her fingers before grabbing the shampoo.

"And if the bulletin's indication, last night was not a night to be out and about." Dying at all in such a traumatizing fashion had to be terrible, but in the middle of a hostile environment? Even those who didn't die would be put in danger if their companions suddenly did, and from the reports she'd read, any other injuries unrelated to the mysterious deaths were still there come morning.

[kagurazuki]

It was hard to tell if the woman was being facetious or not, but she seemed genuine, at least. And a whole lot friendlier than Haine had been. Kagura rubbed some of the cheap soap down her arms. Meeting new people was always so difficult.

"Y-yes. That was really scary." She glanced down at the tiles, preferring not to think too much on the zombie episode or all the awful things that happened because of it.

"Did something happen last night? I didn't... get to read the bulletin yet."

[mind_the_sukima]

"Oh, yes," agreed Yukari, lathering up her hair and washing. "I missed it, but apparently it was quite the spectacle. Mysterious messages in binary as someone took over I.R.I.S., the robot from yesterday's announcements. Then people started seeing dead people they knew." She gave the girl a conspiratorial look as if she were telling some great secret rather than relaying terrible news. She leaned towards the girl, her voice low. "And then they died."

Then she straightened again and returned to washing her hair, as if there was nothing foreboding about what she'd said.

"Except those that died are turning up alive and well anyway this morning," she finally added with a shrug. "Apparently death isn't as permanent as it used to be."

Finally done washing, she turned towards the shower to start rinsing out her hair, also happening to give the ninja nearby a nice look at Yukari's body in profile, though at a glance, the youkai couldn't be sure if she was watching or not.

[kagurazuki]

Even with the hot water, Kagura couldn't help but shiver. Seeing dead people? And even more people dying? She swallowed back the fear as best she could, crossing her arms over her chest briefly in an almost automatic gesture. She and Bridget hadn't seen anything like that. Maybe it really was better to stay in the rooms at night and leave the awful things for people who could handle it better.

"I... that's..." she started a few times, unsure of how to react to the news. "W-well, I'm glad they're okay now. But how terrible for them."

[mind_the_sukima]

Aww... Yukari hadn't meant to scare her (that much).

"W-well, they seem shaken up, certainly, but at least they didn't actually die," she comforted her. There was no reason to feel guilty; she would have found out anyway. Still, she hadn't meant to traumatize her. "At least you didn't have anything like that happen to you." Or happen to Yukari, but it would sound a little selfish to say that out loud.

"Say, what's your name?" she asked suddenly, hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction. "I'm Yukari."