Talks amongst the vapors

Hearing the name "Doctor," Airi's facial reaction seemed cold, devoid of any feelings as before hearing the name. "Hm. I assume you're tasked with watching over him," Airi assumed. No, more like she knew as of the moment this other mysterious person arrived (Number 10).

After a moment of silence, her suspicions were confirmed by one hundred percent. "Heh, is this the part where you say 'oh I'll take it from here' or something? Whatever, it's not like that matters anyway. Number 1 personally gave me commands to watch over the Void-kin, so if…" this mysterious person stated, letting Airi know.

"Number 10, I think you're sorely mistaken. Before you threaten me, remember your place, and mine. Getting rid of you would be annoying, not hard, and..." Hearing this bold statement come from Airi, or for some other reason known as 'the doctor,' whoever this Number 10 person was felt a sudden rush of adrenaline course through their veins.

"Leaders killing another can be problematic, not impossible." Knowing full well what Airi meant (Number 5), this other leader backed down by going silent. "Keep doing your job like a good little dog," Airi's voice, still cold and emotionless. After this, Airi left the area this all happened in, while the other pondered for a moment. "Those three creep me out. Better to be on her good side. Rumors are, she's killed the former 5th and 12th leaders." After this thought quickly retreated towards the back of this person's mind (Number 10), suddenly falling back into the shadows of the trees, seemingly disappearing.

Several hours later, back with Koku, he had just woken up, forgetting he smells not the best considering how the last few days were full of events from fighting to traveling. "I'll use the shower place here," Koku yawned as he left the room, making his way to the bath area of this inn, which was surprisingly empty considering it was first thing in the morning. "Maybe the other people are just waking up and still not here," he told himself, trying to take advantage of this and have a quick lone bath. In and out, as Koku thought of it.

After getting undressed, placing his clothing into a sliding bin, then marking it as used so that no one slid it open, Koku, with a towel, opened the door leading to the actual bathing room. "Hmmm, now that I think about it… when's the last time I got to bathe like this, with warm water? Maybe in the academy," Koku thought, sinking into the warm water, letting himself relax for a while, letting go of some stress. Roughly around twenty minutes after entering the actual bathing room, Koku heard a stumbling noise outside of the bathing room door. "Hmmm?" Hearing the noise, Koku stood up, hearing a voice on the other side of the door, and after waiting for a small moment, Koku saw and heard the door slide open, with a pretty noisy person coming through.

"Nothing's better than a warm toasty bath in the morning," this person said, walking through, not seeing Koku due to the water vapors not clearing up yet. As for Koku, who had just seen the door slide open, and heard the voice of a person who sounded quite familiar, he squinted his eyes, trying to see better. By this time, the vapors had become irrelevant due to the fact this other person had been walking forward the entire time and has now gotten close enough to the point they could both see each other.

Freezing up, both Koku and this other person, who Koku came to know as Airi, met each other's eyes, seeming shocked. While Koku questioned why she had gone into the guy's bathing area, Airi's eyes trailed elsewhere, letting out a teasing chuckle. "It's big," she laughed, covering her mouth, right underneath with a teasing smile. Koku, however, immediately fell into the water with a small blush of embarrassment. "Damn it… when did the towel fall!" Koku yelled in his head in panic. "Damn damn damn, I have to say something," Koku thought to himself, not wanting the situation to be any more awkward than it's already somehow gotten.

After a small moment of awkward silence in which Koku's thoughts scattered everywhere, Airi spoke up. "That aside, the new staff member misplaced the labels after cleaning them… an older staff member corrected the misplacing before anything could happen, since no one's usually here this early but…" Airi's head trailed off looking up at the right side, seemingly being a little nervous. "You and I are in here…" she finished, standing still as Koku was submerged under water with half of his face poking out.

Deciding to say something, he began to speak, making bubbles emerge underwater as his mouth was with the half of his face that was underwater, so he moved his head up and out of the water completely, picking up with what he was saying. "Might as well get into the water…" Koku muttered with the slightest hint of pink over his face.

Typically, something so simple wouldn't affect him, and although he had no feelings nor attachments to this girl (Airi), however, shortly after this situation unfolded, Koku's embarrassment died down almost entirely to the point he could speak clearly and not have his face pinkish.

Ten minutes after telling her she could enter the water and having short simple conversations, Koku began to speak after taking a short moment to catch his breath. "Thank you for the yesterday. Umm, today I'm going to continue on my way to where I have to go…" he stated, lowering his face halfway underwater once again. When doing this, she responded to Koku with a smile, lowering her head into the water, getting her hair wet. After this, she raised her head back up, shaking the water from her hair; and although for the moment, Koku wasn't paying attention to what she was saying meanwhile and zoned out, as he had caught a glimpse of something on Airi's back.

A tattoo of some sort. "Butterflies?" Koku muttered seeing the tattoo through the cover of the water vapors for a little less than three seconds. "Did your eyes get lost?" she asked Koku, splashing a little bit of water onto him in a playful gesture. "Not at all. Just saw something on your back," he stated with a bored look, sighing in the process.

Hearing this, Airi blushed slightly, muttering something very slowly, "I could show it to you if you really want to see what's on my back…" covering her nose and mouth, forming a diamond shape with her hands, Koku felt as if she had purposely made the tension in the air much greater than it really had to be. "I- sure… I'd like to see what's on your back," he replied, scratching the back of his head in a nervous look. He wasn't nervous but merely trying to seem that way, since he was way too curious about the tattoo which seemed a little odd and suspicious.

Sitting up and turning around, Airi slightly lowered the towel she had wrapped around the majority of her body, so Koku could get a clear look. "Five butterflies swirling… no more like flying around a heart in a circular pattern?" Koku pondered aloud, letting Airi hear him.

After a short amount of seconds, Airi fake coughed then followed it by chuckling. "Out of all the people who've seen it, you're the only one who's been interested in it. Then again, no one apart from the ladies who enter the baths see it." Hearing this, Koku moved his head away, and Airi turned back around, facing Koku now.

Seeing Koku's pondered gaze, she chuckled again, beginning to speak. "I got this tattoo because of how beautiful butterflies are, and because of what they can often represent. Peace, tranquility, joy, rebirth, and hope. Then there was this one time when I was much younger, a butterfly landed on my nose captivating my imagination as a child, haha." she nervously laughed afterwards asking Koku if he's ever had something similar like that happen to himself.

"There was a bunny once who…helped me and my mother." Keeping it very simple and trimmed down, Koku didn't say anything else from that, even keeping the part where the bunny or rabbit ended up as food in the stomachs of himself and his mother when he was much younger.

Mentioning this little brief event, Airi's eyes narrowed down onto Koku's eyes, seemingly becoming a different person for a singular moment. Her eyes just showed interest and a small fascination within. Koku, however, didn't notice the emotion behind her gaze, and after that, he decided that he's been in the bath for a long time now, so he got up completely, shocking Airi for a moment. While she gasped, Koku was covering himself with his towel after he tied it around himself, waist down.

As he finished, he looked at her shocked face, and bluntly muttered, looking off to the side, "What? you already saw it…just don't think about it or stare at me…" Koku's face wasn't pinkish at all, and this time the embarrassment was much more minimal and under control.

"Haha~ha, sure you go on ahead, I'll catch up with you before you leave the city," Airi told Koku off as he left the bathing area, quickly drying up and getting his things, dressing up, and leaving the inn.

"I'll drop by the adventurers guild for a quick moment," Koku thought to himself as he indeed went on to pass by the guild, even entering the building. When Koku entered, though, something the adventurers were talking about caught his ear. "Hey hey, did you hear about it? The Adventurers' Valor season is coming up in 3 months on August." One of the guys said to another who responded by telling him of a few adventurers that he thought would win.

"Yeah, I heard of it and the maverick brothers are going to win this hands down," the older man in the group said, sparking up an argument or debate amongst the rest of the men present. "Nah, Grace of templars leader has this in the bag," said a lady with a scar on her face. After this statement, other adventurers which weren't a part of the argument began to join in on this topic.

"The mavericks got this, I'm with you bro!" a guy hollered across the guild from the bar area. The parties of adventurers all began saying the names of the ones they thought were going to win and even began to place wagers way before any of those names they said were actually confirmed to even participate in Valor season.

Deciding this topic was somewhat boring, Koku went onto head over to the front desk when he suddenly heard a very tiny guy shout out. "Wouldn't get my hopes high if I was y'all! After all, there's lots of rising stars, like the new twin sisters from Hydropolis." Another person added onto the short guy's speech. "Hear the new twins go by nameless because they haven't chosen a name yet. I also hear that they have mysterious origins…" hearing this made Koku ponder for a brief moment.

"Maybe it's…" Koku thought as he snapped out of it and finally approached the lady at the front desk. "Oh hello there, haven't seen you around. What can I help you with?" she asked Koku with a smile bright on her face.

"I have a question, have you…"