Chapter 542: I Am Trying Here to not Hurt you Girls! Please, Cooperate!
“Wh-Why are you asking me…?” Yuki’s pale cheeks had flushed a delicate rose that stood out sharply against the cooler blue undertone of her skin.
She stole glances toward my exposed chest—quick, almost guilty, yet unable to stop herself—before looking away again toward the steam-wreathed doorway.
“Th… Though… they do appear enticing.”
Yuki?!
Sophia and Aria both gulped at the same time, the soft wet sound lost under the low hush of the changing room.
Their eyes stayed locked on the newly bared skin of my chest.
One after the other they leaned in and took turns pressing the tips of their fingers against the tight little peaks of my nipples.
Sophia’s touch came first—light, testing, the pad of her finger circling once before giving a gentle, deliberate poke that sent a sharp spark racing straight down my spine.
Aria followed immediately, her darker finger pressing firmer, holding the pressure a fraction longer while her flushed face stayed only inches away.
The warm air of the room suddenly felt too thin. I could feel every small shift of their bare breasts against my arms as they leaned closer, the soft weight of flesh, the dampness of the skins still carrying the heat of the baths.
All I could do was stand there restrained and pray hard that neither of them would notice anything that would give away my real gender.
“Geez, e… enough already!” I twisted my wrists against the many hands still holding me and tried to yank free. The movement only made the circle of bare bodies press tighter, like I was being constricted by a boa. “You’ve had your fun, right?”
My voice came out rougher than I wanted.
Heat still burned across my face and down the exposed line of my throat.
Every time one of them poked again the small buds tightened further under their fingertips, and I could feel the traitorous sensitivity racing lower even while panic clawed at the back of my mind.
Yikes… Everything was turning me on…!
“What are you talking about?” Aria’s face was flushed a deeper red than usual, the color rising high across her sharp cheekbones.
Her eyes, however, were not on my chest anymore.
They were jammed straight onto my crotch, dark and intent, as though the remaining fabric there had become the only thing in the room worth looking at.
She continued; “You can’t enter the bath with this on… Let us take it off.”
Her hands were already moving again, fingers hooking into the waistband and starting to pull. The soft fabric dragged against my hips. Cool air kissed the newly uncovered strip of skin just above the bone.
“Wait!” I lunged forward with both hands and clamped onto her wrists, stopping the downward yank. “I can do that myself! Just stop pulling!”
The words came out sharp. My grip was tight enough that I could feel the rapid flutter of her pulse under my thumbs. Any further, and I’d break her bone: I wasn’t really sure how much force was the extent for some people’s body.
I am trying here to not hurt you girls! Please, cooperate!
For a single heartbeat she actually paused… then Sophia slid in from the other side, laughing under her breath, and joined the effort.
Soft, determined fingers joined Aria’s.
Then more hands appeared—bystanders, the other women who had been watching with open interest.
Suddenly it was not two pairs of hands but half a dozen, all working at the remaining clothes, tugging, peeling, trying to get me completely naked while I twisted and pushed back.
But they think I’m a girl, right? That’s a big problem.
Wait, do girls do this stuff to themselves secretly?
Or do I somehow look like something different from a human to them—something they feel the need to strip without hesitation?
The heat of so many bodies, the soft brush of breasts against my arms and back, the determined pull of fingers at my waistband, all of it felt far too damn arousing.
I twisted my head, searching the room for help.
But my frequent helper, Eric, was nowhere in sight. Of course he wasn’t. He had gone to the male changing room with Sapphire.
I spread my senses outward, reaching toward the male side of the bathhouse, hoping it might still be a good moment to send him a quick telepathic cry for help.
The search came back empty. He and Sapphire had already left the room.
They must have gone ahead to the mixed bath where the whole party had planned to meet.
Then a thin thread of hope surfaced: the girls would have to put on some kind of covering once everyone was together… right?
“Hey, Sophia!” I pivoted hard toward her, making the movement sharp and urgent enough that it actually interrupted the pulling hands for a moment. “If we go to the mixed bath, we would put something on, right? Wh-Where is the outfit?”
Sophia tilted her head, her hair sliding across one bare shoulder. Confusion flickered across her delicate features.
“Huh? We are going to a special mixed bath reserved for just our party members…”
“…So…?”
“…So we can all go naked. We always go in naked.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
I don’t know, should I be happy about that?!
My heart skipped four full beats in a row. A wave of dizziness rolled through my skull and the edges of the lantern light blurred for a second.
The hands on my clothes resumed their work almost immediately, the brief pause already over, the battle for my remaining clothing starting up again with fresh determination.
Crap.
I had bathed with several women before ever setting out on this journey. In Verdant Spire, in Shishi-no-su, even in Fairylynch, it had somehow felt more normal and ordinary.
Why did every second here feel far more lewd?
The humid air, the soft wet sounds of skin shifting against skin, the open way their eyes kept dropping to my crotch, the unhurried certainty in their fingers as they tried to strip me… none of it felt casual.
And how could these same women soak completely naked with Sapphire and Eric without a shred of shame?
That thought pushed me to check again with my perception:
I swept through all five of the special mixed baths in the establishment, but Eric’s presence did not register in any of them.
I did find Sapphire, though; happily swimming alone in one of the bowls, arms and legs cutting through the water with pure childish energy.
Don’t swim in the bath, brat!
But there was still no trace of Eric.
And when I thought about it further, Heka was nowhere in the changing room either. She had simply left me to my suffering.
I looked around once more, pushing my senses farther.
There—off to one side of the larger bathhouse complex—I found the Amazonian masochist calmly occupying a men’s bath.
The men sharing the water with her looked more scared and confused than sexually aroused and excited.
Their postures were tight, eyes carefully averted from the powerful, scarred, completely naked woman lounging as if she owned the place.
Well… Heka had allegedly slapped a dragon to death with her bare hand.
I supposed that kind of reputation made ordinary excitement feel like something they were not allowed to feel.
Seeing as there was truly no other way out, I reached for one of the abilities I normally preferred to keep hidden.
I used [Reality Jump] right there in front of thr hungry, horny women.
The world folded for less than a heartbeat. When it unfolded again I was already somewhere else.
As expected, none of them noticed the exact moment I vanished.
Their hands kept moving, still grappling with the empty folds of my clothes and with one another, each of them still convinced they were wrestling the last of the fabric off me.