Hurry to the bathrooms.

(chapter originally by Phantom Pen on writing.com)

Chihiro quickly made her way toward the bathrooms. Or at least as quickly as she could while keeping the books safely against her body. Rather than simply walk, the naked bookworm awkwardly shuffled along sideways, keeping her exposed backside pointed away from the other store patrons, grazing lightly against the bookshelves as she crept past. Each coarse caress of a book felt like a lecherous graze of fingertips to the nervous young woman, and she was a wreck of nerves by the time she was by the detectors in front of the bathroom.

Squinting, Chihiro took a moment to make absolutely sure that she was looking at the door into the women's restroom, not at all liking the idea of accidentally bolting into the wrong one. The pink blur surrounding the vaguely humanoid figure within the sign was enough to convince Chihiro that she had the right room. Now for the most difficult part...

Chihiro took a deep breath and looked around once more. She couldn't make out any details, but she wanted to at least be fairly confident that nobody was looking in her direction. It seemed like she was seeing only the backs of people's heads, and that would have to be enough. Quickly, Chihiro released her grip on the books covering her front and, before they even hit the ground, dashed through the door and into the relative safety of the bathroom.

Chihiro's heart was pounding, convinced that someone would follow her into the bathroom any second now to confront her nudity. When nobody did, Chihiro could scarcely believe her luck. She did it! She made it here unseen! ...Now what?

It was the middle of the day, and it would be quite awhile before the shop closed for the night. There was no telling how many people would have to use the bathroom in that time, and even less telling if any of those people would be friendly or willing to help the naked girl. She was safe for now, but all it would take to change that is being caught by the wrong person.

Of course, that would require her to stay in the bathroom. The narrow window near the top of the bathroom offered a potential escape, or at least it looked like it. It was a bit too blurry to tell how narrow the window really was, and the only way to know if she'd fit would be to try. Was escape really worth the risk? Maybe it'd be better to just try trusting people for once...

Weighing her options, none of which were exactly great, Chihiro resolved to-