Reputation to maintain

The hidden assailant got ever closer to the bathing Yuki, uttering these words to her…

“Ee-oek?”

…revealing itself to be a snow monkey.

Sighing a breath of relief, she rested her wakizashi and sat back down in the hot spring.

“You’re lucky that you’re only a monkey, because if you were one of those bandits that are plaguing these lands the white snow would be painted red.”

As Yuki let the hot water stream over her nubile body, she took in the quiet nature around her. How the wind rustled the leaves on the trees. How the birds sang their peaceful songs. How the snow monkey grabbed her clothes and jumped away. How-

“Wait?!” Yuki rose up, shocked at the blatant theft. She stepped out of the hot spring, trying to give chase to the primate. But when she saw the monkey jumping in the tree and leaped away from sight, she decided to sit back in the water.

“Unbelievable, how could this happen to me?” Cursed Yuki, as she covered her breasts with her arms. With these cold temperatures, she couldn’t be searching for the monkey, or she’d die from hypothermia. She knew there was a village, not even three minutes away from here. But that would mean that she’d have to expose herself. And no one had seen her like this, not since…

But being nude wasn’t her worst concern. She hated that she looked shameless, foolish, weak. But if she put up a brave front…

“My God!” Shouted an elderly man.

“Has that woman lost her mind?!” A housewife whispered to her neighbor.

“Is she a courtesan?” A young man asked his friend excitedly.

All eyes were on Yuki, her sheathed wakizashi tied to her waist with her sash. Her sight was one of arrogance, unbroken and tunneled straight ahead. But in her mind she almost died of shame.

The local lord exited his home and was taken by the naked beauty. Concerned, he asked, “Young lady, what happened to you?”

Unblinkingly, Yuki lied. “I got mugged. Twenty-five to one. There was little I could do.”

“You poor thing!”

“I do need any clothes you could give me. I won’t be too picky.”

The lord looked a little ashamed, averting his gaze. “I am terribly sorry, but I’m afraid that won’t be possible…”