Chapter Two: The Boarding House

It was finally time. His curiosity piqued, Shinsei approached the massive wisteria tree in the clearing behind the boarding house. Its blooming violet petals contrasted beautifully against the darkening eastern sky. The claim that the tree was “ever-blooming” seemed hard to dispute, given that it was currently the beginning of summer, and a normal tree of its kind would only bloom in the spring.

“Wow,” he couldn’t help but say. He’d never seen a wisteria quite this large, either. Its trunk was thick, and its canopy extended surprisingly high in the sky.

“Pretty cool, right?” a woman at the base of the tree replied. She stood up, revealing herself to be a bit taller than Shinsei with long and lanky limbs. There were signs of age on her face—which held a lot of similarity to Reiko in both composition and expression—but it was clear that age had been a graceful experience for her. The only features that stood out were a number of scars, both shallow and deep, all over her arms and face, including a rather prominent mar running horizontally along the bridge of her nose. They reminded Shinsei of the scars his father had.

“I’m Hatamori Setsuka, owner of the boarding house,” she removed a pair of gardening gloves and held out her hand to shake. “You must be Akatsuki-san.”

He shook her hand and smiled, “That’s right, it’s nice to meet you, Hatamori-san.”

She waved a hand dismissively before adjusting the straps of her overalls, “Setsuka is fine. My niece is head-over-heels for you, so you’re as good as family to me.”

“Then Shinsei is fine too,” he smiled at her.

She replied with a thoughtful look, “Hm, you know, now that I’m looking at you, these rusty old gears are turning. Do you happen to be related to an Akatsuki Atsuko?”

Shinsei blinked, “Yeah, she’s my mom. Do you know her?”

Setsuka’s face lit up with a reminiscent smile, “Looks like I wasn’t too far off the mark labeling you as family; Atsu-chan is an old colleague and friend of mine. By Tennyo, it’s been ages since I last spoke with her.”

“I can give you her ID if you’d like, I’m sure she’d be happy to hear from you again,” Shinsei said, and there was more truth in that statement than he let on. She did her best to hide it, but Shinsei could tell his mother had been very lonely lately, especially after he’d moved out.

“That would be nice,” Setsuka smiled. “Fate sure is a funny thing, isn’t it? Halphor’s a much smaller planet than we think, sometimes.”

“Yeah.”

“But you didn’t come here to wax poetic, let’s show you around the place. Here’s as good a place as any to start. This is the ever-blooming wisteria.” She gestured to the massive purple-petaled tree.

“And I’m guessing that name isn’t just an exaggeration.”

Setsuka shook her head, “Not at all. Even in fall and winter this thing stays in bloom, it’s a sight to behold, really. I have no idea how it does it or why, some of the locals think it has some kind of religious significance, maybe even blessed by Tennyo no Kami. Those sorts call the tree ‘Okori’.”

That explained the bit about pilgrims on the sign outside the boarding house.

Setsuka shrugged, “I dunno if it’s true, but I take care of it since it’s on my property and I really like the locals. Besides, it’s very pretty.”

“It is,” Shinsei agreed, watching the petals sway in the evening breeze. He lifted his camera and snapped a quick photo.

“Oh, you like photography, huh?” Setsuka nodded to the device.

“Yeah, it’s been a hobby of mine ever since I was a kid.”

“Before I ‘retired’,” she made air-quotes with her fingers, “and became a landlady, I used to be a professional photographer. I’ll show you some of my work later. Speaking of, let’s get going.”

She began walking back toward the building and Shinsei followed. As they walked, Setsuka went over the rules. Chie had already filled him in before he even arrived, but the refresher was nice, and he was able to clarify a few things.

Tenants didn’t have to pay rent while they stayed here, Setsuka made it clear she wasn’t trying to turn a profit, she had more than enough from her previous career. However, if they didn’t pay rent, they had to help her with chores around the house. Otherwise, tenants were pretty much free to treat the place like a home barring any desires to renovate.

“And uh, are there any rules about… you know,” Shinsei began, “couple stuff?”

Setsuka laughed, “Could you have asked that more awkwardly?”

Shinsei felt his cheeks redden. “I-it’s a valid question, right? I mean I’m here specifically to move in with my girlfriend,” he said, defensively.

“Of course, of course. But the answer is no, not really. I know that isn’t really the norm for boarding houses, but we’re all adults here and I’m not your mom.”

“You’re Chie-chan’s and Reiko-san’s aunt, though, right?”

She shrugged, “Yeah, but they don’t really think of me that way. I’m more like their big sister. The point is, it’s up to your own discretion. You won’t have any trouble from me, but that doesn’t mean you’re free of consequence. Just be smart and respectful about it and you’ll be fine.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Shinsei said, nodding.

By now, Setsuka had led the young man through the house, and they arrived at the outdoor hot springs. It was rather impressive; three individual pools were layered on top of each other in staggered tiers on a stout cliff-face. Small lips were carved in the side of each pool, allowing water to flow down into the pools below, and the final pool’s lip sent water into a stream that disappeared through a grate leading under the building. Nestled in one corner of the onsen were a few shower-heads, mirrors with stools in front of them, and various shampoos and soaps on shelves below them. The contrast between modern amenities and the ancient springs was a little jarring, but there was a certain charm in that. Shinsei took another photo.

“Each of the three layers have different temperatures. Obviously, the top is the hottest with each pool below getting a little cooler. You’re free to use them whenever you want, just tidy up after yourself. I’d recommend not coming in alone though, especially your first couple of times. Even the bottom pool can get really hot.”

“That might be, uh, complicated. There aren’t any other guys here, right?” Shinsei pointed out.

Setsuka quirked an eyebrow at the young man, “You have a girlfriend. And I’m almost positive that you’ve seen her naked by now. And again, I’m not your mom, I don’t care what you get up to.”

Shinsei blushed. Apparently the onsen was co-ed, “F-fair.”

She smiled and put both hands on his shoulders reassuringly, “I know that when you made plans to move in with Chie-chan, a boarding house probably wasn’t what you were anticipating. But I’m not here to be an obstacle, I wholeheartedly approve of your relationship with her because Chie-chan talks about how wonderful you are all the time. I’m especially confident now that I know Atsu-chan raised you.”

Shinsei blushed again and struggled to make eye-contact.

Next, Setsuka led Shinsei back into the building. She showed him the kitchen, the living room, the locations of the three bathrooms, and finally his own room. Conveniently, it was right next to Chie’s and, while currently full of moving boxes, was equally cozy. He never really had a whole of stuff to begin with, so this space would be more than enough.

His room came complete with a few shelves, a dresser, a single-size bed, a desk, and a spacious closet. It even had an air conditioning unit just above the window which, he noted, had a rather nice view of the ever-blooming wisteria just outside.

“This is nice,” he said.

“Probably not as big as the apartment you’re used to,” Setsuka said.

Shinsei shook his head, “My bedroom was smaller than this. I had to have my computer set up on the kitchen counter and touch up all my photos while sitting on a stool. It was hell on my back.”

Setsuka whistled, “I understand completely. I had a pretty similar set-up back in my freelance days.”

Shinsei’s curiosity about the landlady’s career was growing. “What sort of photography did you do?” he asked.

“Let me show you,” she smiled and led him downstairs to the rooms on the first floor. Among them was her own room which was about the same size as the tenant rooms, albeit having a much more traditional Juhiro style, including tatami mats and sliding doors. There was no sign of a bed, which probably meant that Setsuka even slept on a futon. One of the sliding doors connected the room to her office which seemed to be their destination, and Shinsei immediately understood why.

The walls of the room were plastered in framed photographs, primarily of beautiful models. He was entranced by these pictures, not because of the contents, but the composition. Knowing what he did about shooting decent photos, he could tell just by the framing, focus, and angles that the photographer really knew their stuff.

“This is it,” Setsuka said, smiling with a familiar awkward pride. “I started out as a freelance photographer for magazines, primarily shooting models and the occasional celebrity,” as she explained this, she pointed to one corner of the room and slowly swept her arm clockwise along the walls. “Eventually I was part of Shizuki Rin’s personal production crew,” she pointed to a group of photos featuring a girl in a typical idol outfit on stage singing in front of a cheering audience.

Shinsei didn’t really follow idol culture all that much, so he didn’t know anything about Shizuki Rin, but he’d seen her before in the news. The important thing was that the photos did her justice, and they showcased a very important talent for Setsuka, and that was the ability to bring out the best of someone’s features with a camera and likely some touching up using software. He was stunned and kind of starstruck.

“Wow, being part of the production crew for an idol, no wonder you could retire so early,” Shinsei said. “And not for nothing, you’re really good,” he added.

“Well,” Setsuka scratched the back of her head, “that was only half of my career. At that time, I still didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I felt like I was close, but it wasn’t what I wanted.”

Shinsei understood that completely, remembering the conversation he’d had with Chie a while ago. “Oh? What did you do after that?”

She hesitated. “Maybe we can talk about it later. It’s a little embarrassing to show to someone I just met.”

Shinsei was puzzled, he wondered what that could mean. But he shrugged his shoulders all the same, “That’s fine. The point is, I’m jealous.”

“I wouldn’t mind showing you a thing or two, the idea is kind of exciting actually.”

“That would be great!” Shinsei exclaimed and then clapped his hands together and bowed, “Thank you, Setsuka-sensei.”

Setsuka laughed, “None of that, thanks.” She peered over at the clock on the wall before adding, “There’s still about an hour before dinner, why don’t you go and try out the bath? It will be a good way to unwind after your trip, I’m sure.”

Shinsei considered it and thought it was a pretty good idea. He was a little sore from the uncomfortable bus seat and the hike here. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“Remember to get someone to come in with you.”

“R-right.”

---

In the end, he couldn’t do it. It was just too much of an awkward question to ask a girl. He even passed by Reiko in the hall and told her where he was going but couldn’t muster the courage to ask her to come with him. It didn’t help that Shinsei had little experience dealing with women outside of his mother or coworkers at his desk-job.

So here he was, alone and sitting in front of one of the tall mirrors. He was in trouble. If he couldn’t bring himself to ask one of the other tenants to join him in the bath in a platonic manner, he wasn’t going to survive long here. He wasn’t even comfortable asking Chie, and he recognized how ludicrous it was given that she had already been totally naked in front of him. It was just a whole other thing entirely to ask someone to a bath, it was more intimate, more ****.

He dumped water over his head and sighed. He had no idea what to do, how should he act? He had no idea moving in with Chie would be this stressful, in fact, he figured it would be a lot more freeing. But for some reason he just couldn’t bring himself to be more confident.

He was frustrated with himself, he was a little horny from cuddling the nearly naked Chie earlier, and he was alone. He gazed over his shoulder to see if anyone was around. He then closed his eyes and let himself drift into the memory of Chie’s soft and voluptuous form.

He brought back to mind her perfect voluptuous curves. her cute, puffy, rosy nipples; her shapely rear; her thick and comfortable-looking thighs; and of course, her infectious smile—the likes of which wouldn’t escape his thoughts of her especially as he began stroking himself in the warm, steamy air of the open-air hot spring.

Then he thought about all the things he wanted to do, the things that he would have done if he just had the willpower. In his mind’s eye he imagined himself brazenly squeezing Chie’s soft breasts in his hand like Reiko had done. He imagined himself running his hands all up and down her body, exploring every single nook and cranny. He imagined himself making out with her for hours and hours and be damned the rest of the day.

Then he imagined her wrapping her own hands around his cock, and in that moment, he panicked as he suddenly felt reality start to become fuzzy. Because for a wonder, the sensation of her hands upon his engorged member was not solely within his mind’s eye. He actually felt another pair of fingers grasping him.

His eyes shot open, and he looked down. Sure enough, another pair of hands were at his waist, stroking him. He looked up into the mirror in front of him. The emerald-green eyes of Chie were peeking over his shoulder, and a wide, blushing grin was on her face framed by her golden hair.

She giggled, “Hi, Sei-kun!”

“Ch-Chie-chan! What are you doing!?”

“Helping!” she replied, brightly and kissed his cheek. “Reiko said you were coming into the bath, and she thought you might be alone, so I came in too! You shouldn’t be alone in the hot spring, it’s dangerous!” she scolded lightly and puffed out her cheeks and furrowed her brow, looking more like an angry puppy than anything actually intimidating.

“N-no, I meant…” Shinsei glanced down at Chie’s wonderfully soft hands, gliding up and down his length in a gentle manner.

“Oh!” she giggled again, “I told you; I’m helping.”

Wow, okay, Shinsei thought, Chie is way more forward than I thought.

“Is that okay?” she asked, making eye contact with him through the mirror.

“Y-yes!” Shinsei practically shouted, at this point he didn’t want her to stop, “More than okay, I’m just surprised is all.”

She smiled brightly, “Good. If you get stressed like this, just ask me and I’ll help, anytime!”

“R-really?” Shinsei asked. He couldn’t help but wonder if things were moving a bit too fast.

“Sei-kun, you made me so happy coming here. I’ll do anything for you.”

He knew this was meant to be comforting to him, but it wasn’t. Now he was worried she was only doing this because she felt obligated to. Like she needed to compensate him for his decision to come here. He looked down and to the side, feeling a little ashamed of himself.

“Sei-kun,” Chie whispered in his ear, sending a shiver down his spine as her stroking became more vigorous. At the same time, she removed one of her hands and gripped his chin to turn it to make eye contact with her in the mirror. She was smiling her usual careless and sunny smile, “I know what you’re thinking right now. But I’m doing this because I love my Sei-kun so much that I don’t know what else to do with all these warm fuzzies, really.”

“Oh,” Shinsei said, his voice getting caught in his throat momentarily.

She exhaled and he felt her heated breath on his cheek and ear. “I just want Sei-kun to feel my love, all of it.” There was just a hint of sultriness in her tone as she said this, not much, but it was there.

It was actually kind of surprising. Thus far, Shinsei’s impression of Chie had been of an innocent airhead; a little ditzy, but kind and infinitely optimistic. But now he was seeing almost another side to her. She knew what she was doing, she was using his perception of her bright and sunny disposition to her advantage, wielding it as a weapon to entice him in this moment.

“Tell me what you were thinking about before I came here,” she requested, her words flowing out of her lips quietly and yet fairly easily. Perhaps even his previous assessment of her innocence was coming into question now.

“Y-you,” Shinsei replied quietly. “You’re so cute and… um… sexy.”

Her blush intensified a little and she stood up suddenly, crossing around in front of the young man so he could see her nude form once again, “Does Sei-kun like my body?” she asked, kneeling in front of him and taking his cock back into her hands to stroke even more intensely than before.

“Absolutely!” he replied without hesitating. “No question about it.”

She giggled, “I’m so happy my Sei-kun likes me so much.” Then she leaned forward and gave him a gentle smooch on the lips before asking, “What else was Sei-kun thinking about?”

This time he hesitated. Should he really just say it?

“It’s okay, Sei-kun, I’ll love you no matter what you say,” she assured him.

He decided to take the plunge, “I just thought about being more… um… bold around you. Doing things with you brazenly like, uh…” he realized too late that continuing this thought would be a little awkward given that it involved her sister.

“Like…?” she pried.

“Like how Reiko was… you know.” He was looking down and to the side again, fixated on one of the lacquered wood panels that made up the outdoor bath’s flooring.

“Touching me?” she pried further.

He nodded. Among other things, he added internally.

She giggled, “Sei-kun is so cute.” Then she dipped down and kissed him on the lips again, urging his gaze forward again. “I love Sei-kun so much. You can be bold if you want.”

“R-really?”

She nodded, “I let Rei-rei touch me because… I like it.” Her face was red as a tomato, but she was maintaining fierce eye-contact, so I knew she was serious. “Please,” her tone had taken on a more pleading quality now, and she was pouting a little, “I want Sei-kun to touch me like that too.”

Shinsei gulped, and he was feeling pretty heated himself. Her hands were doing a wonderful job of making his head all fuzzy and nice. But he understood perfectly well what she was saying, and he didn’t want to make her wait for it.

He reached forward and gulped again as his hands drifted closer to her huge, wonderful mammaries. Here they were, in his mind moments ago and now right in front of him. Their perfect, gravity-defying shape on display for his eyes to feast upon; he would not deny his hands the same wondrous banquet. He had her permission; by the Abyss, he had her endorsement.

When his palms and fingers finally made contact, he almost believed for a moment that he was still trapped in the veil of fantasy, because they were so smooth and so fluffy that they almost didn’t even feel like they were there. He had to actually squeeze a little into the pillowy flesh before he felt the elasticity pushing back; and his palms had to cross over the top of her contrastingly rock-hard nipples before he realized that, indeed, they were very real.

“Whoa,” he said aloud. Then his cheeks flushed with embarrassment as he realized he had just vocalized his amazement in front of Chie.

She giggled, “Do you like them?”

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, louder than he meant to. “They’re amazing!”

“Yay!” she smiled and tilted her head, chuckling even more.

The combined stimulus was too much by now. Chie’s cuteness, the softness of her huge breasts, the stiffness of her rosy buds, the steam from the hot spring, and her hands gently yet vigorously stroking his shaft. He was at his limit.

“Chie, I…” Shinsei began, breathily.

“I know,” she nodded, “I can feel it twitching. Go ahead, let it all out, Sei-kun.”

And so, he did. The sticky white cream shot from his tip and glazed her breasts, creating sparkling lines and pools of the pearly substance upon them. Once his ejaculation ended and his erection waned, her stroking became slower and even gentler than before. Instead of doing what he expected and washing herself off with one of the shower heads, she began scooping up every last bit of his cum that she could find and popping it in her lips.

“That can’t taste good,” Shinsei commented, embarrassed.

She shook her head, “I don’t mind it. It tastes like Sei-kun.” Then she winked.

The two of them washed themselves off properly, which felt good, and then made their way to the hot springs. Chie mentioned that she preferred the very top pool, the hottest of the three, but still accompanied Shinsei to the bottom one which was just right for him. He’d never been in a real hot spring before; the sensation was strange but very relaxing.

“I was serious, you know,” Chie said, snuggling up beside him in the water.

“About what?”

“I’ll give my everything to you, anytime. No more sneaking away to do stuff by yourself, okay, Sei-kun? Just ask me!”

“Uh, sure,” he said, scratching his cheek.

She pouted and gave her the angry puppy-look again.

“I promise, okay?”

She smiled again, “Good. There… um… there is just one thing, though.”

“What’s that?”’

“When I say, ‘everything’, I do have two requests.”

“I’m listening,” Shinsei said, adjusting himself so he was facing her.

“Firstly, I’m not ready to um… go all the way with Sei-kun yet.”

“Like, intercourse, you mean?”

She nodded, “Anything else is okay, though.”

“That’s just fine by me,” he said. That was a big step, even for him. He definitely didn’t want to rush into something like that and wasn’t even planning to before this conversation anyway. “What’s the second thing?”

“You have to promise to love me forever!” She said and then suddenly tackled him, planting her lips on his and kissing him deeply.

There they sat, under the moonlit night sky, cuddling naked together and intertwined by the threads of love and fate. A gentle breeze blew through the open-air springs, but no chill was felt by either of the young lovers, they were warmed by their embrace and by the gentle beating of their hearts.

Shinsei believed he could easily keep that promise.