Volume 16 - The Mountain, Chapter 126 - The Park

The Inn's new day-visitor area was complete, except for the hot spring itself, which needed some final touches. The kindly contractor Mister Satoru wanted to be very sure that the pool was properly sealed before diverting the hot spring's overflow into it. He worked slowly, but his quality was worth the wait.

Despite the lack of a pool for visitors to use, Hakuto's little shrine gave Yuisu enough reason to do a soft opening for the Mountain Lily Inn's new expansion. She notified officials and priests in town that a new shrine had been opened to the public, and she mentioned that there was also a small picnic area nearby. Visiting would be free, but Yuisu was hoping that some of the first visitors would return when the day spa finally opened. She also hoped Hakuto would enjoy their prayers and tributes.

The plan was a resounding success. In the first week, over 100 people visited the Yuriyama shrine and paid tribute to Hakuto. It turned out that having a genuine mountain god at a shrine dramatically boosted people's faith in it. Several visitors even commented that they hadn't really believed in Shintoism until they met Hakuto.

"Thank you for your visit!" Hakuto called out as a family walked back to their car. She loved meeting new people after so many years alone, but it was also getting to be a bit tiring. All the prayers were particularly draining. She frowned and thought, I'm only god of this little mountain, so I can't do very much for them.

Yuisu approached and put a hand on Hakuto's shoulder. "How are you holding up?"

Hakuto smiled. "Pretty well. I just wish I could do more to help the people who pray to me… Some of them are going through really hard times, but my powers are so limited."

Yuisu blinked. "Wait. You can actually hear their prayers?"

Hakuto nodded solemnly. "Anyone that prays in the shrine, I can hear their voice in my head and feel their emotions. It can be a little overwhelming sometimes, like with that woman who just left with her family. She has cancer. It's in remission, but the doctors aren't very confident."

"Oh…" Yuisu said quietly.

Hakuto smiled despite the dreary topic. "But when I can help someone, it feels amazing!" Then she pawed at the ground and cleared her throat. "Um, on that note, you may see more wild boars on the property soon. I kind of lured them here to help a farmer whose crops were being eaten."

"No worries. I'm sure Haru will be happy to have something to hunt. Just don't go overboard with that kind of stuff." She patted Hakuto on the back and added, "Oh, it's 5pm, so I'm going to close the park gate for the night. Is that alright?"

"Yeah," Hakuto answered. "I can feel that all the visitors are gone and there aren't any cars on the way up."

The next morning, when Hakuto went for a morning jog with Tsuen and Mara, she felt something odd. As they reached their normal turn-around spot and Tsuen started to head back up the mountain, Hakuto called out, "Wait. Something's strange."

"Huh? Like what?" Mara asked. She was secretly happy for a break, since she was out of breath and not looking forward to the uphill climb.

"The boundary," Hakuto answered cryptically.

Mara shrugged. "What about it? It's just ahead, right? That's why we always turn around here."

Hakuto shook her head. "It isn't there. Or, maybe it's still there, but faint?" She narrowed her eyes and wiggled her nose, trying to sense how it had changed.

Tsuen smiled at Hakuto's unintentionally cute expression, then said, "Maybe this is the result of all those offerings at the shrine."

"Ooh," Mara added, "Maybe you can bend the rules now, Hakuto!"

"Maybe…" she mumbled, still trying to feel the boundary's presence. She walked forward, up to the very edge of her mountain's domain, then reached out with one paw.

As it passed through the invisible boundary, she felt a tingle run across her skin which wasn't entirely unpleasant. She stepped the rest of the way across, then took a deep breath of non-mountain air, or at least non-Yuriyama air. It was the first time she'd left her mountain in over 300 years.

Tsuen was a little worried, since Hakuto had stopped moving. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Hakuto turned back, a bright smile on her face. "I'm fine. Just trying to get used to this. It feels kind of like stepping into the hot spring. It feels good, but like maybe I shouldn't stay in very long." She stepped back into her domain and jogged back to Tsuen and Mara's side. "Shall we return to the Inn?"

Tsuen and Mara glanced at each other, seeming to hold a quick conversation without words, then nodded. They didn't want to push Hakuto if she wasn't ready.

Tsuen said, "Sure. We can revisit the boundary thing later."

Twenty-four hours later, Hakuto stood at the edge of her boundary again, but this time she had a larger entourage with her. Tsuen, Mara, Haru, Yuisu, and even Aluru had come to see how far Hakuto could go with her newfound freedom. Some of them rode in Yuisu's truck and others walked alongside it as the group followed the country roads into town.

Hakuto was cautious at first, but she quickly found that it seemed to work as she had guessed: she could go beyond her boundary at least as far as Okayado's downtown, as long as she didn't stay too long. She also had a theory that visiting Okayado had been made easier because of all the residents she'd helped. She had a connection to them now, and therefore a connection to their town.

That was how she came to be in one of the town's parks, standing by the parking lot, staring out at the wide green fields of tended grass. The open park was surrounded by trees that were equally well-kept.

"Wow… This is beautiful," she said, marveling at the modern landscaping. "How is the grass so green and even?"

Yuisu couldn't help but smile at Hakuto's sense of wonder. "Regular irrigation keeps it so green, and they cut it every week with a lawn mower, a machine with big adjustable blades."

It wasn't clear whether Hakuto had heard the explanation, because she was already rolling in the grass, giggling and having the time of her life. She was like acting so much like a little kid that it was easy to forget that she was hundreds of years old.

Her enthusiasm was contagious and soon Mara, Tsuen, and Haru were playing too. Aluru was content to sunbathe off by herself, though she would have preferred to do it in less clothes, and Yuisu sat on a shaded bench to watch. Since it was early in the morning and a weekday, the park was otherwise empty. Yuisu was glad she wouldn't have to try to explain why so many adult liminals were acting like children.

Before long, Hakuto noticed the park's playground equipment: a simple blue slide, some swings, and some other structures for kids to climb on. "What's that?" she asked.

Mara was the first to answer. She twirled her parasol over her head and said, "The blue thing is a slide. As its name suggests, you can slide down it for fun. The red thing is a swing set. You sit on a seat and you can swing your legs to go higher." Mara didn't mention that she found them both rather unpleasant. The idea of leaving the ground while under the wide open sky brought back too many agoraphobic feelings.

Hakuto had no such qualms. She ran to the swings and quickly got the hang of them, swinging higher and higher by pumping her powerful legs. As fun as it was to watch her, the other girls had to avert their eyes because Hakuto's short skirt kept flipping up. Her shrine maiden outfit did seem to have some sort of loincloth underwear, but it only had the coverage of a thong.

Back at the shaded bench, Yuisu was pondering her next steps with the inn. She wanted to get the day-spa up and running, but she still hadn't decided on prices. She needed to cover maintenance costs and pay down loans, but she didn't want the price to be prohibitively expensive either. On the other hand, a higher price might help keep the guest numbers more manageable.

"Auntie Yuisu!" came a familiar, slightly echoey voice.

Yuisu turned to see two gelatinous ladies headed her way. The smaller and more purple one let go of her mother's hand to run the rest of the distance, her bare feet pattering on the sidewalk. Yuisu barely had time to react before she was engulfed in a slimy hug.

"Pwess! It's so good to see you again!" Yuisu cheered once she'd freed herself from the hug and set Pwess back down on the ground. "How are you today?"

The little slimegirl hesitated an instant, then answered. "I guess I'm okay, but I have to go to school today…"

That wasn't what Yuisu expected to hear. The Pwess that she knew loved everything about school, including having her mom as the teacher. Yuisu decided not to dwell on that. She asked, "Is that where you're headed now?"

Pwess nodded. "Mommy walks me to school every day and we stop to play here on the way. She says it's to burn off my extra energy. Oh, sometimes I slither to school with Momma instead, if she didn't go in early."

"Oh, really? There's someone special here you can play with, if you want. She's got energy to burn, too."

Pwess's demeanor brightened instantly. "Who? Who?" she asked, bouncing to the left and right with little splatting sounds as her feet hit the concrete.

Yuisu pointed to the swings where a white and red object was reaching dangerous heights. "That rabbit-woman is named Hakuto, and she's never been to this park before. Do you think you can show her around?"

Pwess didn't even answer. She just took off running toward Hakuto, eager to make a new friend. When it came to making friends, Pwess didn't care about age or size difference, since she was used to being around older women and she was already outpacing her slower-growing classmates.

"Hey, Yuisu," Quess said when her leisurely pace finally brought her to Yuisu's bench. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"Not at all. I didn't think we'd run into you two here today."

Quess sat down, her gelatinous body sinking just a little into the gaps in the bench. "Yeah, as Pwess said, we stop by on the way to her school. Between her quick learning and high energy, she gets a bit unruly in class unless we tire her out here in the morning."

Yuisu chuckled. "Seems like a good strategy."

Quess waved a hand out toward the other liminals running around in the grassy field. "I'm actually really surprised to find all of you down here. What's the occasion?" She also noticed Aluru in the distance, but pushed her out of mind.

"Oh, right. You haven't met Hakuto, have you?"

Quess shook her head. She'd overheard Yuisu's conversation with Pwess, but she had no idea why there was a rabbit-woman with Yuisu's group.

"Well, she's my newest homestay, and she's the spirit of the mountain that my property's on. She normally can't leave her mountain, but now that she's got a shrine and some offerings, she was able to visit town for the very first time. As you can see, she's really excited."

"Aww, that's so nice."

With that, the conversation died out. Yuisu had expected more questions from Quess about Hakuto, but it seemed something else was occupying the pink slime's thoughts. Yuisu even had a guess at what it was.

"Is something going on with Pwess at school?" Yuisu asked gingerly. "She didn't seem happy to be going today."

Quess sighed. "Yeah. She's pulling ahead of her classmates and she knows it. She still wants to be friends with them, but she told me she's worried they'll feel bad about how much smarter she is."

Quess slumped back against the bench, looking defeated. "She hasn't said this part aloud, but I think she's also figured out the big picture for the first time. After this school year, she'll skip a couple grades and have brand-new classmates, and she'll be repeating that routine every year until she graduates. She doesn't know how to process that, so she's been trying to avoid school entirely."

"Oh, wow…" It was all Yuisu could think to say. She knew that maturing several times faster than normal must have been a huge stress on the little slimegirl, but Yuisu didn't have any advice to give.

"Yeah… I should have seen this coming, since I matured quickly too, but I never went to school so I never had to deal with leaving classmates behind. Iormu and I have discussed keeping her back with her classmates and using tutors to keep her education on track, but that would leave her emotional maturity behind…"

In the distance, a pinkish purple rabbit was chasing a pure white one around the field at high speed. Pwess must have discovered that Hakuto could transform and wanted to show off her abilities too. Yuisu thought it was nice how well she got along with Hakuto, and with older people in general.

"Wait… I have an idea," Yuisu said suddenly with a gleam in her vibrant green eyes.

"I'm all ears," Quess answered flatly. Were she feeling more playful, she might have reshaped her body to make her statement literal.

"Since Quess gets along well with older people, you could reduce the number of times she has to leave her friends by having her jump a couple grades above her level. Then she'll be catching up for a year or so, instead of always being ahead of the class."

"Hmm." Quess's entire body glazed over in thought, then she said, "So at the end of this year, she'd skip straight to fourth grade, and she could stay with that class until seventh or eighth grade before she'd skip again?"

Yuisu nodded. "Yep. The last jump would be into high school, where the maturity gap between grades isn't as big, and it would also be easier for her to take some different courses than her peers."

A gleaming smile appeared on Quess's pretty face. "It isn't a magical perfect solution, but I really like this idea. I'll talk to Iormu about it tonight. Thank you, Yuisu!"

Before Yuisu could react, she was pulled into her second slimy hug of the day, though this one was with a beautiful woman. As the busty embrace continued, she started having flashbacks of her threesome with Haru and Quess. "Um, I'm just glad I could help," she said as she extracted herself, fighting to keep her Yuri-su urges in check.

They watched the two supernatural rabbits run around for a few more minutes, then Quess stood up. "We've got to be going. See you around, Yuisu, and let me know if you ever want some flowers for a special occasion. Or pheromones for an extra special one," she said with a wink.

Yuisu chuckled and said, "Will do. Have a good one!"

With that, Quess called out to Pwess and asked to be introduced to her new friend. Pwess gave a quick introduction that focused more on Hakuto's cool transformation ability than anything else, then Pwess left with her mom to resume their walk to school.

Hakuto was pretty tired out by all the running around, and she didn't want to stay outside her domain for too long, so everyone returned home after that. Other than Haru who could easily fly home, Tsuen was the only one with enough energy to jog the distance. The others all rode in the truck. They got back just in time for the Yuriyama shrine to open up for the day, letting in steady trickle of visitors to see Hakuto.

Hakuto was exhausted, physically and mentally. Exercising outside of her domain seemed to hit her much harder than normal exercise did, and the visitor's prayers wore her emotions down. Right after dinner, she collapsed into her new bed and tried to sleep.

Sadly, she had no luck. At first, she couldn't stop worrying about all the heartfelt pleas for help that she couldn't do anything about. After she finally worked past that, an annoying noise kept her from falling asleep.

"What is that noise?" she muttered. It seemed to be coming from the bathing room just on the other side of her bedroom wall. She thought, Some sort of rhythmic sound. Is someone bumping their wash-bucket against a sink?

Hakuto hopped to her feet. No reason to suffer in silence. I'll just go ask them to stop.

She padded down the hallway and through the laundry room, then flung open the frosted glass door to the washroom. "Could you please quiet d—" she started, but as her eyes adjusted to the steamy air, she saw the cause of the noise.

Next to one of the rinsing stations, Tsuen was lying on her back with all four legs in the air. Her head was resting on an upturned bucket that was up against the wall. For some reason, her eyes were rolled back in her head. That reason was the bright pink arachne between the centaur's hind legs.

As unfamiliar as Hakuto was with sexual acts, it took her a second to realize that Mara was going down on Tsuen, and that Tsuen's ecstatic wiggling was moving her improvised headrest and causing the annoying sound.

Mara stopped and turned to address Hakuto. "Oh, sorry about that, Hakuto." As she spoke, she wiped a surprising amount of glistening wetness from her lips and chin.

Hakuto looked away from that lewd sight only to set her gaze on something worse: a very clear view of Tsuen's sex-flushed genitals. In an instant, Hakuto went from having no understanding of centaur anatomy to having far too much.

In total silence, she turned on the spot, smoothly closed the door behind herself, and started back towards her room. Behind her, she could hear Mara say, "Hey, Tsuen. Maybe we should move to the bedroom. Well, if you can actually stand after that."

Thankfully, the noise had stopped and Hakuto eventually got the lewd image out of her head. She snuggled deep under her blankets, took a deep breath of familiar mountain air, and fell asleep. In tune with her body and mind, the mountain and its wildlife also grew quiet and calm.

The next day, while the inn's residents were all busy with work, lunch, or sleep, an incredibly beautiful woman visited the shrine. She wore a striking pink sundress, long elaborate earrings, and a shimmery white silk shawl over her shoulders. She also wore dark sunglasses and a wide hat, more to hide her identity than for sun protection. Even with that minor disguise, she had the undeniable aura of a superstar.

She wasn't there to pray for help, but she knelt in the small shrine and set down an offering: a small black volcanic rock topped with a single cherry blossom petal that was somehow still fresh despite the season. The black and pink formed a wonderful contrast, but looked very out of place among the greens and browns of Yuriyama.

Then she bowed and whispered, "I'm glad other mountains are finally getting some attention."

Behind her, a man in the white robes of a Shinto priest shifted impatiently. In a hushed voice he said, "Please hurry up, Prin— I mean, Miss Sakuya."

The woman glared back at him, her vivid pink eyes shining right through her sunglasses. "Surely a few minutes is nothing compared to the week we've been out so far."

The man bowed several times, then plead, "My apologies, but you really must get home tonight, lest the mountain destabilize. We can't risk a repeat of December, 1707."

"Fine, fine," she sighed. Then the mysterious beauty stood up and strode away down the little mountain path. A trail of fresh sakura petals was left in her wake.