Bathing

After finishing the fried rice, Lu Mingfei and Erii walked out, each carrying a figure and hugging a body pillow.

They left Akihabara. Lu Mingfei thought it would be a hassle to go sightseeing with all this stuff, so he decided to head back to the hotel first.

People on the street watched the two of them walk along without a care, each holding a body pillow in one arm and a figure in the other. All they could do was sigh: as expected of otaku!

He was only carrying a body pillow of Asahina Mikuru in a maid outfit. Lu Mingfei didn't care at all what other people thought.

Erii followed behind Lu Mingfei. She didn't know her way around, so wherever he went, she went too.

When they got back to the hotel where he was staying, Lu Mingfei paused at the entrance, then handed the body pillows and figures to Erii.

"Hold on to these for now. I'm going inside to scout the situation. I'll be right back. Don't wander off, okay?" Lu Mingfei reminded her.

Erii obediently nodded. It must be Sakura's base inside. Scouting it carefully is only natural. It'd be bad if there were enemies, but who are the enemies?

Lu Mingfei went inside and looked around. When he saw that his uncle, aunt, and Section Chief Chen's family weren't anywhere in the hotel, he breathed a sigh of relief. It would've been a pain if he ran into his uncle and aunt.

He had no idea what they'd think if they saw his body pillows and figures, especially since he'd also brought back a living person.

When he came out of the hotel, he saw Erii standing perfectly still, just as obedient as could be.

"Let's go in." Lu Mingfei took all the body pillows from Erii's arms.

He opened the door to his room. Inside, there was only a large bed and a bathroom.

"Let's put the anime merch on the bed first. Once we've put everything away, we can go check out the street outside. I heard the snacks there are good."

Erii nodded, carefully placed her body pillows and figures on the bed, then looked at Lu Mingfei with wide eyes, as if waiting for him to give the word.

"Let's go!" Lu Mingfei said with a smile.

"Let's go!" Erii wrote in her little notebook.

There was a street right next door, supposedly a famous food street, and that was where Lu Mingfei had brought her.

Night had just fallen, and the street was bustling. Stalls on both sides sold all kinds of local snacks.

They'd definitely come to the right place.

"Erii, just tell me if there's anything you want to eat," Lu Mingfei said, looking at her.

"Sakura, I want to eat that!" Erii wrote in her diary without hesitation.

Then she pointed toward a barbecue stall in the distance. It sold grilled eel, and it smelled delicious.

"Boss, four skewers of grilled eel, please."

It didn't take long for four freshly grilled eel skewers to reach Lu Mingfei and Erii. They each took two and happily ate as they walked.

"Sakura, I want takoyaki!"

They ordered some takoyaki with sauce. One bite was refreshing, with a crispy outside and a soft inside. It tasted great.

Whenever Erii pointed at something, Lu Mingfei went to buy it. Erii kept eating the street snacks. They only bought a little of each kind, but that way she could try lots of foods she'd never had before.

Most of these were things Erii had seen in anime but never tasted. Usually, the Snake Eight Families carefully prepared all her food for her.

"Sakura, dorayaki!" Erii gazed longingly at a little shop selling dorayaki. There was a long line.

"Got it!" Lu Mingfei told Erii to wait off to the side while he went to get some. He'd be right back.

Before long, Lu Mingfei came back with a bag of dorayaki, and Erii's eyes sparkled.

They ate as they walked, as if they wouldn't be satisfied until they'd eaten all the food in sight.

Before they knew it, they'd reached the end of the food street.

"It's already past ten," Lu Mingfei said, glancing at his phone.

"Erii, we should head back."

Erii patted her stomach and nodded. She'd had such a happy day.

As they walked back, Lu Mingfei felt that Erii's eyes seemed much more lively than before. Whenever she tasted something delicious, she would narrow her eyes slightly and savor it.

Suddenly, Erii stopped and pointed at the drinks in a vending machine. They were the trendy new fruit drinks for girls, and their ads played on TV every day.

Two bottles rolled down. Lu Mingfei handed one to Erii and took the other for himself.

It wasn't until they got back to the hotel that Lu Mingfei realized there was a problem. Erii was a girl, so where could she stay? He didn't feel comfortable letting her stay somewhere else, either.

She knew nothing about this world. What if she got lost?

"Um, Erii, would it be okay if you stayed in my room tonight? Don't worry, I absolutely don't have any ulterior motives!" Lu Mingfei asked, hurriedly explaining himself.

Erii tilted her head and wrote in her little notebook, "Sure."

Lu Mingfei hadn't expected Erii to agree so readily, and he was taken aback for a moment.

"Then, same as before. Wait outside while I go in and check."

Erii stood obediently where she was, waiting for Lu Mingfei, her hands folded in front of her like a girl from a manga waiting for something.

There was nothing wrong inside, so Lu Mingfei brought Erii into the room.

Lu Mingfei dropped onto the bed. They'd been walking around for so long; he was exhausted. Mostly, though, he'd eaten too much.

"Holy crap, it looks like there's only one bed!" This wasn't just a question of sharing a room anymore. There was only one bed, and not even a sofa.

Erii acted as if she hadn't noticed anything. She simply sat on the other side of the bed and played with her new figure.

The room was quiet. For a while, Lu Mingfei didn't know what to say.

"I'm going to take a bath," Erii suddenly wrote in her notebook.

Before Lu Mingfei could say anything, Erii simply untied her sash and slipped off the white robe covering her upper body.

Next, her semi-transparent white underlayer slid down along the curves of her body, revealing her fair shoulders, prominent shoulder blades, and white lace underwear.

Erii stood up from her red hakama, wearing only her lace underwear. She pulled Little Yellow Duck out from inside her skirt, balanced it on her head, and tiptoed around the room before running off to the bathroom.

Lu Mingfei stared in stunned silence. Even after Erii ran into the bathroom, he still hadn't recovered from the shock of watching her undress.

The sound of running water came from the bathroom. All that remained on the bed was a pile of red-and-white shrine maiden robes.

Only then did Lu Mingfei understand that she really was going to take a bath. She'd merely told him she was going to bathe; it didn't matter whether anyone was nearby—she simply took off her clothes and headed straight for the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, Erii played with the clear water in the bathtub, while Little Yellow Duck swam around in it.

She kept pushing Little Yellow Duck away, then hooking it back with her foot, over and over, having the time of her life.