"I-I-I, I’ll just sit here..."
As Toshisuke said this, he made himself appear even smaller.
Currently, Toshisuke’s posture was completely curled up.
His legs were together, while his shoulders and arms were tightly tucked in towards his chest. He used only his right hand to wash his body with a damp towel.
Because Toshisuke had his limbs tucked in so tightly, from Aoto’s perspective, he could only see the back of Toshisuke’s head, his back, and his rear.
Ever since entering the bathhouse, Toshisuke’s behavior had been strange... Aoto couldn’t help but watch Toshisuke’s back and head with growing curiosity.
Toshisuke’s evasive posture made Aoto uncontrollably curious:
——Is Toshisuke angry because I dragged him, someone who likes to bathe alone, into a shared bath, and now he doesn’t want to get close to me?
——Or is it that... he’s just uncomfortable with being "open" around others?
There are quite a few people like that in bathhouses: people who don’t like to be "open" around others, especially not wanting others to see their private areas.
Aoto wasn’t sure if Toshisuke was this kind of person.
All Aoto knew was that Toshisuke had been acting extremely odd these past two days.
He just took Toshisuke’s unusual behavior in the bathhouse as an extension of his peculiarity from these past couple of days, and thus didn’t pay much attention to Toshisuke’s strange actions, silently looking away.
Aoto and Toshisuke remained silent... In the large bathhouse, there was only the sound of towels rubbing against bodies, echoing intermittently.
The speed at which Toshisuke washed himself was as swift as when he undressed.
"I-I’ve finished!"
From the time he entered the bathing area to Toshisuke shouting "I’ve finished" - barely two minutes had passed.
"You’re done already?"
Surprised by Toshisuke’s speed, Aoto instinctively turned to look, but Toshisuke wasn’t there - he had darted through the Pomegranate Gate into the bath area like a rabbit before Aoto could even turn his head.
——Mr. Chokata... truly odd...
Aoto gazed intently at the Pomegranate Gate, his eyelids drooping slightly, and just as the puzzlement disappeared, it rose anew in his eyes.
Shiwei Hall, dojo—
"Finally managed to get you under control..."
Harada boasted proudly while holding up a plump, dead rat.
Saito, standing next to him, was already too tired to correct Harada’s misuse of phrases.
"This should be the last one, right?" Kondo said as he took the plump rat from Harada and casually tossed it into the dustpan by his feet.
Counting the new capture by Harada, there were now three dead rats lying quietly in the dustpan at Kondo’s feet.
"It should be the last one," Hijikata said, "We’ve searched every corner of the dojo’s ceiling. Even if there are any that slipped through, they’ve probably escaped far by now."
"Hahaha, thank you for your hard work." Zhouzhu approached with a broom, "The dojo’s rats should be gone... Let’s call it a night."
"Ugh, how gross!"
Suddenly, Nagakura let out a scream.
Everyone turned their heads and saw Nagakura in disgust, peeling a whole cobweb from the back of his head.
"That huge cobweb stuck on my head... I hope no spider crawled into my clothes..."
Nagakura crumpled up the cobweb and flicked it into the dustpan with the dead rats, then diligently checked his clothes for any more cobwebs or spiders.
Kondo chuckled as he glanced at Nagakura, then shifted his gaze to the others: "Everyone looks pretty battered..."
Having crawled through the ceiling, each person looked as if they had just emerged from a coal mine.
Faces, hands, clothes, all smeared black with dust.
Besides dust, there were remnants of cobwebs stuck all over.
Their bodies were filthy, unbearably so, and going to bed like this would surely make the room and bedding dirty too.
"Why don’t we go for another bath?" Nagakura suggested first.
"I agree!" Harada quickly supported Nagakura’s suggestion.
"Is Qianxun House still open?" Hijikata asked.
"It’s still open," Inoue nodded, "Qianxun House is still in business, it’s not closing time yet."
The dirt-covered group was eager to cleanse themselves.
With little discussion, they quickly reached a consensus - everyone would head to Qianxun House for another bath...
Qianxun House—
The shared bath with Toshisuke tonight had a mission to it.
So Aoto didn’t have the leisure to seriously wash himself.
After a quick scrub, he strode through the Pomegranate Gate connecting the bath pool and the bathing area, and entered the bath pool.
The air in the bath pool was filled with dense steam.
Setting foot here felt like stepping into a fairyland.
Aoto quickly spotted Toshisuke - he was sitting in a secluded corner of the bath pool, hugging his knees, back facing the Pomegranate Gate.
Toshisuke was soaking deeply, with everything below his neck submerged in the pool water, his chin close to the surface.
Veiled by the pool water and mist, Toshisuke’s body beneath the water was like the moon’s reflection in water - hazy and indistinct.
Hearing Aoto pass through the Pomegranate Gate, Toshisuke hurriedly turned his body, changing his orientation from back-facing to directly back-facing Aoto.

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