As we completed the first part of entrance exam, we decided to head back to the main dorm complex to have our lunch. On our way back, we grabbed some Woninsy (Manga) from the escape room, which could be considered as a gift from passing the exam.
While we were having our lunch, we found an Okuri with his head down.
"Hi, Okuri," Tenka greeted him first.
As soon as we talked to him, Okuri felt relieved: "Oh hey, Araka and Tenka, nice to see you gain. How's your first day of exam?"
"It was okay for us. At least both Araka and me got one green armband after the exam," Tenka replied, with her smily face.
"That's good for you. I mean, I'm happy to see a group can work together that well. May I ask where did they put you guys in for the escape room activity?"
"We were in a messy Yorikunin's home," I told Okuri, "and we eventually found our final piece of puzzle in the bathroom."
"It was pretty much similar on our side, though not exactly the same. For us, they put us in a high school girl's home," Okuri explained, "though it seemed to be that there was a bit problem for my group."
"Wait, a problem?" I asked.
Just as I finished talking, Okuri started explaining: "So in my group, there are these two girls from Zenju. Now, let me be honest with you - those two girls were the type of person you never want to work with"
Tenka and me blinked.
"The first thing they did when we entered the high school girl's bedroom was lying on the bed and watching the TV. It was a total disaster, as only two of us were working on the case. I asked them several time to get to work, and they didn't listen and even got mad at me for using 'the wrong pronoun'. It was their pure luck that they got us, in which I worked along with the other guy and used my vision ability to spot the key."
"That's rough," Tenka said.
"Damn, how could they even pass the preliminary screening if they are like this? Eventually, they got their yellow armbands, as they helped us to find the key at the last minute, though I still think they need to have their red armbands."
"That indeed sounds painful," I commented.
"Anyway, what are you guys going to do after having the lunch?" Okuri asked.
"We're heading to the gym and prepare for the next part of the exam," Tenka replied.
While we were talking, Sukeo noticed Okuri and talked to us: "So it seemed to be you guys are getting along pretty well."
"Oh I forgot to introduce him," Tenka started to introduce Okuri, "This is Okuri, and he's from Laeshi. Me and Araka first met him yesterday."
"I see. Nice to meet you, Okuri." Sukeo greeted him, while seemingly knowing something, "May I ask for your full name?"
"I'm Hitakani Okuri (北光 楓), nice to meet you."
Just as Okuri finished his brief introduction, Sukeo seemed to be engaged: "So one more question, do you play archery at school?"
"Of course I do. In fact, I'm the whole team, as I learned archery from my grandpa."
"That's it," Sukeo pushed his glasses for a bit, "'The Golden Arrow of The South' Hitakani Okuri, huh?"
At the same time, Okuri also became engaged. He mirked and revealed his sharp front teeth: "Finally, someone recognized me, huh?"
After a short moment of silence, Sukeo put his right hand forward: "I am Yoiki Sukeo, president of the student council of Vensan Academy in Bakju. Nice to work with you."
"Nice to work with you too. Your school's archery team isn't half bad." Okuri also put his right hand forward and tapped Sukeo's right palm - it was the traditional way people in Chuubo greeting each other.
After the first encounters, Sukeo also introduced Jun to Okuri: "This is Jan Jun, the head of our robotic club."
"Nice to meet you, Jun." Okuri approached Jun while extended his hand," Though I'm not really good at computer stuff, you seemed to be the kind of person I would love to work with. And yeah, your team is really strong here. It's a great fortune for you work with them."
"Araka and Tenka were also major players during the last activities and have some great potentials. It's also our fortune to work with these two," Sukeo said in a typical student council speech style.
"Indeed. So yeah, now I have something else to do. Hope you guys can get the same good result tomorrow."
After we dismissed Okuri and finished our lunch, we headed to the gym. After a while, Tenka spotted the swimming pool, which was located just one level below the gym. It was a standard stadium pool, with platforms for jumping.
"I really want to swim here," Tenka said, "Sara-cha, can you swim?"
"I can, but not really to the competitive level." I told Tenka.
"Same. As I said, I'm not really an athletic person, and mostly I just do some casual swimming," Tenka said.
"So you actually brought a swimsuit?"
"Yeah," Tenka replied, holding up the folded fabric. "Nothing fancy—just a standard training suit. I wasn't sure what kind of evaluation they'd run, so I came prepared."
I nodded. Mine was the same: the competitive swimsuit I always wore for weekly swimming. While people assumed it was over the top, it was simply because my mom gave me the samples.
"Don't worry. I think they will provide swimsuits, as not everyone has a competitive swimsuit," Jun said.
While I was talking to Tenka, I heard a girl who was beside me talked about the Hanyo (汗浴), which was one of the specialties of Niangkee. From what I heard before, it was a type of dry bath with herbal water vapors, and it was very helpful to boost the performance before sport activities, even during the summer time when mint and green herb were used for the smoke.
"Heh? Hanyo?" Tenka showed her curiosity, "Wait, they have it here?"
"It seemed so," I said.
"That sounds like a good idea actually, Sara-cha," Tenka said, "even during the summer, I would still want my body to be energized."
"So you wanna take a try?"
Tenka nodded.
As such, we headed to the basement where the Hanyo rooms were located.
In front of the entrance, there was a sign: "This facility is not included in the entrance exam package. Please make sure to use the screen below to pay with a valid credit or debit card."
"Heh?" Tenka said while rubbing her chin, "I thought it was free."
I hesitated as well. Should I pay for it?
Then I saw the rate: 30 CHY per person. That's why cheaper than any thing available outside, I thought.
"Guess I'm paying for that."
I tapped the screen and bought the tickets, and then pulled my card from my wallet and tapped on the machine.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm covering that," I said, "it's still cheaper here, and I guess you don't have the card right?"
"But-" Tenka said, "Thank- thank you, Sara-cha."
As we entered the facility, we found the place to be less weird than others - while I had heard there were mixed Hanyos, the one in this facility was gender segregated.
As we wrapped ourselves in towel and entered the chamber, we saw there were two girls that were ahead of us, who I quickly figured out were the girls who were talking about the bath. It seemed to be they were the locals, or at least live somewhere close to Niangkee.
"Hello. Could we use the seats there?" I talked to the to short-haired girl on the right with the standard Shinari.
"Sure, go ahead," she replied, though she looked a bit down.
I took a look at the seating for the bath, and found it very interesting - between the solid wood panels, there was a gap in the middle of the seat, which perfectly matched the center of the body. I have heard that the gap was for "sweat discharge" during the bath, but I was thinking it was for emergency situations.
Just as both of us grabbed the seat and prepare to turn on the heat, the other girls, who was with long cocoa hair, called us: "Hey, don't hold your towels too tight! You will find yourselves overwhelmed by the heat, especially during the summer time."
Both Tenka and me were surprised. Shouldn't I wear the covering towels when doing dry bathing? It would be very weird if I walk into these places when fully naked?
After seeing our face, the long-haired girl chuckled: "So you two are not from the North?"
"Of course, we're from Bakju. We came here to participate the entrance exam," Tenka replied.
"I see, welcome, though actually I'm not from Niangkee," the girl replied. "It seemed to be you haven't tried the Hanyo before. Have you guys been to Niangkee?"
"I have been to Niangkee a long time ago, but I haven't tried the Hanyo, since I don't really like to anything other than hot springs," I replied.
"Well for me, I have been to Jiangshin (江心) for a bit, but haven't been to Niangkee, since it's not a short trip," Tenka also shared her experience.
"I see. So I'm going to show you the proper way," the girl stood up and explained, "So as for Hanyo, the first you need to do before is to untie your cover towels on your lower body and make sure it covers your private area. This would make sure your lower body area not being soaked by moisture while maximizing the effect of the bath."
As following what she said, we untied our covering towel beneath the belly and put at the front. Even though the heat had not yet turned on, I already found myself relieved by the heat, despite it's hot outside.
"The next step, of course, is to sit on the seat and turn on the heat. While during the bath, you would feel like you have a feeling to 'discharge', as how we say it. That was the point of the bath. To make sure the 'discharge' go through, make sure your body fully submerged by the vapor, and also make your legs slightly open up."
As soon we got ourselves prepared, I turned on the switch that controls the heat and vapor for both seats and started Hanyo.
As soon as I turned on the switch, I could feel the vapor covering my body. It was not the same as the sweat after workout, but fresh mists and dews in the mountains. After crossing the first senses, I felt my lower body became warm and relaxed, as the tension in my muscles slowly faded away. It was the same feeling I could only get after having a refreshing shower. As the time slowly passed on, I could feel the essence of herbs coming into my body and slowly filled my brain and veins. As I slowly uncover the herbs in the vapor, I realized that combination is perfect, as the aroma of the mint, the mellow haya (black rosemary), and the flavorful flowers all came slowly and steadily.
"How did you feel?" The long haired girl asked me.
"It was indeed a refreshing experience," I replied, with a relaxing smile on my face. "But may I ask what's your name?"
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Zen Jinlin (陳 錦鈴), and as I said, I'm not actually from Niangkee, but from Ninju(寧州), Tzehae State(浙海省), which is not very far from Niangkee." That explained why her accent was different from the actual Niangkee accent, even though the words were pretty much similar.
While her voice and her appearance were similar to those of a teenage girl, I realized that her body had defied her disguise - it was too matured compared to the one of a typical 16 years old girl. "But you looks a bit more matured than what these typical entrance exam takers are. Are you a staff here?"
"Haha, you figured out. Actually, I'm not a part of the exam staff, but I'm still a full time SAIR agent," the long haired girl smiled, "the reason I tried to make myself a teenage girl is because it may scare the exam participants when they see a full-time agent without a instructor ID, thinking something bad happened during the exam."
"I see, but why did you came here along with this girl?" I asked.
"The girl you saw here is my younger sister, who is also an entrance exam taker. When I heard she came here to peruse my path, I was very happy about it. However, her happiness didn't last long, as her group's supervisor told me that she did not get along well with her partners, as someone tried to bully her. I was very concerned and tried to figure out the reason she was bullied. That was the reason why I came here, just to make sure she was okay and figure out what happened."
"I see," I replied.
"Actually, may I ask what's your name?"
"I'm Peni Sara and the other girl you just talked to is Peni Tenka," I introduced Tenka to her, "we're both from Bakju."
"That's cool. The instructor that was with my sister's group said she also had a distant relative in Bakju. Ah, by the way, I think you two could make friends with my younger sister. Her name is Jinhui (陳 錦慧), and she's actually a quite nice girl when you can get along with her."
"I see. But would it be okay if she interact with people from somewhere far away? I think the cultural differences could make her even harder to get along with," I suggested.
"It's not what it seems. It's not because you're from Chuubo or she's only used to interact with locals. I was thinking the reason she was bullied was just because she is a bit introvert, unlike what you expect from a Sambre player." Jinlin explained, "It also took her quite long to get along with her teammates while she's in the Sambre team."
While we were talking, I felt a stream of heat pushed toward my lower body and making an entrance into my full body. It was the kind of feeling that I hadn't experienced, perhaps it was a bit too comfort. Why am I losing the senses on my lower body, and why do I feel like I'm about to pee?
"Ah ah-" I cried out as if I couldn't make myself move, while I could feel the "discharge" came through, which was the sweat and heat from my body. Right after the rough feeling, I felt myself relieved like replacing a heavy weight.
"Are you okay?" Jinlin asked me, "did you hurt?"
"I'm okay," I replied while exhaling, "it really has an effect on me though."
"Haha, that's what the others always said after the bath. However, as long as you came through, you will get used to it in the future," Jinlin smiled.
While we were talking, I realized that Tenka hadn't commented anything on what we talked other than making strange sounds and speaking nonsense, which was pretty unusual.
"Tenka-cha, are you okay?" I turned my head to check her out.
"Ahhhh, ahhh, ahhh." Tenka groaned Her face was very strange, as it was very red, while her eyes kept looking toward the ceiling - it felt like she was exhausted ; meanwhile, her body was shaking for a bit.
"Is she okay," I asked Jinlin.
"She will be okay, but her reaction is a bit too -"
"Ahhh" Tenka cried out as if someone was massaging her.
"Tenka-cha, are you okay!?" I was concerned, thinking something bad happened.
"Yeah - yeah - I'm feeling -feeling good," she sounded exhausted yet relived.
"Uugh, that's indeed some strong reactions," Jinlin commented, while feeling relieved, "this could only happen if you mast*rbate too often, which shouldn't be a case for girls at your ages, or you have a really sensitive lower body. Now I don't really care what's the actual reason for that, but she is getting used to it."
That's the reason why Tenka refused to try the bath earlier, I thought. It seemed to be that regardless of what type of situation she was in, she always reacted a bit too much.
After the "overly-dramatic" reaction from Tenka, she found herself fully relaxed for the rest of bath. She also introduced herself to Jinlin, which Jinlin found it very interesting to talk with Tenka, as she always carried the positive vibe with her. We also learned that Jinlin's family was running a famous Hanyo bathhouse chain in Ninju and Niangkee, and figured out that there were two other children in her family. She later kindly invited us to visit their shops whenever we got a chance. At the end, Jinlin reminded us to bring the same positive energy to Jinhui for the next activity whenever she needed help, as this one was no longer a group activity.