Atsumori had a high tolerance for grime, but even he had a limit... and that limit had been reached. He'd been walking and driving around the woods in clothing generously soaked with the drying circulatory fluids of the White Death for a couple of hours now, and while it had to have been highly effective as scent camouflage--Heaven knew no other predators had bothered Atsumori and Chiyoko for the duration of their mushroom gathering expedition--it was, and this could not not be overstated, absolutely and almost unbelievably disgusting.

The humble showers at the Wisteria Inn could have cleaned his body adequately enough, but there was no way they'd have been able to banish the psychological imprint of the slime and stink.

He dropped a generous tip on the counter for the horrified heimin attendant at the bath house entrance--they'd probably want to spray the coins down with a good disinfectant before pocketing them--and beelined straight for the showers, appropriating an empty garbage bag from under the locker room sink as he went. He ducked under the tap fully dressed, and only after rinsing the worst of the goo off did he strip and stuff his wet clothes into the plastic sack. He'd figure out later how to avoid walking back to the Inn in his altogether...

Once he was very, very well scrubbed, he headed out to the softly lit outdoor pools.

A wild explorer in the flesh! Nozomi rose out of the warm tub for a wave but then quickly re-submerged. "Sorry! Very improper of me," she sputtered out.

She looked away meekly. "I just watched a lot of your recordings and was happy to meet you."

A Lion burst out of the warm pool like a small sea monster! Still a little on edge from his earlier jungle adventure, Atsumori nearly dropped the towel he'd been holding loosely in place for the censors. "Whoa! Hi there." He almost used the towel-hand to wave, then remembered at the last second and switched hands. "No worries, nothing I haven't seen before, right? I mean, uh, that is... in a general sense only."

He brushed a dripping lock of hair away from his eyes, and then belatedly parsed the rest of what the sea-lion had said. "Wait. You've seen my videos?" That stopped him in his tracks before he made it all the way to the hot pool. "Really? Good on you!"

Even after his clarification, Nozomi blinked a few times afterwards with a slight smile, tilting her head. "Have you found a match here then? Or do you mean... also at the pools?"

She blushed. "Though it'd be premature before... well, marriages were finalized."

Gulping, she splashed some water into her face. "Anyways, yes! Like with the otori."

"Uhhh..." Atsumori's eyebrows appeared to be attempting to arch in two different directions as he tried to figure out how to respond. "I just meant I've been at baths with uh girls before! Everyone has, some time, right?" He was one of those lucky people who didn't go too obviously red about the face when blushing, but since all he had to protect his modesty was a small towel, the flush appearing on his ears and upper chest instead was noticeable. "I don't uh have anybody lined up yet. Not that I'm worried!" He shuffled over and hastily splashed waist deep into the hot pool, abandoning his towel at the last second.

"Right-o, anyway!" His change of focus was not subtle. "I'm glad you liked the video. Those otori are pretty remarkable, eh?"

"But do you usually look?" Nozomi asked, a bit bewildered. She then shook her head, clearly willing to drop the subject too.

"I didn't really understand them myself," she said about the otori. "You seem to have a way with animals... well, at least I would hope so." She raised her fist to his mouth, splashing up water just as she forced a cough. It was a huge mess of water all over her...

"Well, uhh... situational awareness and all that..." Atsumori ducked away from this awkward conversational branch by totally unrelatedly and not at all shyly ducking into the steaming pool. Surfacing with water streaming down his face, he laughed. "I suppose I do. Mostly it's just a matter of bein' curious, and respectin' their point of view."

Nozomi shook some moisture out of her hair. "Respecting them? Like their connection to the spiritual realms? Or do you mean something more... mundane? Not to mean that as an insult, but more like... material?"

"I guess it's more 'material,' yeah." Atsumori shrugged, creating waves on the steamy water surface. "Same way you would respect a person whose ideas are a bit different from yours. You can't just force them to change the way they think, you have to think about how to ease around till they agree with you."

Though, then again, there were some great families out there who probably had little patience for that approach to conflict and persuasion where humans were concerned. So, were Matsu more diplomatic with their livestock than with humans?

"Respect a person whose ideas are different from yours,' Nozomi echoed, a faint laugh on her lips. "You are talking to a priestess of the Lion." She looked down at herself. "I guess it's not so obvious in the nude."

She then waved her hands. "Not that all of us are like that. I'm certainly not. It's just that I'd never expect someone to say that to me."