Happiness Springs from the Anal (4)
I'm grateful, sure, but…
In the end, this reaction only happened because my comic had left such a deep impression. And as the one who'd actually drawn it, I had every reason to be pleased.
I'd expected anal masturbation to catch on as a trend. What I hadn't expected was something like this popping out of nowhere. That was the only part that left me a little flustered.
There were already stories floating around about people going about their Academy lives with anal plugs in. I'd heard more than enough accounts of people starting anal play, so I knew the work was riding a successful wave of popularity. But this felt like I'd glimpsed something that went well beyond that.
"…Want to go?"
"Huh?"
"They've only put out a hundred of these so far, so it looks like they just started distributing them. That means the reservations should still be open, right?"
As far as I knew, most people finished their Friday lectures early. Even if Nia couldn't make it, the four of us from the manga club could manage a one-night, two-day hot spring trip. We were already completely open with each other, so going together wouldn't be a problem.
"We're going to the hot spring from the comic?!"
"Just make the reservation for now. If the others can't free up their schedules, we can cancel and eat the cost. Or whoever can go, goes."
"…For real? I'm fine with it! I want to go! I want to go!"
Okay. Orca, still riding the high of having just read that comic, was all in. I'd ask Rosaria and Yuria once we got back to the club room. As for the school, we could write it up as club activity — research into creative applications of manga, that sort of thing.
"A hot spring?"
"Yeah. If you don't want to, it's fine to say no. Whoever's left can still go."
"Of course I'm going. Midterms aren't even here yet, so we've got that much free time."
Yuria simply nodded without a word, signaling she was in. Rosaria had brought up the hot spring once before while reading the comic, and that seemed to be why she looked especially eager.
It's still a little warm for a hot spring trip.
Personally, I always thought hot springs were best right at the start of winter. We were still only in that early-autumn stretch of weather, so we'd probably have to give up on that particular pleasure of the temperature contrast between the water and the air. Then again, we weren't going for that in the first place — if anything, a little warmth might even be better.
"Oh… so this is the place."
It had originally been known as Bane Hot Spring Village, a beastkin settlement of some renown — though not a place many people actually knew about. The ones who did tended to be older, which suggested the village had been slowly fading from memory. Apparently they'd torn the whole concept down and rebuilt it under the bizarre new name of Anaru Hot Spring Village for this reopening.
Hearing that, I'd half-wondered if they'd just been fishing for attention and the place would turn out to be a perfectly ordinary hot spring. The moment we stepped into the village, that thought evaporated.
Right at the entrance stood a massive stone ornament shaped like an anal plug, and the glass display cases of the buildings were packed with every kind of anal plug imaginable. Wow. There were way more varieties than I'd even pictured. You had to hand it to them — they were dead serious about dressing this hot spring up as an anal-themed resort. It genuinely felt like I'd walked straight into the world of that promotional comic.
"Welcome, Master!"
Beautiful beastkin staff dropped to the floor and bowed low in greeting. Beastkin culture really did share a similar atmosphere with East Asian customs. I'd known that intellectually, but I never expected to experience it quite like this.
The staff wore Eastern-style clothing, though calling it traditional would have been a stretch — the outfits were extremely revealing. About on the same level as the Academy's female uniforms, honestly. And because of how the clothes were cut, they looked like they might slip off at any moment, which only made them feel lewder. Having beastkin staff in outfits that perverted prostrate themselves in greeting the second we arrived… it was a sight that burned itself into your brain the moment you set foot in the place. And on top of that, every last one of them was beautiful enough to draw an involuntary gasp.
Honestly, with looks like these, it's weird the village wasn't thriving already.
Maybe it had been one of those hidden gems people deliberately kept to themselves instead of recommending. The kind of place where someone tried to keep a private little hot spring paradise and ended up running it into the ground, only for the whole thing to mutate in a bizarre new direction. …The fact that it was plausible made it even scarier.
"This way, please."
"Whoa, your clothes are so pretty."
They looked lewd from all the exposure, sure — but setting that aside, each outfit had been tailored to match the wearer's ears and tail so naturally that they were genuinely beautiful. Enough to make you want to cosplay them yourself, even.
"Right this way."
They walked us through the meals and the hot spring facilities. Separate from their perverted getups, the hot spring's actual systems were surprisingly wholesome. Or so I thought, until one of the staff brought over a peculiar box.
They explained that a basic set of Anaru supplies came complimentary, and handed over a box filled with ordinary anal plugs and training tools. Then they passed us two catalogs for ordering any additional Anaru goods we might need. From this point on, it was a full-blown anal specialty shop…
"Whoa, the selection is insane."
"These are the staff who just showed us around, right?"
One catalog was thick enough to look like it contained every anal product in existence. The other featured illustrations of the very staff who'd been attending us. Apparently if you picked one of them, you could buy her cosplay set.
"Me, me! I want this one!"
"I'll take this."
"What, if everyone's getting one, maybe I should pick one too. That cat beastkin outfit was cute."
In no time, the club girls had each chosen an outfit they liked and paid a fairly steep price for their boxes. As expected of the main paid product — the cost packed a punch.
Still, from the clothes I saw earlier, the quality looked solid.
Opening the boxes confirmed it. They were worth every coin. Even the anal plugs had been designed with how each tail moved in mind — the internal structure varied slightly from tail to tail. The attention to detail was ridiculous.
"There's even anal-only lotion…"
You really had to admit they were thorough when it came to anything anal-related. Lubricant — called gel in Korea, lotion in Japan — had only recently started being developed as anal training grew popular, and this place stocked all of it.
"So? How do I look?"
"…You already put it on?"
"Yeah. Turns out you're completely naked underneath."
Rosaria, the first to finish changing, came out and spun around to show off her outfit. The soft, adorable vibe unique to cat beastkin came through perfectly. The tail stuck up a little stiffly, which was cute in its own way.
"Ah, Cali! Cast the anal magic on me!"
"Oh, right. Orca doesn't know how to use magic…"
Orca, who'd gone in with the dog beastkin set, came bounding back out with the anal plug in hand and asked me to cast the spell. I almost told her to just ask Yuria, who was still inside — but she clearly wanted me to do it, so I helped with both the magic and inserting the tailed anal plug.
"Ehehe, thanks!"
Watching her wag the plug-tail with all her might, as if it were her real one, was both lewd and, objectively speaking, just plain cute. Like a puppy. The dog beastkin look actually suited Orca pretty well.
"Oh, Yuria's a fox beastkin."
"Mm."
All three of them, each in a different beastkin cosplay, swished the tails buried in their asses and showed off their outfits for me. These were girls who already walked around in revealing clothes on a regular basis — but knowing they were wearing anal plugs made everything feel so much lewder than usual.
"…Let's just get in the bath."
"Oh, right. This is a hot spring."
And then I realized something truly outrageous. Those outfits had been designed so you could wear them straight into the hot spring — completely naked underneath. Once they got wet, the fabric floated up and exposed everything underwater, or clung so tightly that every curve showed through. A two-stage exhibitionist nightmare of clothing.
They planned for this too.
There was no other reason they'd casually note that the outfits were fine to wear into the spring. So I happily enjoyed the spectacle of three girls transformed into a pack of exhibitionists while soaking in the warm, wonderful water. It was starting to feel like paradise itself.
"Haaah… so warm."
"My whole body's melting…"
I'd always figured a hot spring was nice enough, but that a regular bath was basically the same thing. Turns out properly savoring that unique slickness and heat of real spring water was something else entirely. The fatigue just drained right out of me.
"…Should we head out soon?"
"Yeah!"
A slight dizziness was setting in, so I figured it was time to get out and rinse off. Orca and I climbed out. Rosaria and Yuria, though, had somehow caught fire over yet another ridiculous competition — each telling the other to leave while refusing to get out themselves, stubbornly holding out in the water.
"…Why do they do this every chance they get?"
"They're close!"
"Does that look like being close to you…?"
By the time we finished washing up, the two of them had overheated so badly they could barely stay upright. They collapsed on the spot, so we roughly laid out some bedding, stripped their clothes off, and put them to bed before sitting down to dinner ourselves. It had been ages since I'd had food this good, and those two had missed it by being idiots. Poor things.
"Cali, can I ask you for one favor?"
"Hm? What is it?"
We'd finished eating, and the staff were clearing the table. Orca casually led me into an empty room, said she had a request, and lifted her clothes. A bead of breast milk clung to the tip of her nipple, swaying.
"I think the hot spring stimulated me or something… it's already started flowing. Could you drink it for me and take care of it?"
"…Of course."
Heh. Tonight's dinner was about to get one hell of a dessert.