The Public Baths
“Boxxo, let’s get going.”
Having finished her dinner, Lammis greets me at my position outside the Hunters Association headquarters.
Now that she mentions it, it’s today, isn’t it? Lammis goes somewhere every third evening, and lately she’s been taking me with her no matter what.
Today, once again, she slides me onto her back and, skipping lightly, heads for our destination.
“Hmm-hmm, hmm-hmm! I worked a whole lot today, so I can’t wait to—”
“Is that you, Lammis? And Boxxo as well. Thank you for the other day.”
This all-too-silky voice—Shirley? She’s the lady running the night business, the one I provided the condoms to as a result of the sex-related issue before.
Is she on her way to work? She looks elegant today, wearing the same incredibly exposing evening dress as last time.
“Shirley, are you on your way to work?”
“No. I had some free time this afternoon, so I decided I would wash off a little sweat.”
“Oh! Then we’re going to the same place. I’m going to the bath now, too.”
Yes—today is public-bath day. Normally, Lammis just wipes herself with a wet cloth, but she always makes sure to go to the public baths once every three days. On these days, she’s in a good mood all day long.
She seems to love taking baths, but it costs a fair bit of money, so she puts up with taking only one every three days.
“Ah, I see. How lucky of me—and Boxxo is with you,” she says, casting a flirtatious glance at me. I may be a machine, but you’re making my heart pound. Could you please stop?
There’s a reason Lammis is happy to be going with me. The reason will become clear as soon as we arrive at the public baths, but— Oh, we’re here already. I can see a building made of stone up ahead.
It’s the largest building in the Clearflow Lake stratum, next to the Hunters Association’s. At a glance, it looks like a school gymnasium, but this is the public baths.
The walls are made of stone, and the curved roof looks wooden. There are two entrances, the left being for women and the right for men—not the masculine dream of a mixed bath.
“Great, we’re here! Chaaaaaarge!”
Lammis, still excited, runs through the left entrance without hesitation—with me on her back.
Inside, it’s a room with a wooden floor, and everyone takes their shoes off before stepping onto it. Beyond that is a high platform against the wall, like the attendant’s booth at a Japanese public bath. Atop the platform sits a little old lady with a face full of wrinkles.
“It’s five silver coins.”
“Here you go, five coins.”
She hands the silver to the old lady and proceeds inside without setting me down. There’s a changing room with lockers lined up on the wall, where you can put belongings and clothes. And well, the reason I can observe this calmly is because it isn’t my first time here.
She places me in a corner of the changing room, as always, so I decide to take a quick look around.
The parts with benches for resting and magic-item-looking things for weighing yourself seem like what you’d expect from a normal bath. We appear to have come during an off-hour, and aside from Lammis—and Shirley, who entered after us—there are only two others.
One looks like she’s about to get into the bath. She’s completely naked, with nothing extra to cover her up.
She has an ample chest, an ample waist, and an ample bottom. A perfectly well-endowed…bear. Well, you know. She may be female, but seeing a beast person in the nude doesn’t make me happy at all.
And in this world, the beast people aren’t the simple kind where only their ears and tails are animallike—these are actual animals, and the sole impression I have of seeing them naked is “I think I’ve seen this at the zoo before, or on TV.”
The other person is a human female, but she’s the regular old lady who visits me early in the morning, so I have no particular comment.
“Wooowww! Shirley, you’re so pretty… I’m jealous!”
“Hee-hee. Thank you.”
I hear the girls talking, so without particularly thinking about it—just casually, no ulterior motives whatsoever—I look over at them.
Lammis is using an arm to hold up the pair of big beach balls on her chest. Leaning forward in nothing but her panties, she has quite the suggestive appearance as she stares at Shirley. No—those aren’t beach balls. Her breasts are just way too big.
When fully liberated, they pack an incredible punch. If a man saw them, I don’t think he could be blamed for forgetting himself and staring for a while. My male instincts may or may not be shouting that averting my eyes would be a crime.
And her eyes are pointedly focused on Shirley, who’s completely naked. But why? She has a perfect body, and she’s supposed to be sexy, but it doesn’t turn me on. She has an ethereal sort of look to her, as though I’m looking at a piece of art. There is no carnal desire there—just a bewitching beauty.
At times like these, I’m not sure whether I should be thankful I don’t have a physical body, or frustrated. It’s hard to decide.
“Boxxo, can we buy the usual things?”
Whoops. Lammis just spoke to me, snapping me out of it. Right—that’s the reason I’m here.
I add hand towels, bath towels, soap, shampoo, and hair treatment to my vending machine items. Ever since Lammis first said we were going to the baths and I stocked bath goods out of consideration, I ended up being taken to the changing room so that everyone could make more use of me.
This is certainly not something I asked for. I’d like to emphasize that this was purely coincidental. Yes—a product of coincidence. I am not sitting here in this public bath changing room because I want to, and I need to make sure that’s clear.
“This liquid hair-washing detergent feels great in my fingers, and it makes my hair unbelievably shiny. I’ve just run out of it, so maybe I’ll buy a few extra. Oh, but I’ll have to carry them back with me.”
“Then after we get out, let’s go to your shop with Boxxo. Does that sound good, Boxxo?”
“Welcome.”
Now that she mentions it, I’ve never been to her shop before, so I have a fair bit of interest in it. I wonder if it’s a gaudy place with neon signs, like in Japan. Or maybe it’s made to look no different from a house at first so they can do their business in private.
“Oh, that would be nice. I wanted to order more of those from Boxxo, too,” she says in a seductive voice while combing her hair back, completely naked, making me worried my internal circuitry will short out. If I had a heart, it would be beating out of control right now.
“Okay. Boxxo, we’re going in, so wait here for a bit.”
“Please come again.”
Go in up to your shoulders and warm your whole body. Don’t mind me—you can take your time. Really, don’t pay any attention to me. Clean every last part of your body and wash away today’s exhaustion.
They disappear into the bathing room, so I wait patiently for time to pass. Nobody is here, and I don’t need to do anything, so I just keep waiting.
Should be about time—it usually happens around now.
“Phew, I’m bushed.”
“We made a lot today. Want to go for drinks after this?”
“That sounds great!”
There they are. Because it gets more dangerous after dark in the wild, hunters generally finish their work around this time and come to wash off the grime from their outdoor activities.
You may think that after witnessing perfect beauty, anything else will affect you less—but that isn’t the case. Rather than bodies like works of art, ones with some sort of flaw or imbalance are easier to appreciate, have more humanness to them, and feel more attractive to me.
And youth itself can be a weapon all its own. However much you care for yourself, you can’t get back the tight skin and physical beauty that only the young are permitted to have…or so I remember a friend of mine once passionately explaining. That is certainly not my own opinion.
Anyway, my friend’s opinion, which I suddenly remembered, doesn’t matter. A group of young hunters throw open the door and enter. I can’t tell their ages, but from the way they talk, they’re probably kids.
The ones who came are two foxes and two raccoons, all walking on two legs.
Ah, yeah. The public baths have turned into a zoo.
The settlement has a lot of people in it, and I see beast people like Director Bear every once in a while. They have better physical abilities than humans, and hunters include them in their teams quite often. It’s not strange for a bunch of them to show up at once.
I mean—this would actually be easier to enjoy if I closed my eyes. Their voices sound like young women, after all.
“I’ve been shedding a lot lately.”
“That’s just because it’s that time of year, isn’t it?”
“And I’ve been feeling that ache recently.”
“Yeah, we’ll be in heat soon. If you see any good males, be sure to tell me.”
Right, well. This isn’t enjoyable at all. It’s too vivid.
They say high school girls don’t get embarrassed about this stuff when there are no men around—but with the animal instincts mixed in, the sexual openness is too much for me.
“Oh, Boxxo’s here today! I’m going to buy the fur wash.”
“Me too, me too!”
Well, they are covered in fur, so they go through a whole lot of shampoo and treatment. I’m not about to complain about good customers.
“If this makes my coat of fur look good, it’ll have all the males howling.”
“And they can’t resist the scent, either! The other day, my boyfriend was getting into it even though he’s not in heat.”
The raccoons and foxes disappear into the bath room in a friendly line. I mean, their chests may be slightly curved and their bottoms may look like a lady’s, but that doesn’t mean they seem sexy to me. Apparently, things like this do arouse certain people, but I’m not that sophisticated.
Anyway, I’m a vending machine, so even if they were humans, I couldn’t care less about naked women. However, I must say that having been a human male originally, a little part of it still tugs at me, saying it would be a waste not to enjoy the moment.
Yes—before I am a vending machine, I have the soul of a man, and I must not forget it!
“Phew. Now that I’m out, maybe I’ll have a drink.”
“Welcome,” I say to the old woman.
Ma’am, I would recommend either the cold fruit milk or the coffee milk for your post-bath beverage. If you sweat too much, then rehydrate with a sports drink.
“I think I’ll buy this drink with the odd color.”
Oh, I knew she’d choose the fruit milk. Obviously, you have to have that or coffee milk after getting out of the bath. And of course, in a jar. This is a public bath tradition that I won’t yield.
A paper illustrating how to properly open the container is affixed to the side of the vending machine, so everything is perfect. Lammis is the artist, by the way. Her pictures are pretty flavorful and cute. I like them quite a bit.
“Phew! I was a little dizzy. This really hits the spot.”
“Thank you. Please come again.”
Seeing a customer’s joy after buying an item really is the moment I feel happiest as a vending machine… Wait, wasn’t I thinking about something else before? Well, whatever.
“Aaah. I feel refreshed.”
“That felt good.”
Oh, and while I was talking to the old lady, Lammis and Shirley finished their bath. I’m not the only one who thinks wearing nothing but a bath towel is hotter than being completely naked, am I?
That slim line, where you can almost see but you can’t, amplifies the allure. Yes, this isn’t bad at all.
“Boxxo, I’ll have a cold one! The brown kind today.”
“I think I’ll have the same.”
They each grab their freshly chilled coffee milk, put a hand on their hip, and gulp it down. The whole putting-a-hand-on-your-hip-while-you-drink thing seems to span cultures—even different worlds.
Fresh from the bath, their flushed bodies are permeated by my white liquid—but when I describe it like that, it sounds lewd.
Lammis finishes hers off and exhales noisily. “Shoot, this is the best!”
Lammis, I’m happy you’re happy, but you’re acting like an old man.
“The cold feels good,” says Shirley after letting out a more refined breath. Compared to Lammis, Shirley is twisting to and fro. It’s too sexy; it’s poison for the eyes. She’s exudes a certain sophisticated sex appeal, the likes of which would immediately put me in trouble if I were a boy in puberty.
Several customers come in while they’re changing, too, and they start to buy things from me. As I interact with them the same way I usually do, the girls finish changing, and soon it’s time to go home.
“I’m bringing Boxxo back home, so if you want anything else, get it now!” calls out Lammis. People bursting out of the bath room and women in the middle of changing all swarm me, and I sell quite a few cold beverages, bottles of shampoo, and different varieties of towels.
“Heeey, excuse me, could you lend Boxxo to the guys’ side, too?!” comes a man’s loud voice from the other side of the wall separating the genders. Was that the gatekeeper Karios? I don’t have a problem with it, so I reply with a “Welcome” at maximum volume.
“Then come to the public bath entrance to get him!”
“Okay, got it. Come on, you lot!”
When Lammis goes out, a group of sordid, half-naked men are there waiting. The guys hoist me up like a portable shrine and carry me into the men’s changing room.
“Give him right back! We still have somewhere to go,” Lammis calls after them.
“Will do. Let’s buy what we want!”
They carry me into the changing room, then set me down, after which half-naked and fully naked men surround me, buying my products like it’s the end of the world.
Most of the men don’t bother with the hair treatment or the shampoo; they just get soap and wash their whole body with it, so the soap is selling out at an alarming rate.
The coffee milk is also a hit, and the majority of the men getting out of the bath are buying it. And as though it’s simply common practice in this world, they all put their hands on their hips while they drink it.
Once they’re done buying things, they carry me back outside.
“Welcome back,” says Lammis, who is waiting for me.
“Thank you,” I answer. She smiles in response.
“Man, that was a huge help, Boxxo,” says Karios. “We’re going to start wanting one of you in every household.”
“True,” agrees Gorth, nodding deeply. They’re together all the time, huh? You’d think it would feel stifling to be together both on and off the job, but they must have an affinity for each other. Wait—are they like that, maybe? No, that’s a bit of an assumption to be making…
“Oh, hello, Karios, Gorth. Thank you again for your regular patronage.”
They notice Shirley there as she smiles seductively and bows a little, and they bow their own heads awkwardly.
I see—they’re regulars, apparently? I think I can still interact with them from now on without giving them weird looks, maybe.
“Hup, ho! Shirley, sorry for making you wait. We can go now!”
“This was perfect to cool down, so don’t worry.”
They bring me along to her workplace, and Karios and Gorth follow closely behind. I’m pretty sure I know why. Night has fallen, so having them here makes the nighttime streets safer for us anyway.
Without any particular problems, Shirley’s workplace comes into sight. I was prepared to pass through an alley or something, but we did none of that; the shop was farther down a main street.
As we walk on, we see the number of young men, as well as women in exposing outfits, increase. I figured we were close to the shop, but it is—how should I put this?—a good and proper storefront.
It looks and feels like a row of one-story tenements. A strong-bodied man wearing armor has his lance at the ready, perhaps both out of intimidation and to impart a sense of safety.
“All right. Lammis, Boxxo, come this way.”
Shirley trades glances with the pair behind us and nods, and I see them both scratch the backs of their heads in slight embarrassment.
After that, as Lammis happily chows down on some high-class tea snacks, I finish our business of selling her additional condoms and we chat for a bit. When it gets late, we set ourselves on the road home.
“It’s late, so I’ll have some of your food and then go to sleep.”
Despite carrying a vending machine with her Might, she is still a cute girl. There’s no being too cautious, either, so I shine my light around us to keep watch.
“I know. Today you can sleep inside with me instead of outside. I smell really good today. Boxxo, if you were human, you could sleep next to me. Does that make you feel too bad?”
Without thinking, I respond to her joke. “Too bad.”
“Huh? Boxxo, what…?”
My voice slipped out. I have to fool her.
“Get one free with a winner.”
“Boxxo, are you playing dumb? Hey, come on, what did you say, really?”
Ugh. She doesn’t usually pursue things like this. I can see her profile from behind; she seems like she’s having fun, so she must be teasing me.
“Come on, tell me!”
“Please come again.”
Our conversation sounds unintelligible, but Lammis is smiling. If I had a face, I might be smiling right along with her. It’s the kind of night where even a conversation like this makes me happy, and I really start to feel like being a vending machine isn’t so bad.
