queenoflogs | Take a soak in the onsen. [Wide open!]

Characters: Dr. Kiriko

rhododendronic
Date: Feb 27th.
Summary: Kiriko decides to take a relaxing bath at the Onsen. She's in a good mood - why don't you join her, stranger?
Warnings: Nudity, which includes extensive scarring. Warnings will be added as needed.

Dr. Kiriko was in a mood to do something she hadn't done in a very long time. And without the usual burden of constant travel, the Death Doctor (or would it be more correct to say 'Chemist,' these days?) found herself with much more free time. She had become quite the workaholic in her past life... perhaps it was time for a change, at least until she could find a way home. But, why rush?

This particular 'something' ended up being a quick visit to the Japanese Inn's Onsen. She hadn't gone to one in well over half the decade. The Doctor stepped out into the main bath, and realizing she was alone, took her time finding where she wanted to sit. Her long, greying hair tied in a tight bun behind her head, there was nothing to conceal her body. Her bangs were brushed behind her ears, freely concealing her eyeless socket. Across her back and some of her chest, the scars from the war still remained, but Kiriko was far from shy about them. Her war wounds were but a fact of life. If other guests had a problem with the way she looked, they could sit somewhere else.

Head back and arms at her sides, the soothing effect was almost immediate. For the first time since her arrival, she smiled genuinely and soaked in the silence. With only the sounds of the water around, she hummed a low, contented tune.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pinoko happily walked over to the onsen, stripped down and squeaky clean from a quick shower! Her brown hair was slicked down with water, having lost quite a bit of its usual volume. She didn't mind, swinging a wooden bucket around one arm, carrying the towels she would need when she leaves the water— as long as it meant she could take a dip in the onsen! It's been a while for her too, but nowhere near as long as it had been for the other woman, who Pinoko had yet to notice.

Her happy little half-skip, half-walk halted when she drew near to the water's edge. She looked somewhat apprehensive at first, staring at her reflection.

She never had the best of luck with water, despite loving to splash around! It didn't look too deep...

She carefully moved closer to the ground and stretched out a chubby leg, dipping it carefully into the hot water. "Owowow, hot..."

She shut her eyes and tried to reach, blindly, for the bottom.

Her toe poked the bottom and a smile spread across her face!

"Not too deep! Yay! Yayayay! Pinoko can touch bottom~!"

All fear disappearing, she happily dove into the water, sat on the bottom for a moment, before standing up to gasp for air. Happily giggling, she noisily splashed around, before spotting someone pale, possibly white-haired, and definitely scar-ridden.

She blinked, trying to clear her vision. "It couldn't be... Doc?" She wiped at her eyes with the back of her soaking wet hand. "Lady Doc...?"

As soon as her vision cleared up, she realized the scars were different... they don't seem to have healed half as well as either of the two aforementioned doctors and they definitely frightened the little nurse.

"E-EEEEEEEK, ACCHONBUYUREIKEEE!!"

Pinoko had never seen such awful scars before! How could that person still be alive?! It MUST be a ghost or some other scary creature! The scars frightened her so badly, she immediately went to climb back out of the water and fully intended on running away and never looking back!

Guilt settled in just as she bent down to pick up her bucket.

"..."

A nurse shouldn't run away like a little kid! Who ever heard of ghosts haunting onsen, anyway?

... wait, never mind.

She slowly turned around, biting her lip and trying not to cry or run away.

"... u-um, are you okay, Yurei-shan...? Are you hurt?"

Those scars look really bad... can you operate on a ghost, if she really is one?

Without the eyepatch, Pinoko really can't recognize Kiriko! And she's never seen her scars either...

Kiriko was about to turn to scold the child that had entered to stop splashing, that it was rude, but stopped when she recognized who it was. She had no business disciplining Black Jack's child - rather, it wasn't her job. Just as she had decided to ignore her, Pinoko made a loud fuss that would have annoyed Kiriko if she hadn't been so concerned the girl might trip and kill herself. It would be quite the difficult thing to explain to her rival.

But Kiriko relaxed as Pinoko did, raising her eyebrows in half-amusement. Yurei? She was no vengeful spirit, at least not yet. As for if she was hurt, there was indeed a recently healed surgical scar from Pinoko's own Lady Doc that ran across her stomach. She had already been cured of the last condition that had made her ill. For all the scars and surgery Pinoko must have seen in her life, was she truly so squeamish over a few badly healed injuries? And did they make her so completely unrecognizable?

"Hurt?" Kiriko began dryly, reclining in the shallow water and tilting back her head. "I would have thought your Doctor had taught you that failed assassins do not feel pain."

"You mushtn't shpeak badly to a wife about her darling! Pinoko can't shtand it...! He'd never shay a thing like that!"

Then, she blinked. "... Dr. Kiwiko...?"

Only the, did she really recognize her. "Pinoko can't believe that you can never be hurt... it looksh to Pinoko like you've been hurt more than mosht people."

She slowly returned to the water. "What happened to you?"

He? She definitely didn't mishear that time. Odd....

"The one and only," she muttered, rolling her good eye as Pinoko entered back into the bath. What a healthy curiosity this one had, and Kiriko wasn't quite ready to indulge her. The girl was certainly right about one thing, she had experienced her fair share of pain in her lifetime.

"It's not a story for kids, I'm afraid," the Doctor answered teasingly. Maybe she'd be too hotheaded at the insult to ask any more questions.

"Why you—" Pinoko glared, turning very red and glaring through the steam.
It almost looked like the steam increased from her boiling hot temper, but then, she confidently turned her nose up, closing her eyes. "Pinoko's twenty! Plenty old enough to hear any shtory you've got.

Unlessit'saboutthisspringbeinghaunted."

She tried to doggy-paddle her way over to Kiriko, but it proved too deep after some distance, so she clutched the edge of the pool and sort of sideways mountain-climbed her way over, reaching from stone to stone.

To distract from her rather amusing little predicament, Pinoko theorized outloud and asked questions, rapid-fire, as she made her way over: "Did you get in a fight with a gangshter? Did a crow peck out your eye and its whole family came and attacked you after you killed the firsht one? Did you fight and get injured in a war? Did a bomb blow up and tear up your body and there weren't any good doctors around to patch you up right?"

There were a lot of confusing feeling she was dealing with at the moment. She had her tree fort back: Amimiya was no longer always there, just training or within arm's distance to talk to. She had wondered how much of that she cared about, that she didn't have her best friend (aside from Marceline and PB) to talk to, and that just made the bunny girl more confused.

So she decided to go to a place where there was less confusion: the local baths, to relax and think about things. Like Subaru had shown her, she bathed first, then popped into the actual Onsen, alone without her thoughts.

Or not alone? She looked over and saw there was someone with her: a very distinct looking someone, with a missing eye and scarring all over the place. It wouldn't have been hard to spot this woman in a crowd, and she looked as if anyone daring to act foolishly with her would pay the price. This was usually a glaring conclusion to Fionna to proceed with caution, especially considering the last time she was at the baths.

"Hello," she said timidly. "Fionna. Would you mind sharing this spot with me?"

Should Kiriko have heard Fionna's inner monologue, she would have laughed, but instead the Doctor merely nodded in acknowledgement. "...Feel free, Fionna," she replied, sitting up somewhat. Taking a quick glance of the newcomer, but not long enough as to be rude, Kiriko took note of her features. Blonde, curvy, with healthy pink skin. Kiriko chuckled to herself and looked away, unconsciously touching her own skeletal fingers together... to be young and healthy! What an alien concept. It felt like a full lifetime ago that Kiriko had looked as good as she. She wondered if it was her apparent old age that inspired Fionna to act so polite. In her own effort to be polite, Kiriko brushed a part of her bangs in front of her empty eye. She understood it wasn't a pleasant thing to see and it made no difference to her.

"It's Kiriko."

"Thanks," she said, giving the guest (though technically she would be the guest) a smile. It was really less about an age thing and more the way that Kiriko looked that awed the girl. Anyone with that many scars had obviously been through a lot of junk in her life and was still here. Fionna had nothing but respect for someone like that. Hiding her empty eyesocket, therefore, wasn't neccesary: it would have only heightened Fionna's admiration.

Was she naive? Perhaps. Squeamish? Not so much.

"Nice to meet you Kiriko! Did you come here to think and relax too?"

It was obvious Fionna was NOT unnerved by the doctor.

Take a soak in the onsen. [Wide open!]

[Have one scaredy-cat nurse.]

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