The cheapest room had been anything but cheap, but I forgot that momentarily as we stepped inside and were greeted with the sight of pure luxury. The place was massive. There was a giant deluxe king bed with pure white sheets and a mountain of pillows. There was a long leather couch, a desk, a whole kitchen with a dining set, two bathrooms, and, best of all, a sliding glass door that we had been told led out into our own private onsen.

The two girls ran straight for the bed and jumped onto it backward, laying on it and waving their arms like they were making snow angels. Hana sighed. “It’s so big and comfy!”

Kira got up and jumped up and down. “And bouncy!” she added.

I couldn’t help but smile and roll my eyes at the same time. I’d leave the two of them to their play for a moment. Rather than admonish them I merely reminded them to at least take off their outside clothes if they were going to lay on the new sheets. I felt like I was becoming the dad of the group and I wasn’t sure quite how deep I wanted to go with that. I considered the title briefly. If I was the dad, that would make Hana the mom. And if she was a mom, well,, she sure was a wild one. As I considered this I  watched Hana the ‘mom’ try to wrangle Kira out of her jacket.

I sank into a plush recliner chair beside the bed and used this brief window of rest to check my phone. Still no service. I ran through our possible next steps in my head. It was far too dark to attempt anything now on the mountainside, and on top of that we were tired from our journey and in no shape to attempt a climb.

The two girls informed me they were going to test out the onsen and asked if I wanted to join. They had already stripped down into t-shirts and panties and I found my eyes unable to avoid staring at their bare legs and shapely figures. I was sorely tempted. But I also realized this would be one of the few moments I might get alone to meditate, and last time I had focused my mind I had managed to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the mountain, a potential connection to the past.

I can’t waste this chance.

I told them to go. Hana raised her eyebrows and shrugged, Kira pouted for a second before Hana gave her a playful slap on the bum and opened the door, prompting her to follow. And then suddenly I was alone.

I sat cross-legged on the very center of the large bed and assumed my usual lotus position. I felt the aches in my inner thighs and calves from the battle and I struggled to properly position them. My back straightened and my eyes closed, my hands formed the mudras. I took a breath. It was fast, and shallow. I took another and it was a little less so. I focused and after a while my breathing slowed, my awareness of the pain dissipated, and I felt my mind slip away into nothingness.

For a while, there was only the void, blackness, the awareness that I was. And that was all. Then the world began to take shape around me, a new world, one of pure white. A place I had not been since the very first time I had met Fenra. The place where I had been teleported after first arriving at Kitayashi. The between.  I looked left and right up and down, or I tried, for such directions had little meaning in such a place. But there was nothing, nothing but pure white.

“Fenra! Grandfather? Anyone?”

No-one appeared.

Focus, Ryo, focus!

I closed my eyes once more. I envisioned what I wanted to see. The only woman who could tell me what I needed to hear. My lost lover. My spirit-companion. I pictured her as I’d seen her so many times, in her favorite yellow dress, running through the fields outside of the temple.

I felt something, a breeze. I heard something! Laughter! I opened my eyes and I was there! In the fields outside of my home. And in the distance, the sun shining off her golden-brown skin, was my Fenra!  I called out to her and she turned, amber eyes flashing and a smile across her face.

“Master! Follow me!”

“Fenra, no! Fenra! Wait!”

I followed her, running through the fields where the weeds grew higher and higher with each step until they obscured my vision completely. I pushed through them and slowed to a walk, the sounds of my spirit companion were farther and farther away. Finally, I pushed past the last of the weeds, and there, in front of me, was the oasis where Fenra and I had first made love. It was empty.

I saw no sign of her.

I walked forward, closer to the water. I saw myself. I was wearing the black robes of a warrior but no sword hung at my side. I knelt and took a closer look at myself. My eyes were tired, and my face wrinkled with worry.

Is this how I look these days? How deep has this journey taken me?

I reached down and splashed some of the water over my face. It was cool and crisp and I sighed, feeling refreshed. When the ripples settled I saw a face reflected beside me. In her yellow dress, looking at the water, standing above me, arms crossed over her chest, was Fenra. I opened my eyes wide and spluttered.

“Fenra you are here!” I exclaimed

She laughed. A pure and freeing sound. “Of course, my master. I was always here.”

I stood and turned, taking her in my arms and hugging her close. She hugged me back, nuzzling into the crook of my neck. “Ooh, master is happy to see me today.”

As we parted I tried not to shed a tear, I had not let myself think much about how much I missed her. How worried I was.“Fenra… where are you? Who took you? Was it the summoner?”

She only smiled and cocked her head, blinking those doe eyes of hers. “Took me? I’m right here,” she slid her hands up my chest and inside my robes playfully. Her touch set off a fire in me and I felt my thoughts become muddy.

“No... I mean… Yes. I know you are here, now, in the spirit world. But back in the physical realm, where did he take you? You must know. Fenra, it is important you tell me!”

She did not answer right away. Instead, Fenra’s hands slid up to my neck and shoulders and her body pressed close. She smelt of wildflowers and sunshine. She pressed her lips to my neck softly and then whispered in my ear. “Ryo, my master. I am wherever you are. I am your spirit, you know that. Now don’t you want me?”

“Shit. Of course, I do. But Fenra….” I said, trying to get an answer out of her.

“Then show me!” she said, her voice taking on a slight growl. She gripped my robes in her hands and with a surprising amount of strength and then pushed. I fell back into the shallow waters of the pond with a splash and she sprung on top of me. She pulled her dress down, freeing her pert brown breasts and perky nipples. She pressed them together and licked her lips as she straddled me.

“Master, I need you,” she said as she rocked back and forth on my lap, my hardness growing.

My mind was torn. I was fiercely aroused but I needed to ask her something. It was something  What is it!? Something about someone… Kira? What was it?

“Master!” she called out louder as she rocked back and forth atop me, writhing and moaning. I saw that her brown eyes had turned red. “Master!” she cried out again as her teeth turned into fangs and she descended upon my neck with jaws opened wide.

***

“Master!” a voice cried out.

“Ryo-chan!” said another.

Kira and Hanna were shaking me. Both of them were wearing only short towels. It took me a moment to re-orient myself, I got up off the ground. How I had gotten there I was not sure.

“We heard you calling out, screaming, as if in pain,” Hana said. “What’s wrong!? Are you hurt?”

“Master, are you okay? Were you attacked?!” Kira asked, her eyes wide and worried.

I shook my head. “No I Was… I mean… it was a bad vision. Strange things. I will have to consider what this all means. I thought I had found an answer, but instead, I just have even more questions. I went to the world of the spirits, to find help. To see Fenra. At first, I thought things were okay. Then things got dark.”

“Well,” said Hanna with a slowly forming smile, “I know one way to relax. And since you interrupted our session, I think you’d better join us now.”

The two girls helped me to my feet and led me towards the onsen. I didn’t protest. Still reeling from what I’d seen, any form of distraction or comfort would do me a world of good.

***

Hana was right, it was relaxing. But a whole new set of distractions presented itself before me. Kira and Hana were both naked but submerged from the neck down in the steaming swirling waters. Even though I could not their lower halves, it was tough not to imagine what lay beneath those waters in such close proximity to me.

It was not lost on me that this exact scenario was how Hana had seduced Fenra and me the first time around, in her own hot tub. Was she aiming for a repeat? Hana sighed and leaned back  I did the same, enjoying the steam, the hot bath, the tranquil nature around us. It was just perfect. A reprieve. My sore muscles relaxed and my mind cleared. We were silent for a little while until I heard Kira splash, once, and then again.

It was Hana who broke first. “Kira,” she said, sounding annoyed. “What are you doing?”

“I’m bored!” the cat spirit complained.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“And it's too hot! I want to do something fun! Like the fireworks, can we go back!?”

Hana laughed. “How about this, we can’t go out. But there's something else in there for you. Across from the bed. That big black rectangle. It's called a T.V. Click the button at the bottom and center. It will show images from all around the world.”

Her eyes went wide. “Really?” she asked excitedly.

Hana nodded.

Kira turned to me, “Can I master? I’m sorry but I’m tired of this bath.”

I smiled. “Please, go ahead. Just stay in the room and on the bed, okay?”

“Yes okay!

She got out of the onsen, dripping wet, and started padding towards the door quickly, her wet tail swishing and spraying water, her shapely naked behind swaying back and forth. “And use a towel before you step inside!” Hana called.

As watched her towel off I got a kick in the thigh from Hana. “Ow!” I cried.

“Eyes over here mister, let’s give our companion some privacy. And she’ll maybe give us some in return." Hana raised her eyebrows.

Oh, Hana wants privacy, does she?

The door slid closed behind Kira and it was a moment later that we heard the T.V. turn on and excited squeals. Hana laughed and I smiled.

“That ought to keep her occupied for a little while,” she said.

I nodded. A somewhat uncomfortable silence filled the bath.

“It’s beautiful here,” I said by way of conversation.

Hana chuckled, then laughed hard.

“Oh peach-butt, how did it get so awkward between us? All those beautiful summer days with Fenra, Miku, you, and me. I loved that. Being part of that… you know. I never told you this but. I regret what I said to you back when we first hooked up,” she looked at me with her piercing blue eyes.

“You do?” I asked.

“Yes. I told you I wasn’t looking for anything. No commitment. But what you and Fenra had, have. What we share. I only want to share it with you. So if you ever..” she looked down and I saw a faint blush on your cheek. “You don’t need to worry about me, okay? What you saw me do with Kira… I mean that was one thing. But there’s only one man I want. You. Okay? I don't mind sharing you, but you are the only man I want. I don’t want to lose you!”

It was so rare to see this vulnerable side of Hana. I swam over to her and she met me in the center of the pool, she pressed her forehead to my chest as I stood in the shallows and she clung to me. I felt her breasts pressing against my lower chest, her soft body melding against mine under the water.

“Hey, peachbutt?”

“Yes, Hana?”

“You are um… poking me. Down there”

It took me a moment to realize what she meant and then I took a step back, away from Hana, realizing my erection had been pressing right against her belly button.

“Um, sorry. You can’t blame me though, can you?”

She giggled, and I saw that though her flush had deepened, there was also that familiar glint in her eyes. “No, no I can’t. But maybe what I can do is help you out. And this time, peach-butt. I don’t want to go anywhere after. I want to sleep right beside you. And be your girl. Can you handle that?” She reached out and grabbed the length of me underwater and slowly tugged. I jumped in her hands.

“I think I’d like that. A lot.”

She was so fast, so nimble, so eager. Hana loved to take control and I loved to let her. She kissed me, her tongue probing mine as her hands stroked me up and down under the hot bubbling water. My body was already reacting excitedly. It was already hers. I was hard as a rock, throbbing as she pumped me up and down. When we parted she flashed me a smile and led me to the edge of the onsen where the waters became more shallow. She looked up at me with hungry eyes as she leaned back on the ledge, let her legs and body floated upwards, partially above water, and she wrapped her nimble calves around my naked backside, dragging my hips towards her waiting center.

“I need you inside of me Ryo-chan… I need it now.” Her face was flushed and her words eager, trembling. I saw a deep desire in them, a need, a thirst, and once more that hint of vulnerability. Raw emotion.

I ran my fingers along her supple thighs as I allowed myself to be pulled towards her. My hands gripped her waist and she sighed, her head leaning back against the wooden floorboards that ringed the pool. I teased the entrance of her with the tip of my cock and felt her body quiver.

“Please,” she said softly, her eyes still closed. Now she was no longer in control. She was a pink flower that opened up before me. Fully vulnerable and naked. Ready and waiting. I savored that moment, that blissful painful second before we began.

It has been so long.

And then I entered her. She was wet, I could tell that even underwater by how effortlessly she took me to the hilt. Still, as always, her petite body was tight around me and I felt my cock stretching her as she moaned loudly into the chill night air. Her legs wrapped tighter around my backside, holding me to her, keeping me inside of her as though she was afraid she might lose me.

“I’m right here,” I reassured her.

Her eyes opened and I saw the hint of tears. “I know, Ryo-chan. I know. Please… make me yours.”

I leaned down and kissed her, and her lips were soft and pillowy and eager. I made love to her in long slow strokes as her body trembled and spasmed below me. She held me close as I kissed her neck. She moaned and cried as I sped up. She pleaded and whimpered for more as gentle strokes turned to hard quick thrusts. I lifted her whole body out of the water putting it on the ledge. She spread herself for me, steam rising from her naked glistening body. I held her by her ankles as her legs formed an upside-down triangle, driving into her and grunting as an animalistic lust took over me.

“Please, fuck me, cum in me! Ryo-chan… Ryo-chan…!” she screamed, her gentle desire turning into hunger as well.

I lost it, pounding into her, the slapping sounds of our sex echoing throughout the balcony. I emptied myself into her as she spasmed, her orgasm overtaking her as I coated the inside of her pussy with great gushing fountains of cum. I lifted her, still inside of her, and pulled her back into the warmth of the pool with me. She encircled my neck with thin yet strong arms and pressed her lips to my cheek.

“Ryo-chan, I love you,” she said into my ear.

My heartbeat quickened. A warmth that was beyond the pools below filled me.

“Hana, I love you too.”

***

By the time we’d cleaned ourselves off and towled down and entered the hotel room once more, the T.V. was still on but Kira was fast asleep on the foot of the bed. We turned off the T.V. and put a blanket over her then the two of us slipped under the covers and cuddled up close, falling asleep in each other's arms.

I was happy. Perfectly happy.