Sophia took the group to the floating island towering over the cherry blossom forest she created with the help of magic. Everyone was very surprised over just how massive and beautiful the area had turned out to be. They were also big fans of the island itself, but the group decided to take a portal down to the actual forest to take a better look at the nice area there instead.

“Nice!” Steph got excited the moment they entered the forest below the floating island. “It’s so nice down here! The trees are just perfect! Not over-the-top big, but dense enough to fully block out your stupid all-white default design." No one liked the standard color of it. "You don't even realize that you're not in a normal world around here. It’s nice and peaceful out here and great for relaxing!”

“It’s nice how the terrain changes.” Fen was also looking around. “I prefer my forest because it’s made after my preferences, but I’m starting to dislike how flat the area is there.”

“Yeah, having some hills and drops in the area is a lot nicer, huh?” Ari nodded a few times. “I guess we have to do some remodeling in your forest, after all?” She smiled at the male wolf.

“I’m not entirely sure.” He paused for a moment. “Yes, it is a little boring, but I still think we made a nice area together. I wouldn’t want to destroy it.”

“Ehehe~.” Ari liked his reply. “Oh! How about we treat our current area as a nice plateau and create a more mountainous terrain around it?”

"Oh, that's a nice idea!” Fen liked her suggestion a lot. “We should give that a try!”

“Okay!”

“I have to admit that it’s indeed a nice forest you have created here.” Even Fey seemed impressed. “It’s surprisingly tasteful.”

“HEY!” The blonde didn’t appreciate her wording.

“What?” The full tilted her head. “You aren’t exactly known for understatement, are you?”

“…” She paused for a second. “Fair enough.”

“I can only agree with everyone else, you made a very nice space here.” The cat-girl also liked the creation. “I can’t wait to spend a lot of time here. The varying colors of the cherries are especially nice in my eyes.”

“Oh, speaking of that!” Anna joined the conversation. “Can we get one of the dark purple weeping cherries at the cottage? If possible, right in front of the window of Ari’s and my room! They look so nice, and I’d love to wake up to that sight outside the window every morning!”

“I fully support this nice suggestion!” The jaguar nodded a few times.

“Sure thing~.”

“Thanks!” The royal couple was happy to hear it.

“By the way, is there a sixty-nine joke I missed, or why are we saying nice so often right now?” Sophia tilted her head as she noticed a curious pattern in their current conversation.

“What are you talking about?” Maya looked back at her. “We’re just praising your nice creation here.”

“Really?”

“You know that I don’t joke about sixty-nine!” Her voice turned serious. “It’s not a joke, but an amazing activity, after all!”

“Haa…” The blonde had nothing else to say there. “Sure, it is nice.” She decided to join them.

“What is?” The cat-girl had to do it. “Your forest or sixty-nine?”

“Yes.”

“Hehe.” It was exactly what Maya wanted to hear.

“You’re right, it is very nice.” All the hybrid girls except Mira agreed with the blonde.

“We’re rather horny today again, huh?” Sophia reacted with a wry smile while looking at all of them.

----------------

Once they finished playing around with that topic, the girls eventually got back on track and refocused their attention on the cherry blossom forest.

“By the way, where are the hot springs at?” Steph was looking around in the area again. “You promised me there would be hot springs! You can’t have a forest like this without them, after all!”

“Uhh,” Sophia’s expression turned a little awkward.

“How could you?!” The dog-girl didn’t like her sister’s reaction.

“This place just came into existence! I didn’t have the opportunity to make anything specific yet!”

“Boo!” She didn’t accept her excuse.

“Boo!” Maya felt the same.

“We already have a hot spring at home! You don’t have to be so horny for a new one!”

“We do!” Steph and the cat-girl disagreed. “It would be much better here!”

“I do kind of agree with the perverts here.” Ari nodded a few times.

“We knew we could count on number three on the pervert list for that!” The duo smiled at the jaguar.

“That’s not what I meant!” She got loud. “I just wanted to say that the atmosphere here is better! The cherry blossoms make for a much more beautiful backdrop.”

“Haa…” Sophia reacted with a sigh. “Alright, fine, I’ll get to-, Hmm?” She noticed that the parakeet on her shoulder was getting lively as it flapped its wings while also chirping a couple of times. “What is it, Blu?” The bird then took off from her shoulder and flew into the forest while continuing to chirp even louder.

“Does Blu want us to follow?” Chloe took a wild guess.

“It appears so?” The blonde had no better explanation, either.

“Or it got so angry with you that there are no hot springs here that it had to leave.” Steph was still upset about it.

“Very likely!” Maya agreed with her.

“I’ll go with Chloe’s suggestion!” Sophia glared at the duo before continuing. “Let’s go and follow Blu!” Afterward, she immediately started walking in the direction the parakeet had flown before the others eventually followed after her. The blonde also ignored the fact that Maya and Steph high-fived before they moved.

----------------

The group followed Blu through the forest for about 15 minutes before it eventually landed on a branch of a tree in front of something a little bit different.

“Ohh!” Noticing where they had ended up, Steph’s eyes immediately lit up. “So there was one, after all! Let’s go!” Blu had guided them to a small area of cherry blossoms that actually had a hot spring. Steam rose from the roughly ten-by-eight-meter-wide oval-shaped pond, which seemed to be naturally formed and lined with grey rocks around the entire edge and inside, as well.

“Amazing!” Maya felt the same. The whole area was slightly elevated and carved into a small mountain. On the far side, where the hill ascended further up, hot water was flowing down the rocks and into the pond, constantly renewing the water in the hot spring while causing it to overflow on the other end, where it then ran down downhill before disappearing into the ground. While it was easy to see the elevation, it was still impossible to take a look at the mountain itself, though. The pink weeping cherries and regular cherry blossom trees around the hot spring made it impossible to see far into the distance, or up, for that matter. Not that any of them felt the need to look anywhere else in the first place.

“Well, that solves that issue~.” Sophia then tapped her shoulder a few times, and Blu quickly flew over again to land it. “Thank you!” She gently patted the bird’s head afterward.

“Wait, how did it know?!” Chloe stared at the bird.

“Because Blu’s amazing~.” The short tiger had an easy explanation.

“Yes, I agree.” The pink fox didn’t have an issue with that part. “How and why, though?!”

“If you’re amazing, you’re amazing~.” Sophia had no intention of being helpful anytime soon.

“Mira, explanation please!” Chloe went for a more useful source of information instead.

“Blu’s amazing.” The overseer didn’t feel like helping, either. “Sophia’s entirely correct on her deduction. If you’re amazing, you’re amazing.” Naturally, she didn’t want them to know the actual reason. Blu having a connection with ambient magic and knowing it had made a hot spring for the blonde tiger because they were aware she wanted one, that is.

“Grr!” Her daughter did not appreciate it. “Feyfey, do you have an explanation for me?” She then turned to her actually reliable other mother for help.

“I can only take a guess here.” The full wasn’t exactly sure what to tell her, either. “I do have some experience with the animals in our many-tailed idiot’s domain, though. Most of them are able to use magic to some capability, and the higher their proficiency, the more intelligent and cleverer they seem. Blu seems especially quick on the uptake, so I guess it’s not impossible for it to have some special abilities or something along the lines. I mean, it has, Mira excluded, much more magic power than all of us combined. I'm sure that comes with some side effects."

“Thank you very much!” Chloe smiled at her. “It sounds like it would make sense. In one way or another. As much sense as any of this can make.”

“As I said, Blu’s amazing!” Sounding extra proud, Sophia patted the parakeet’s head on her shoulder a little more, which responded by happily moving its body around the entire time.

“Less theory crafting, more hot springs!” Steph had enough of the conversation and pointed at the steaming water in front of them with an eager expression. “Let’s go!” Then, she immediately stripped down and jumped into the water, making her naked butt the last thing the group saw of her before creating a massive splash that even reached some of the girls.

“I love her enthusiasm, but I think I’ll sit that one out.” Mira didn’t feel like taking a bath right now.

“Yeah.” Fey and the wolves agreed with her. Blu also moved away from the tree and relocated to the overseer’s shoulder.

“Boo!” Steph resurfaced and didn’t like what she heard.

“How about you show some modesty and don’t present your bare chest to all of us like it’s nothing?” Anna slowly shook her head while looking at the dog-girl, who had everything waist-up on full display as that much of her was sticking out of the water.

“How about you not stare so much instead?” Her expression turned into a smirk while noticing how the princess had her eyes glued to her.

“A-Ah.”

“Well, I’m flattered you like the view~.” Neither shame nor modesty existed in the being called Steph as she puffed out her modest chest. “Let me see something, too! Anna, Ari, Maya, Chloe, sis, all of you! Strip right this instant and join me! The water’s great, too!”

“Fine!” Overpowered by her energy, the five, once Mira and the others left, also got rid of their clothes and joined the overly excited dog-girl in the water. As usual, Maya and Sophia ended up cuddling with each other. Anna and Ari used their bodies to lean onto each other, and Chloe tried to tame the violet whirlwind of their group.

“This is heaven!” Clearly not talking about the water, Steph was looking at all of them while her fox was trying to make her sit tight in the water.

“How are you still this excited over this?” Ari tilted her head. "We've been using the other hot spring for like a month already, and we've seen each other naked every night since then."

“Because all of you are way too hot!” There was zero hesitation in her reply. “Chloe wins by far, but this much beauty in one spot should be illegal! Sis doesn’t count for me, but she also adds to my claim! It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for the eyes!”

“She does have a point.” Maya nodded a few times as she squeezed the naked body of Sophia, who had gotten comfortable between her legs. “And this tiger counts for me, so I agree with her even more.”

"I guess so." The jaguar couldn't really deny it. Even so, she still tried hard not to stare in a specific direction for too long or hard because she didn’t want to get teased about it. The third-horniest member of the group has some unfortunate experience with that, after all.

Afterward, once some more staring had been engaged in, the group finally shifted their attention to the beautiful cherry blossom backdrop of their new hot spring and decided to relax while cuddling with each other, mostly with their actual partners, for a good while longer.