Editing Cute Kunoichis:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===2: Beautifying the Flowers===

In a simple shower without a tub, a middle school girl with chestnut twintails let the warm water wash over her. Countless drops spilled down her somewhat curvy but still undeveloped bodylines.

In a life on the run, it could be easy to forget how you smelled. It could slip your mind since it was neither visible nor audible, but it could create an unidentifiable sense of something being “not quite right” that could gather attention. Thus, you could not neglect basic hygiene.

Also, the soaps and shampoos provided in these simple shower booths tended to be for men, and that was a problem.

''“Think of it like a muscular bandit standing out because his hair has the sweet scent of a women’s herbal conditioner, Ouka.”'' Her teacher had once explained it like this. ''“So you need to acquire that along with suitable clothing and makeup and use them before an infiltration as the specific situation warrants.”

Kuhou Ouka had then asked him a question with a mischievous smile.

''“Oh? And what kind of scent do you think suits me, Sensei?”

“…”

There was one thing she always remembered when seeing her undeveloped naked body in the mirror while washing away the sweat as part of that “necessary work”.

But she was dragged out of her thoughts by a voice from surprisingly close by.

“Ouka, it’s cramped in here, so quit spreading your hair back behind you with both hands like in a conditioner ad. Restrict your movements a little.”

“Hey, Bara. Did we really all have to cram in here together? The shower booth is cramped enough as it is.”

Ouka was answered not by sexy Hanasawa Bara, whose red ringlet curls were wet and flattened, but by cool beauty Nantou Hoozuki, who had undone her ponytail so her long silver hair was plastered against her lithe back.

“Because this is the shower at an internet café. It would actually gather more attention from an unsavory sort if a single young girl went to the shower alone. It is best not to underestimate amateur peeping toms who put their talents to the most useless use imaginable.”

Black bob cut Shizukuma Asagao was a head shorter than the rest, so she seemed to be drowning in the soft flesh surrounding her. She managed to puff out her cheeks and ask a question.

“What do you think Sensei would think if he knew we were about to be living out of places like this every day?”

In front of Sugiyado Souha, those girls had demonstrated the moody and meaningless pride so common in teenagers, but they had analyzed their own profiles and taken things in the opposite direction. He would never imagine all four of them were cramming themselves into a shower booth as small as a phonebooth.

In the past, finding places to sleep would not have been easy because hotels and inns had built a network with the police that supplied them with photos of wanted criminals. But the spread of room sharing and share houses had expanded their options considerably. At first glance, the advance of digitization seemed to have laid everything bare, but this age was actually convenient for those who lived in the shadows.

Silver-haired Hoozuki grabbed the body soap that sexy Bara held in her arm and reached below her own arm to apply it to her back while asking a question.

“So why have you been staring at your reflection with such a troubled look on your face, Ouka? Checking on your day-to-day growth?”

“No, it’s not that. But bath mirrors always remind me of something.”

The other girls crammed into the shower booth looked over to the cheap mirror that tended to get fogged up.

They all had a faint bitter look on their face. Like they were remembering some kind of failure.

“You too, Ouka?” asked alluring Bara while water dripped down her flushed skin.

“I think it happens to everyone. Everyone knows that’s part of being a kunoichi.”

Even the youngest, bob cut girl Shizukuma Asagao, stared sadly into the distance with her small face buried by the other three girls’ chests.

Ouka sighed while catching her fellow kunoichi’s face with her body and getting their wet legs tangled together.

“Yeah, when you’re training to be a kunoichi, you just know you have to seduce the closest guy to you.”

“On that note, Ouka, what look did Sensei give you when you went all out in your attempt?”

Bara skipped past what that “attempt” entailed, but Ouka still fell silent for a moment.

If he had blushed and angrily told her she was too young for that kind of thing, she might have retained some of her pride as a girl. She might have even found it cute and accelerated further.

But their teacher had provided the “perfect” response.

The resurrected memories brought an ashen look to her face.

“He said everyone has to start somewhere and that I could keep trying until I was satisfied. He didn’t even have to think about it and he looked downright bored. Heh. Heh heh.”

“He wasn’t even interested!? At least look up from the newspaper, Onii-chan!! What’s more important, the TV guide or me!?”

Asagao’s complaint shouted down by a modest chest suggested that their teacher had not mechanically provided them all the same response. But the depressed looks on all four faces staring at that mirror suggested they had all given it their best shot and been shot down.

“Sigh.”

Ouka lightly stretched her back to forcibly push out her still-growing chest while the shower water poured down her body and she looked to the mirror once more.

“I’ve been working on my looks since then, so maybe I could make his heart skip a beat now.”