Editing Ultimate Antihero:Volume 2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 2===

A little before the arrival of Kinugasa and the others.

Both Sumika and Chikori moved through the school in a stealthy way and guided Elfiena to the public baths in the female dormitory that had been reserved by Onjouji’s request.

“This is the public bath that we are always using you know~”

With a rattling sound, Chikori opened the door noisily and then she pulled Elfiena’s hand to enter into the bath.

The public bath of New Tokyo Sorcery Academy was designed in the style that matched the appearance of the academy that looked like an old western castle, its size was vast enough for students of two classes to use at the same time.

“My, how lovely! This is the first time I see a hot spring this big!”

“Is that so? Right now it’s being reserved, but usually there are several dozens of people using it at once so it feels cramped though―”

Chikori started to run in pitter patter while saying that, then she took hold of one of the showers that were lined up beside the mirror.

Then she twisted the shower knob as much as she could and hot water burst out nicely on her head.

“Aah―. My body is sticky all over from the sea water so this feels good~♪”

“Hot water come out from that kind of place…”

Elfiena blinked her green eyes looking at that happening while murmuring in wonderment.

(I wonder if there are no showers in the demon world by any chance?)

It was not something impossible.

It was hard to imagine the demon bunch to build scientific culture that was similar to humans.

Sumika who was standing beside Elfiena thought so,

“E, err…”

As if to support her thinking, Elfiena was beginning to get nervous in front of the shower.

It seemed that she understood that hot water would come out from the shower head from looking at Chikori’s action, so she was following what Chikori did, yet from there she didn’t know what to do next.

Elfiena shook around the shower head left and right, then she took a peek inside it, while in the end she tilted her head with a confused expression, wondering of the puzzle.

“…If you twist that knob, water will come out.”

Sumika who couldn’t bear to watch, sat in front of the mirror beside Elfiena while pointing out, then

“Ah, thank you very much for your kindness. …Kyawa-!?”

Elfiena said her gratitude while turning the shower knob fully open with all her strength.

Naturally, powerful water stream mercilessly burst out from the shower head.

And then that water hit Elfiena’s face directly.

The girl screamed strangely from great shock while falling back face up.

Stark naked.

Looking at that figure that was too unladylike even from the view point of the same sex, Sumika unintentionally let out a wry smile.

“A, are you okay?”

“I… I’m fine. I just fell over from a little surprise. I, I showed you something embarrassing.”

She really looked like she was embarrassed.

Elfiena’s whole face turned bright red even until the tips of her pointed ears, while the wings on her back were busily flapping repeatedly.

But it seemed that she somehow grasped the way to use the shower from that painful expression, she began to properly adjust the water amount by opening and closing the knob.

“So it’s no good to turn it over too much. Somehow I understand it. …But even so, to not need to scoop up hot water frequently, the world of humans is really convenient isn’t it-“

“…, …yes. Well.”

The smiling face of Elfiena that looked innocent was turned to Sumika.

On the other hand, Sumika reflexively averted her gaze to the side.

―In reality, Sumika was harboring a strong alertness towards Elfiena.

After all, although her appearance really looked like a human than a demon to this degree, the girl was still the same demon like baphomet or Typhon and Jambure.

She was one of the existences that had inflicted severe harm to humans until this much.

She couldn’t let her guard down at a moments notice at all.

No matter how her appearance looked really close like a cute girl, she mustn’t let herself get tricked.

In place of Chikori who wasn’t being alert at all, Sumika had to pay attention to every single thing.

(…Is she does something strange, I’ll quickly stop her breathing.)

That was her duty as an S-rank magician who was the protector of mankind.

While Sumika persuaded herself like that, she began to wash her hair that was a little damaged from the salty wind.

She pushed out shampoo from the shampoo bottle for communal use and made it foam in her hand.

Then, looking at that,

“Haa<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>”

“……”

Sumika noticed Elfiena who was looking at her hand with intense concentration.

“E, err. Is something wrong?”

“Ah, forgive me. That, those foamy bubbles completely caught my mind.”

Elfiena pointing at the white foam at her hand made Sumika understand what this was about.

“By any chance there is also no shampoo in the demon world?”

“I wonder about that. …In the end I’m nothing more than the head of the [Fairy race], so I’m not really that detailed about the culture of the other races, but at the very least it doesn’t exist in the culture of us the [Fairy race]. Because of that the meaning is also not really transmitted that well through the [Concept Translation]…”

“[Concept Translation]? What is that?”

“My. Is there nothing like that in the human world?”

“Yes. I’ve never heard of it.”

“What is called [Concept Translation] is a sorcery for the sake of exchanging words with every living being.

There are several thousands of demon races in the demon world, among them there are those whose body construction cannot make some specific pronunciations, there are also those races that in the first place don’t even speak, so most races possess their own characteristic language or method to transmit their thoughts.

Because of that the majority of races in the demon world differ in the words that they used, in the first place a conversation between race cannot be established, we cannot make a proper communication between each other.

What we make use of to solve this problem is the sorcery called [Concept Translation].

By using this sorcery, our own words will be converted into the concepts possessed by the other race and we can have them understand the meaning of what we say, it can also convert the other party’s words into a concept that we know so that we can listen to what they are talking about. ―Although, the more powerful a demon becomes, they seem to think that there is no need to match the inferior race, so there are only few who use this [Concept Translation] though.”

“Aah, so that’s why we can talk normally like this.”

“That’s right. …But, a culture that we of the [Fairy race] doesn’t possess in the first place, things that we don’t know, namely words where the concept to explain cannot be established, the concept to deal with things like that doesn’t exist on our side so it cannot be translated. And so… that, my apologies but, that-, shampoo? Is that what you called this thing? Can I trouble you to teach me what this thing is used for?”

Being asked that, Sumika was lost for a moment at what she should do.

Because it was not Sumika’s intention to become intimate with a demon.

…Especially because Elfiena was really human-like, so she didn’t want to be attached to her.

If that happened, then when the time came, ―it would make it harder to kill her.

But―

(Doing a kindness just that much should be fine.)

Rather if she bluntly refused here, she got the feeling that she would hate herself a little.

That was why Sumika couldn’t help herself to answer Elfiena’s request.

“Err, shampoo is a chemical to wash the hair and the skin of scalp.”

“My. So humans make use of medicine when they wash their hair then?”

“Yes. Using this will wash away the oil and micro-bacteria. If you push at the top of that pink container, it will let out the shampoo solution from the tube inside, so first please take that with your hand.”

“Like, this?”

Elfiena who did as she was told pushed at the head of the shampoo bottle for communal use.

Thereupon, milky white liquid spurt out onto Elfiena’s small palm that was held under the tube,

“Kyaaa!?”

Elfiena instantly screamed and shook away her hand.

“For, for some reason what came out from the inside in not something foamy but something slimy instead! What came out is something liquidy like the gooey droll of an orc you know!?”

“Please don’t give such a disgusting example. That is the solution of shampoo. After you take a proper amount in your hand, please try rubbing it between your hands like this. If you do that it will foam up.”

“Uu, I understand.”

The shampoo was compared to the droll of an orc.

She seemed to dislike the sensation of the shampoo very much.

But Elfiena still obediently took some shampoo even while being nervous just like Sumika told her, and then she rubbed it between her hands.

Thereupon,

“Wa, wawawa-! Amazing…-!”

Similar like with Sumika, bubbling foam was produced from between her fingers.

The more she rubbed her hand, the bubbles kept coming out one after another.

Just from a handful of drops of shampoo liquid, it created bubbles that overflowed from her hands.

The expression of Elfiena whose eyes turned bright from that sight was truly innocent―

(…Uuu, it’s just making it harder to do it.)

Whether Sumika wanted it or not, her alertness was being shaved.

That was why Sumika tried to not look at Elfiena’s direction.

“Next you only need to wash your head with that foamed hand. Stroke your hair until its end and also massage your scalp sufficiently. And then after finishing washing your hair moderately, please wash away the bubbles with the shower. Do it as properly as possible, because if there is some shampoo that remained in the hair it will damage the hair.”

After giving the detailed instruction of how to wash the hair, Sumika too began to wash her own head.

With a detailed instruction like that, then surely there would be no more need for her to supervise.

But―that thinking was immediately betrayed.

(……Eh?)

Bubbles that were continuing to multiply endlessly in burble were reflected at the corner of her view.

When Sumika turned her gaze wondering what was going on,

“Wh, what are you doing Elfiena-san!?”

There was Elfiena there with her whole body covered in foam instead of just her head.

“Ahahahaha-! This is really fun for some reason! The more I knead the more bubbles are going burble burble~, it’s so fun~!”

It looked like what made the bubbles increase was filled into the bottle, so Elfiena seemed to have squeezed out the shampoo many times over and made more bubbles.

“You pushed out too much! I told you already to only take the proper amount!”

“Uwaa-, …that looks fun―. Yosh, I’ll do that too!”

“Please don’t get provoked Chikori-san!”

Sumika remonstrated Chikori and also washed away the hands that were the source of the infinitely multiplying bubbles.

However, Elfiena continued to laugh like a child even while she was being washed by hot water,

“Ahaha, forgive me. It’s my first contact with this culture so it feels fun for some reason. The townscape that I saw on the way here was also like this, there were various things there that seemed like fun places. The human world is so interesting.”

Elfiena showed a pure smiling face without any trace of shadow at all.

“……<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>-“

From that… Sumika recognized her own defeat.

She let out a deep sigh in resignation,

“…I’ll wash your hair for you, so please don’t do anything strange anymore. We are going to be late for the important negotiation like this.”

Saying that, Sumika returned a smile where even civility couldn’t be seen from it.

That was the moment Sumika let go of her vigilance towards Elfiena.

Although she was a demon, but for Sumika, who had a kind nature, she was unable to continue holding her tension even to the point of assuming [murder] towards someone that showed nothing but good will until this much towards humans.