6 Refreshed

Jin and Fujimaru were brought to another room by Seigen.

"This here is one of the baths. From here I suppose you can handle yourselves. Clean up and then join us back at the dining room."

"Yes, sir." Both of them replied and then entered the bathroom.

What they saw was a large room with a huge traditional old stone bath placed at the end of it. There were also little stools to the side where one could rinse themselves before entering the bath.

Even mirrors were put at the walls to look inside. ´Live a modest life, huh?´

Jin shook his head slightly and then completely entered after looking around.

"How come you are not so amazed about this place? Don't you find the huge size of this bath just amazing?"

Jin only smiled at Fujimaru. This guy already visited this place once and now played cool in front of him?

"Why should I be surprised? They are nobility. I even thought they would have a private waterfall for themselves or something. And this here is close to it. Let's get finished, shall we?" He answered confidently and walked over to a place where he undressed and could put his old clothes in a nearby basket.

Fujimaru thought about his words for some time and then followed suit.

Sitting down on a stool in front of a mirror, Jin filled a small bucket with water and placed it in front of himself.

With his cupped hands, he shoveled water over his face and head until he was wet enough to apply the shampoo that stood near the mirror.

Jin wondered now after seeing the shampoo at how far the technology was in Soul Society. Even though it seemed to have been stuck in the olden days culture-wise, it still was amazingly far ahead in technology in other places or kept up-to-date in others.

Especially now, when one considered that the human world is in its industrial infancy. At least that is what he thinks. He was not even in the human mortal realm yet.

Well, some things were invented much sooner than one thought anyway. The situation was that they would far outclass the human world if they at least stayed up to date on everything. Kinda would made soul society a futuristic different world.

"Whoa, your hair is so curly!" commented Fujimaru staring at Jin now. It was right after Jin cleaned his body and hair after rinsing it with lukewarm water.

Jin became quite curious about what he meant and looked closer into the mirror, wiping away the mist that collected on it from the warm atmosphere in the bathroom.

What he saw surprised him.

Now that his hair had some volume back, it immediately started to curl up slightly. Just a moment ago his skin was still so rough and his hair so disheveled from grime and blood that he now became a completely different person with his clean look.

He had sky blue eyes with black shoulder-long curly hair. Looking even closer, he noticed that his appearance reminded him of someone. Taking glimpses back into his memory, he found his answer pretty quickly.

Right, he looked a lot like young Tensa Zangetsu - Ichigo´s Zanpakuto. Of course, it was just a resemblance and if they stood right beside each other, everyone would notice subtle differences.

"What is wrong? Did you see a ghost?" smirked Fujimaru after noticing his surprised expression.

Jin remained silent for a short moment. "No, I don't get to see myself in a mirror that much. Most of the time, I just looked into some water surface that reflected some of my appearances. And now that I see myself cleaned up like this, it just surprised me is all."

"I was surprised about myself at first, too. I never noticed that my hair color is so much darker than Matsuri's. It´s not like we kids in Rukongai get that many chances to take care of our appearances anyway, right?"

"Right.", smiled Jin at him and started walking to the stone bath - entering it.

It was obvious hot water, and it seemed to let most of his stress fly away into nothingness when it seeped through his skin and warmed up his body to the core.

Fujimaru also joined and both of them sure enjoyed their time in the bath and let their souls drift away.

"Hey, Jin?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for helping me save my sister. Without you, I don't think we would have made it out alive. And it is also because of you that Matsuri didn't receive worse wounds and could heal that quickly. I am really grateful."

Jin shifted his eyes towards him and looked at his smiling face. It was a happy expression, but his face also showed concern and seriousness. He genuinely seemed to have thanked him. That also put a smile on his own face.

"Don't mention it. And I think that Matsuri is a very strong person. She would probably even survive worse. I am sure of it."

Now it was Fujimaru that looked at him and was somewhat surprised. Where did that confidence come from with which he assured him? Then he started chuckling after thinking about something.

"Yeah, my sis can be a real gorilla sometimes. Not many things can shake her. But don't tell her that I said that. She would kill me."

Jin lifted both his eyebrows upwards. "That is not what I meant, Fujimaru." he corrected him but still chuckled together with him about his comment.

"You know. Your sister is quite a beautiful girl. Calling her a gorilla will be your downfall someday."

When Jin added those words and looked back at Fujimaru, he could see his gaze was filled with a disbelieving look. He stayed quiet for some time, and slowly, a mischievous look appeared on his face.

"No way! Is that how you view my sister? Well, as long as you don't betray me everything will be fine!" he grinned sheepishly at Jin and his laughter continued.

That somehow ticked Jin off now. "Hey, don't get the wrong idea now! All I am saying is that at some point, your sister will be protected by someone else. So talking bad about her is not a real option for you."

"Hey, that´s not fair. Are you really going to tell Matsuri?"

"If you don't start to tell others weird rumors then I shall keep quiet as well."

"Hahaha, I wouldn't dream about it." Fujimarus's chesire grin just gave away the shenanigans in his head.

Jin only sighed. "Alright, I think it is about time we go back."

"Right." With a nod, he agreed to Jin´s proposal. "But do we have clothes to wear?"

"There was a note left behind in one of the baskets. It looks like Lady Konoka already planned all of this. There are some clothes in it for us to wear. Let's hope they are not too ridiculous."

"Hey, we can't be that picky if we receive gifts."

"True, but I still prefer wearing something I like. So I get the first pick. Now let's go."

----

A short while later, both boys appeared in the dining room and saw Matsuri also already being present. She wore a beautiful pink yukata that matched Lady Konoka her Kimono. The only real difference was that she had red flowers over nearly every part of the Kimono.

"Look, they are finally he....re." When she gazed upon both of them, it took away her words.

"Oh, my. Look at you two handsome boys." chuckled Lady Konoka after seeing Matsuri being lost for words.

"....Why do you have those perfect fitting clothes?" asked Jin now and looked somewhat suspiciously in the direction of Lady Konoka.

"We were kids once as well, Jin.", answered Seigen for her and smiled. "Those are our old clothes. But they sure do fit you three well."

Already mentioning the clothes: they sure were eye-catching.

Jin wore a mainly white male yukata with black flowers imprinted on the lower half edges of it that crawled up to about his knees. That pattern was also present at his sleeves but smaller in size.

The only other contrasting color on the black belt was the white Japanese chrysanthemum in the middle of it.

Even though this yukata was already beautiful, the other one worn by Fujimaru was not worse in any way.

Fujimaru wore a deep blue yukata with straight white lines decorating it in a very pleasing combination of crosses. The red obi had yellow threads on the upper and lower edges and contrasted perfectly with the blue.

His current shy grin just told everyone he enjoyed those clothes a lot. They also were very good clothes for the current summer temperature.

"Don't worry about such things, Jin. Just look at you. Your look fits perfectly with the yukata. Such a dashing appearance. Even our little Matsuri here started to blush." Lady Konoka just had to add that and tease poor Matsuri.

"Huh!?" That was about everything that she could bring out of herself after hearing Lady Konoka. It made her blush even more after realizing it herself.

But in Lady Konokas's defense, it was true. Matsuri already had a deep shade of red on her cheeks. And now with it being intensified, she even looked away in shyness.