It was a strange sight that Houren was greeted to when he first entered the Magnolia bathhouses, the first time he had entered the Magnolia bathhouses since a few weeks prior when he had decided to come around these here parts for a quick tip in the spring. Before that, the last time Houren had been here was when he had been engaged by the bathouse mistress, Miss Bella Missasndra to help her put up fliers around the place, and hand them out to people in order to get them interested in the bathhouse. The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was under the distinct impression that his advertising, at that time, maybe a few weeks ago had done wonders for the bathhouse's popularity, but strangely enough, as of right now where Houren stood, the place seemed remarkably empty. There were a few middle aged men roaming about, probably having decided a trip to the public bathhouse would be good for them after work. It was after working hours after all, and a quick glance at the clock which hung on the wall behind the receptionist's counter only confirmed that for the Fire Dragon Slayer. There was not a single woman around though, and believe you me, the Fairy Tail mage was actively looking for some women at that point in time, probably cooling off from their baths and wearing nothing but a white robe and slippers. However, there were no women at all in Houren's line of sight, at least not until Miss Bella Missandra showed up, having just came in from the entrance to the women's bath, although with all things considered, she was using it as an exit. She did not look at the Fire Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail immediately though, taking her time to put up a ''closed'' sign in front of the entrance way to the women's bath before turning to spot Houren and once again, taking her own sweet time to go and approach him.

"Ah yes, if it isn't Houren. I imagined that you would be the one to fulfill my request, or could it be that you're actually here to simply bathe? Or are you the one that has caused me so much giref these past few days?" Miss Bella Missandra was more or less carrying the conversation by herself, not giving Houren the Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail much of a chance to reply, before she continued on with her rambles. At the very least, Houren had the chance to tell her that he was, in fact, here to complete her request and not just here to take a dip in the springs. He also made it clear that he did not understand what it was that she wanted him to do. "Then I shall explain it to you. I have recently had complaints of a peeping tom in the women's bath perverting on the lady bathers there. It is not entirely uncommon, but this man has evaded our capture, and this sneakiness is losing me business. That is why I wish to catch him. I've even closed to the women's bath for the day, so that you can set up an ambush on him. I've done a bit of research myself, and can estimate that this man generally appears later in the night, so about 15 minutes from now," she looked at her watch for a moment. ''Yes, 15 minutes is about right. That is how much time you have to set up an ambush in the women's bath, before I take away the closed sign. I do not want any women to think the bath is open, and I do not want the peeping tom to know the bath is closed." she explained thoroughly, to which Houren the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail understood the gist of it.

So basically, a peeping tom had made the local Magnolia bathhouse his new haunt and had been peeping on girls bathing here, not very well, since they seemed to be completely aware of it, but whenever they made any effort to try and catch him, he was able to pretty much evade all of their attempts to try and bring him to justice. In other words, he was incredibly fast and sneaky, perhaps strong, but was not a very good voyeur. Due to this, Miss Belle Missandra had lost a lot of business, and because of that, she wanted to close down the women's bath for a day so that Houren would be able to catch him without an distractions. It truly was a desperate move by the Magnolia bath house owner, it had to be said, since the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail knew just how much she liked her profits. If she was willing to close even just one part of the bathhouse for even a day, then that was a serious thing in itself. When he thought about it like that, he could only conclude that she had been losing a lot of money because of the peeping tom. Understandable, if Houren was a lady and he knew that coming to this place meant that he would be exposed to some pervert, he'd probably start bathing exclusively at home as well, or find another place.

The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail shrugged his shoulders and began to rub the nape of his neck sheepishly. It was such an old fashioned request that it almost made him want to laugh. With the advanced lacrimas out there nowadays that let you see whatever the hell you wanted, there were very few people who ran the risk of being a peeping tom. Houren sighed and decided that he'd just have to settle things for Miss Belle Missandra on this occasion. He told her as much, giving the older lady who used magic to appear younger but would never admit to it, and hated when people brought it up, a wink before he entered the female bathing area, looking for a good trap to set. Eventually, the Fairy Tail mage came to the conclusion that he should just hide in the women's bathing area and wait for the peeping tom to show up and assume his own hiding spot. Once he arrived, he would find out fairly early that there was absolutely no women there. Suspecting a trap or not, he would still need to leave his hiding area and once he did that, Houren would be able to strike. Yeah, the Fairy Tail mage thought to himself, that was the best course of action for now.

1099/2000

The peeping tom who's name actually happened to be Tom, as Houren managed to learn after hearing the man literally have a conversation with himself before entering the women's bathroom to peek, finally showed his face and, for the most part, had acted exactly as Houren and Miss Bella Missandra had expected him to. The peeping tom took refuge in a fairly concealed area in the women's bathing area and the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail made a mental note to himself to tell Miss Bella Missandra, the owner of this establishment to rectify this hiding spot after he was done with the peeping tom. It really was a good hiding spot, and had Houren not physically seen with his own eyes the peeping tom entering the spot, he might never have caught him. In any case, Houren let out a loud bellow, which alerted Miss Bella Missandra to the latter part of his plan. Doing her part, she immediately shut the door which was the exit to the outside. The peeping tom was said to be fast, perhaps faster than Houren but there was no point  in his speed if he had no place to run, and Houren was confident enough in his own skills that he would be able to beat a simple pervert without much effort.

The peeping tom who was so confused as to why there were no female bathers did not immediately catch on to Houren and Miss Bella Missandra's plot, and the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail literally had to come out of his own, not as well thought out hiding space to actively confront the peeping tom who, after being given a moment or two to think about it, finally realized that he was being cornered and was about to be arrested and punished for his crimes. He seemed to be considering begging for forgiveness, and even took a bit of time to size Houren up before becoming aggressive, probably thinking that he would be able to take the Fairy Tail magus on all by himself. Houren didn't know what kind of logic or sense of reasoning the peeping tom used to draw that conclusion, but he wasn't going to turn away a good fight. The peeping tom went for Houren immediately, but the Fire Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail made quick work of that move, instinctively moving out the way and tripping the man up, causing the peeping tom to grit his teeth loudly as he fell.

Houren began to kick him around while he was on the ground; not a very honorable move, to say the last, but then again, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail saw little reason to be honorable when dealing with someone who was being accused, and was actually guilty of such an immodest crime. There was nothing he could say to convince Houren that he was innocent now, perhaps he could claim that he had entered the wrong bathing area, but the box of tissues and binoculars on the floor in the peeping tom's hiding area erased all doubts in Houren's head that this guy was anything but a simple pervert that needed to be handed over to the appropriate authorities as soon as possible. "Have you begun to regret your crimes, mongrel?" the Fire Dragon Slayer taunted him as he continued to kick him around whilst he lay on the ground, rolling around as though he were suffering from horrible withdrawal symptoms at having not been able to get his daily dosage of bathing women.

Eventually, as one would obviously expect, the peeping tom got tired of being kicked around and disrespected by another person and began to get even more aggressive. He raised one arm to block Houren's leg, which he actually managed to successful do, since the Fire Dragon Slayer had begun to slow down his motions at this point, believing that the peeping tom had all but given up. Houren's leg was grabbed and thrown back, but this surprised him more than it hurt him, and he responded with a more furious kick to the jaw which practically put the peeping tom out of commission. His body was bruised from Houren's early beatings, but this really was the icing on the cake. It was said that this particular peeping tom was a shy guy who didn't speak much, but after that kick to the jaw, it was safe to say that he would no longer be able to speak properly for a fairly long period of time. It probably wouldn't be that bad for him since he's a shy guy, but oh well. Houren let out another bellow to let Bella Missandra know that the mission had been completed, and she immediately came storming into the room with two male employees in tow. After talking to them for a while, the two employees dragged the bruised peeping tom and dragged him away, presumably to the proper authorities where he would be tried as a guy who tried to molest the modesty of many bathing women. After that was all said and done, Miss Bella Missandra turned to Houren and told him that he would be given special permission to bathe in the ''special springs'' today, which was located on the other side of the pool. Sweaty from having beaten the peeping tom around for a while, he immediately stripped down and jumped into the spring pool, allowing the special herbs in that pool to soothe his entire being.

2018/2000