The day today called for a quest, but that wasn’t how the day started for Hyōen. It had been a couple of days since the birthday party, and he was pretty beat. Living the life in cities wasn’t well suited for a guy like him, in which he began yearning for the wildlife back at Worth Woodsea. Coda appeared to share the same feeling with him, peeping low voices of elegy. “… I miss the cottage, sister,” he commented to Coda, “And I have a feeling that you do too.” Upon responding with a shriek of confirmation, Coda flapped her wings a little to release a few, small feathers that had grown too small. It was as if her body kept growing non-stop given by all this feather-falling, something that Hyōen had just recently noticed. Just how much could she grow? He had been of the conviction that she had reached her full size a year ago, but… well, he wasn’t fond of her anatomy, so could you blame him? “…” After a slight silence afterwards, Hyōen came up with an idea; he had recently heard news of a certain jackass who found it funny to peep into the women’s bathroom at Magnolia Baths. It was a little… no, it was very disrespectful, so the Fire Mage wished just as well to put a stop to the issue. Whoever ran the baths had sought assistance of a couple of mages in Magnolia to help her get rid of the peeping tom who people had made dozens of reports against, yet without any identity given to the person. With that in mind, he leapt out of his window and swung his way to the Magnolia Baths using his Fire Magic…

Upon landing on the spot nearby, Hyōen and Coda approached the baths with a little discretion. He didn’t want to stand out as someone suspicious enough to be accused of peeping, but when he came closer, he noticed the absence of butt-naked women. “…” His eyes were closed; yes, he dared walk straight into the women’s bath with his eyes closed, walking through the hallways, past civilians and even stood before the very owner of the baths herself. Her eyes didn’t look shocked, nor surprising, but just… faint. Hyōen kept sweating for a while there, until she greeted: “You must be a wizard, are you?” Feeling needed, he nodded back, in which she continued, “You may try your best. Most of the reports that I’ve heard of, if you understand what I’m referring to, mention the imbecile’s position near the decorations at evening.” Looking over at any slight opening in the bath, Hyōen replied: “Alright, I’ll just… find a place to hide and seek.” “Oh, and don’t mind if there are other mages who want to assist,” Bella added, “I didn’t make it very specific, so you may get company.” With that sentence finished, Bella walked out of the room to do some work with the civilians who reported as she had lost a good chunk of customers due to this person…

The person never showed up; either that or Hyōen started the waiting a little too early. The Fire Mage was checking the corners for certain holes or hidden tunnels that the tom might have used for peeking. Despite his lack of x-ray vision, he did have a feeling about the large statue of a ladylike figure holding a bowl, pouring down water like a fountain. Once he approached it, he slid his hand across it while… feeling a little awkward to do such thing to that statue. Yes, it was made of stone and all, but it was still resembling a naked woman; also, why didn’t the owner of this spa just hire a female mage to do this? Hyōen would obviously have trouble thinking of anything with that large statue in the middle of the image. However, his hunch was right as he noticed a spacy cell through a hole in the statue’s belly button. “… Bingo,” he mumbled happily, feeling that if the peeper would ever dare to show up, then this place could be his hiding spot. Given the decorations around him blended in with the statue and all, it suited quite well; Hyōen would’ve never found it himself without suspicion. Coda was already enjoying the bath herself, while Hyōen looked around; it was the woman’s bathtub, after all. It took a few moments for Hyōen to notice it, though, as he complained: “Coda! We’re on a mission, come-“ Although his words had pressure in it due to his seriosity, he quickly cut his words out by a small thought. If the peeper wanted to see naked ladies… then he would get what he sought for. “… A-Actually, just stay there,” he assured Coda as the bird was about to flap her wings and fly back to him. Curious, she tilted her head a little, then shrieked a little and found herself comfortable. The hot water made her wings glimmer fabulously, and the raptor enjoyed it a lot given by her expressions. Scratching his back a little, Hyōen felt the need to try it out too, mumbling: “… I should have a bath myself sometime.”

The sun was about to set and the room was empty, lacking the presence of steam erupting off the skin of- and that was it for his awkward imaginations as he internally slapped himself to reason. He couldn’t just… he had to concentrate. Now that evening was approaching them, whoever stood behind the reports would soon show up. However, it took its while, and Hyōen had found himself slumbering on the knee of the giant statue that he noticed earlier. Completely empty for worries, he had found the time to take a nap - in the middle of a mission - whilst the peeper could show up any time. However, as he remembered the cell inside the statue from earlier, there was a reason that he chose this spot to sleep on. And his trouble-less attempt seemed to pay off in the end; beneath him, scratching sounds could be heard coming from the marble. It was loud enough to alert, and thus wake Hyōen up from his slumber as he remained dead silent… a couple of other sounds following from beneath.

The peeper had taken his usual route, a special hole in the ground a good distance from the spa, where he had made a tunnel towards the marble statue from where he could unwind. Just like always, he made sure that he didn’t make so much noise, because amongst the chats of the women, his movements would have to exceed a certain level of decibel to catch their attention. That was simply out of experience that he knew that, but his mind told him something else too… the room was empty. He couldn’t hear the chuckles, the gossiping, the enjoying ladies with their greetings and soft bodies, he couldn’t see anyone… did they find out?! Panicking, he quickly looked around the room, despite that it would’ve been a better idea to flee by now; however, a glimpse of something alive caught his attention from one of the tubs. Upon focusing his view on it, the living creature turned out to be some kind of bird- surprise made him forget everything, though, as Hyōen’s hands burst through the marble and pulled out the peeper by surprise. Now, out in the light, the guy turned out to be younger than the Fire Mage had thought, but his face did express a lot of intimidation. “O-Okay, listen here-“ Hyōen was about to say, but a kick was launched at him as the peeper wanted to get free of his grab. The Fire Mage had to jump down and land straight into the tub, soaking himself tremendously. The water was… surprisingly hot, compared to the water holes in Worth Woodsea. However, he was in the middle of an ambush, so the Fire Mage flapped his arms and swam up to the surface, noticing the other guy in midair and aiming straight at Hyōen with his own body. That resulted in both of them being underwater, struggling to get each other off. “*blurb*… *blurrrrb*” Bubbles of his words travelled across the tub, while the peeper was having the same troubles. A few punches travelled from the both of them to each other, until they needed some air and swam up to the surface. A moment passed until they shot glances at each other and restarted the brawl, but given the strength that he had, Hyōen needed to get a little more serious than this. Whilst holding onto the peeper’s clothes, his two arms erupted with razor claws of fire that he then swung towards him. It pushed the lad back and appeared to have left and X-formed injury on his clothes as well, while Hyōen approached him. “*cough* Okay… damn what just happened earlier and surrender,” he suggested the young guy, but his words just wouldn’t reach the lad’s ears. The Fire Mage was suddenly jumped on again, but he dove and used the assault’s direction to launch the peeper away at the same direction. The peeper was quickly landing in the water once again, soaking while Hyōen wanted to end the struggle right now. He could risk hurting him too much, but that wasn’t the only thing that worried him, and definitely not the biggest thing to worry about; what annoyed him the most was the statue, because despite having broken most of the first one, Hyōen just remembered that there were one in the middle of every wall. He couldn’t let his mind sway for even a second… no matter the level of danger that this fight had. “…” Given that the peeper didn’t want to quit, Hyōen decided that he should give it a tad bit more, in which he suddenly ran towards the peeper and stood above him. Quickly, he sent a massive amount of punches towards the poor guy, leaving him with over 16 marks from his punches. The peeper was pretty beat up, and that was quite apparent if you looked at him. When he didn’t seem to pose a threat anymore, Hyōen tried to catch his breath again and looked up. “FINALLY!!!” he shouted out of his lungs, grabbing the peeper and getting the hell out of the room, sliding the bastard across the floor. He could finally leave the ladies’ baths and get his reward, because as far as he was convinced, this was the one that the reports pointed back at.

Bella was quite pleased with the outcome, and as soon as she got her hands in the peeper, she sent him to the authorities. Whoever that guy was, he never even spoke a word to either of them, which did worry Hyōen a little. “… Maybe he’s mute and wants to say a message to you or something-“ Hyōen was about to suggest Bella, but she cut him off with a lifted hand, replying: “Most of the reports do hear him call out words when being noticed. He’s not mute… and I don’t admire your compassion for the criminal.” Her glance looked a tad intimidating when saying that, but she quickly calmed down and continued, “But you did help me bust the peeper once and for all. I need to thank you for that.” After saying that, she held out a piece of paper towards Hyōen, having her name and signatures written down. “Oh, the reward- that’s right…” Hyōen mumbled a little as he accepted it, but it appeared that the lady had more. “If you want to, I can give you a free try to bath in our special tub with magical herbs as a token,” she suggested, and the occasion suited the Fire Mage perfectly given his own thoughts earlier. “Oh, for real? Free and all?!” he spoke out loudly, “That’s awesome… but can Coda come along?” He was pointing at his shoulder to indicate the bird’s presence, but… where exactly was Coda, because she wasn’t with him right now?

2017/2000