Well, first things first, the whole party wanted to wash off the day's grime, so off they went to the bathhouse.
Now, the town of Edo was positively lousy with bathhouses, and folk didn't just go there to get clean, mind you. It was a place to socialize, gossip, do business, whatever you liked.
One such establishment happened to be Ranma's Bathhouse, the very place Yasutaka and his crew always frequented.
Naturally enough, the place split men and women into separate baths, and Mani-hime was none too pleased about it.
"Why do the men and women have to be separate?"
"My lady, would you truly allow yourself to be seen naked by a crowd of strange men?"
"Hmph..."
Granny Moon's logic won out quick enough, as it always did.
Mani-hime pouted, lips pushed out in a sulk, and grumbled on regardless.
"If we were home, we could still bathe together like we used to..."
"Ha ha ha..."
Yasutaka laughed it off, awkwardly, and Mōha couldn't resist asking.
"So, out of curiosity, until what age did you two bathe together?"
"Uh... well..."
"Eighteen. So what? We're engaged, so it's fine no matter how old I was!"
While Yasutaka fumbled for an answer, Mani-hime simply shot back, breezy as you like, "Got a problem with that?"
Mōha tilted his head just slightly, muttering to himself.
"...Hard to believe, coming from a guy who's always groping girls and getting himself hated for it."
"Yeah... that was me at the absolute limit of my self-control..."
Mōha couldn't hide his astonishment. Here was a woman of stunning beauty with a body to match, and Yasutaka had bathed with her right up until she was eighteen without laying a finger on her.
The Yasutaka of today would've made his move without a second thought, no question about it.
"I really wanted to wash each other off, though..."
"I shall wash my lady myself."
Mani-hime and Granny Moon grumbled their way through the curtain into the women's bath.
Mōha, meanwhile, grumbled his own way through the curtain into the men's side.
"So it really just ended with washing each other off? Nothing more?"
"That's the surprising part. Yeah, that's as far as it went."
"You've got a weirdly strict sense of honor for a guy like you."
Clink, clink...
The two of them paid the attendant at the counter, stripped down in the changing room, and headed for the washing area.
Ripped, ripped, ripped, ripped~♪
It wasn't exactly a shock, but the pair had bodies carved from solid muscle, not an ounce of fat wasted on either of them.
Being evening, the place was packed shoulder to shoulder. The two of them scooped hot water from the tub and set about scrubbing themselves down.
You might call it unsanitary by today's standards, but back then, that was simply how it was done.
"Care for a back scrub~? How about it~?"
A bathhouse girl in a yukata called out as she strolled past.
Trouble was, she was rather far along in years, and her invitation had all the enthusiasm of a shop clerk reading off a list, so the two young men weren't the least bit tempted.
"What about you?"
"Pass."
Mōha answered Yasutaka flatly, without a shred of interest.
Now, these bathhouse girls didn't just scrub backs, mind you. Alongside the washing came a good deal of touching, teasing, and the occasional whispered offer of "I'm free for the whole night, if you'd like," which was, one might say, a service unto itself.
And from the women's bath, meanwhile, came a call of "Bathhouse girls wanted~! Anyone interested~?"
A bathhouse that fed its own fire from both ends, you might say.
And then, from that very same women's bath, came Granny Moon's voice.
"Bathhouse girls wanted, you say?"
"Ah, I see. This old woman's moment has arrived."
"Eh? Um... I think that might be a bit difficult..."
"My arm fair itches for the work..."
"Wait, hold on, I never said we'd actually hired you!"
For some reason, a very strange exchange was drifting out of the women's bath.
Mōha tilted his head, baffled.
"What in the world is going on with that old woman?"
"I'd honestly like to know myself."
Yasutaka answered with the tone of a man who'd long since given up trying to understand.
Some minutes later...
Splash...
Having scrubbed themselves thoroughly clean, the two men climbed into the tub at last.
"Ahh..."
"That stings so good..."
They soaked in comfortable silence for a while, then climbed out and headed for the steam room.
Plenty of folks assume there weren't such things as saunas in old Edo, but funnily enough it was the other way around. Steam rooms were actually the mainstream back then, and proper soaking tubs were the rarer luxury, so they say.
Be that as it may, the two of them settled into the steam room to steady themselves.
"Still, I gotta say, it's surprising. Living right alongside a woman that gorgeous and never once making a move."
"By the time I hit that age, I was already chasing the title of Breeding King, so I knew making a move would've ended everything right there. And here's the surprising part: for all she looks the way she does, Mani-hime's actually shy, painfully shy around people."
"...Seriously?"
"Seriously. She comes off cool and standoffish, but it's not that she's cold or hard to approach, she just genuinely doesn't know how to talk to people."
It happens more often than you'd think, this business of folks who just aren't good with people getting mistaken for something else entirely.
It's practically a universal affliction among the socially hopeless.
"So it worked out for the best that I couldn't bring myself to push things forward on my own. We'd bathe together, sure, but she'd get all flustered and try to cover herself up, and for some reason she'd cover my eyes too. Turns out she was never any good with that kind of thing to begin with."
"Can't picture that from the princess I've seen."
Mōha wiped a bit of sweat from his skin with his hand.
"So, what's the plan? You giving up and heading home with her?"
"I'm still working on it, so let me think."
Yasutaka said this, then fell to groaning under his breath.
Just then, a voice called out from beyond the steam.
"Care for a back scrub~♪" (in a decidedly sultry voice)
An extraordinarily seductive voice drifted through the haze.
Yasutaka's eyes lit up at once!
"F-cup, obviously."
"You can tell just from her voice?!"
Mōha's retort came without a moment's delay.
Boing~♪ Boing~♪
Something considerably large swayed back and forth in the chest area, just visible through the steam.
It was only a silhouette, so the details were hazy, but the size was unmistakable.
Yasutaka's already lecherous face grew even more lecherous at the sight.
"Let me clarify. What I said before was strictly the minimum possible estimate."
"You don't need to apologize for being wrong, you know."
Mōha shot back the retort, but Yasutaka showed not a shred of hesitation.
"Well then, if you'd be so kind."
"Of course~♪" (in that same sultry voice)
And with that, the woman beyond the steam drew closer!