Murakami Kensuke stood before the pilots, arms akimbo, chest and wide shoulders proud. As he spoke, his sonorous voice boomed forward. "You have all brought great honor to Origin Armor Works with your performance, and to show you my gratitude, I have personally arranged an all expenses paid trip to the hotsprings here on Dawn Station!" He smiled at them all. "Really. Now go enjoy yourselves. Shoo."

Strange scenes were strange. Moments ago, the pilots of the Atuan were fighting for their lives. However, with that over, a second crew was brought up to take over the cleanup. They proceeded to move the wrecks about and extricate the infected pilots, plus an NMX Neko. Having 20 or so frames rampaging about inside Dawn Station was not quite destructive as it was initially expected. All the damage was limited with just a small portion of Sector 9, and the rest was perfectly unscathed. And then moments ago, the pilots ended up with a short ovation from Kensuke himself.

Now, they found themselves transported to an Onsen; each of them had their own rooms in the hotel, and the resort itself was very high class. Chances were, it would have taken a huge chunk out of their wallets; Kensuke made sure it wouldn't this time around though. There were three primary outdoor hot springs, one for each gender and another that was coed along with several smaller ones dispersed across the grounds. Water could be heard slowly trickling about, and gentle music could be heard. For the coed onsen, bathing suits had to be worn, but the others only required a towel. It was surprisingly quiet, for now.

****

Yoshiko slowly sank into the hot, steamy water of the onsen. For her, it had been a long, embarrassing day and this helped to ease her tension. 'I know I messed up, but he didn't have to yell at me like that...' she thought.'I guess I deserved it though. I shouldn't have let myself get so carried away. Maybe I'm not cut out for this and should just go back home. She sank lower until the waterline just reached under her eyes. 'At least I just got the Apparel Array beta testing model....even though the beta ended already. The ex-neko thought, eyeing the blue volumetric bikini she wore. Yoshiko plunged below the hot waters and blew out air, bubbles churning at the surface.

'This is the mixed onsen, isn't it?

****

"I see sir. This is fortunate news." Kelly spoke. Kensuke sat before him behind that Mahogany desk, and handed a file over to the ensign to deliver to Arah, wherever she was. The boss fell silent. It was time for Kelly Williams to leave.

Taela found herself in the female-only onsen, seeing as she owned no bathing suits to be spoken of. The Neko slid into the water, sitting back and relaxing as she let the heat soak into her bones.

"This is. . . wonderful. . ." She murmered, letting out a comfortable sigh.

"Caaaaaa-" Lucien cried out as he sprinted towards the mixed pools, with the finer points of a Yamataian Onsen completely lost on him, "-aaaaaaaNONBALL!"
He left his towel behind him as he ran, showing off the Origin Swim trunks, black with the origin symbol proudly displayed on the buttocks. Amongst other things, it showed off just how hairy the Scotsman was, sporting a hairy chest, forearms and legs, in addition to his face and head.
Instead of cannonballing, as advertised, his dive made a gracefully small splash, and he resurfaced quickly to take his place away from the rest of the crowd, who'd scattered. The warm water was making him feeling very comfortable.

He then procured a beer that happened to be sitting by where he was and took a massive swig. He took an incredulous look at Yoshiko, amongst the other guests. His buffoonish nature had also drawn ire to some of the more restrained hotel guests, who were staring daggers at him.
"Wot?" He asked innocently, his eyebrows waggling comically.

Async grumbled as she walked into the coed bath, clad in a black, OI-stamped wetsuit, and holding her arms close to her chest as it were chilly despite the pleasantly warmed and steamy air. Pausing and shivering at the edge of the water, she glared at the moderate number of people in the pool, sending nearby onlookers scrambling away as she climbed into a quickly vacated spot along the pool's leading edge.

Earlier, the Freespacer had whimpered while washing herself, complaining how the water was dirtier than she was, and popped an extra iridium pill in addition to a dose of nano-phages that was supposed to serve as her immune system while outside of her bulky voidwalker suit, just to be safe. Relaxed by the warmth of the water, the organic 'Spacer let out a heavy sigh, exasperated more than pleased, and seemed to slip off into a cat nap.

'After the fiasco with the Frames, there's very few people in this very large pool, so the owners probably wouldn't mind if I...' A mischievous expression spread across her face.

Yoshiko rose to her feet and took a broad stance. Steam rolled off her soft skin, the volumetric clothing's edges simmering. She lanced a finger out at Lucien in happy defiance. "That's not a cannonball! I'll show you what a real one is!" Yoshiko yelled out with a smile. The ex-neko quickly climbed out of the water, and got a running start as she bull-rushed the hot spring. "CANNON BA-Waaaa!!!"

Her foot slipped on the wet stones, and sent Yoshiko on a belly flop into the hot waters.

As she sunk, little bubbles churned the surface.

Async was rudely disturbed by waves of water splashing across her face and then cooling in the not-hot-enough-for-a-freespacer air, she started, jumping up into a crouch, ready to kill someone.

"Which one of you little-" she glanced down to the pale, brown-haired neko in a blue bikini slowly sinking below the disturbed waterline, "oh, hello, Miss Tachibana... are you drowning?" She asked, rolling the volumetric-clad woman onto her back and supporting her head, gazing at her curiously.

A person in a wheelchair with a cast on one leg rolled up the the edge of the bath, laughing at the shenanigans of the Ex-Neko. "Oi, Yoshi, Ya should prob'ly look before ya leap, yannow. Could be bad for ya if ya don't." Shinji Inakura spoke, Seeming to be in a good mood despite what had happened to him just a few hours previously. it was pretty obvious that Shinji couldn't come into the Onsen, but he had showed up to enjoy the company of the rest of the crew.

******

Meena made her way towards the Women's onsen, a large towel wrapped around her small frame. It had been a while since she'd been to anything like a hotsprings, and even this artificial one was more than satisfactory as a replacement. Truthfully, she had been in a cold sweat most of the battle, and needed a good soak to clean herself off and just relax after that ordeal. She noticed Teala by herself in the women's bath, separate from even the few other customers in the pool of water.

"Mind if I sit by you?" the darker-skinned girl asked, getting into the Onsen and wading towards the Neko Mecha pilot.

Lucien watched Yoshiko climb out of the pool and admired the view a little, then proudly proclaim that she'd do a cannonball.
"Heh!" He chuckled a little, "Yosh'ko, methinks yer gonna-"

However, as she tripped, the Scotsman's jaw dropped, watching her land in the pool. He winced as she felt her pain from the sheer SMACK! that the impact made.

A frown of concern crossed his features. He knew Nekovalkyrja were pretty tough, but not invincible, "Cripes, that made a whack! Are ye orright?"

He then watched her sink for a moment before Async pulled her out of the water. He waded over and asked in a concerned deadpan, "Methinks you're roight ma'am, y' wouldn't 'appen t' know CPR, would ya?" He asked the Freespacer.

He got out of the pool and walked towards a nearby hostess, "'Scuse me," He asked politely as he could, "D'ye got a lifeguard on duty?"

'Everything's so dark.' The Nekovalkyrja turned Yamataian saw only a dark abyss before her, a voice calling her name. So dark, and yet she could almost make out a face there. Was it? Truly? She called out to her. Shioko? The woman smiled and spoke as she cradled Yoshiko.

"Yoshiko. I'd like to call her Yoshiko. What do you think Kayoko?"

"Gah!" The brown haired girl tried to sit up while still floating, coughing up a little water as she did so. Her feet and arms flailed in a panic until she moved until there was ground below her. Yoshiko's eyes were hysteric as she looked about, almost searching for someone. "A-Async? Shinji? Lucien? What are all of you doing here, I thought I was...where's m-" she cut herself short and blushed a little, embarrassment replacing the ex-neko's previous distress. She was staring at a sign that said 'No running, no horseplay, no diving, no cannonballs, no belly-flops. No life guard on duty.'

Yoshiko hugged herself, squeezing her breasts together as she did so; the ex-neko spoke up just enough so that the others could hear her. "No more cannonballs for me..."

Her face blushed furiously.

Async deftly avoided Yoshiko's flailing and kept the other woman above the waterline until the Ex-neko's feet had found purchase on the pool floor. Smiling at her new comrade, the Freespacer folded her arms around her belly, "it was quite impressive, Miss Tachibana, I know several of my former shipmates that would be burning with envy at such natural display of talent... normally, we have to compress the atmosphere to get that kind of report"

Ignoring several warnings from the etiquette filters she'd downloaded before enlisting in Origin, Async wrapped Yoshiko in a warm and friendly bear hug, "you have a gift for making noise, Comrade Yoshiko."