16 The Day the Seals Are Broken

The second weekend.

Recreational facilities are mostly closed.

There is nowhere to go with Mio, nowhere to play.

Jin considered it.

If he went to a place that couldn't be closed, that would be fine.

"Woah, so many flowers!"

Environmental Protection Zone.

Commonly known as the Oxygen Tank.

The most critical area for maintaining the oxygen recycling cycle aboard the colony ship.

In space colonization, without oxygen, there is only vacuum and debris left.

Thus, this zone is never closed under any circumstances.

Countless trees, grasslands, flower fields.

Surrounded by these plants, Jin takes a deep breath.

For some reason, he feels relaxed.

"Ah, something like that… I remember hearing something like this before…"

He recalls Mio had insisted on it.

When was it? He and her had walked through this area many times before.

Unfortunately, the specifics of that trivia have faded from memory.

"Jin, Jin. What’s this flower?"

Mio, animated.

Her expression remains unchanged, but her eyes gleam.

"Um... I think this is..."

Searching memory.

Flower types do not change frequently.

Especially this one—distinctive in name, remembered because of a conversation with Rei.

"...Right. The golden money tree."

"Wait—?"

"The golden money tree."

Mio gazes at her palm.

Looks up with a puzzled expression.

"Money... grows from this...?"

"Stop looking at me like that... That’s just what it’s called. Really."

The currency used aboard the vessel—credits.

Issued by the convoy, charged to civilian IDs.

How a plant produces money.

On reflection, it borders on the absurd.

Lost in thought about the name’s origin, Mio grows bored and darts off to another flower.

Jin searched for the unfamiliar flower on the display atop his left hand.

As they walked the paths within the environmental protection zone, Mio's knowledge of flora grew slightly.

"Ah?"

Mio suddenly spoke.

"What is it, Mio?"

"Water’s falling from the sky."

"What?"

Jin looked up—toward the zenith screen.

Raindrops fell onto his nose from the projected blue sky.

In moments, the droplets multiplied, reaching a scale proper to rain.

"Hey, hey, hey! It was supposed to be sunny today!"

Others grumbled in unison, moving toward shelter from the downpour.

The fleet’s weather was entirely controlled.

Therefore, unexpected rain should not exist.

"Woah. So much water is falling!"

"It’s rain, it’s rain!"

"Rain, huh?"

Jin pulls Mio’s dazed hand and runs toward the shade of the trees.

The type of tree is unknown, but the thickly branched limbs block the falling raindrops.

“Muu…”

Mio glares up at the sky, her clothes soaked through.

An infuriatingly clear blue sky.

“Should’ve made it overcast during rain….”

Weather patterns and actual atmospheric conditions were usually synchronized.

But apparently, they were just two separate systems being artificially aligned.

Considering that, this rain might truly be an unforeseen anomaly.

A rare day off.

Jin had wanted to forget, just for now, the crisis threatening the fleet.

An equipment failure at this moment.

Hard to believe it’s unrelated.

After a while, the rain stops.

Sticking like a soaked rat, continuing the walk isn’t feasible, Jin sighs.

“…Can’t help it. Let’s head back.”

“Ah-choo!”

Mio sneezed in reply to the word.

Hastily returning home, Jin wiped Mio’s head with a towel.

“Jin… cold…”

“Yeah….”

Mio trembled, pitifully so.

Her silver hair clung to her body, as if frozen in place.

Jin himself felt a chill.

There was no alternative. He made his decision.

“Seems we have no choice but to unseal it…”

“It?…”

Mio tilted her head, puzzled by the dramatic phrasing.

Ten minutes later.

Mio cried out in delight.

“Hot water!”

“It’s a bath.”

“A bath!”

Steam rose from the bath.

(No, I thought it was gone. But here it is… when you’re soaked to the bone…)

Jin silently offered thanks to Rei as he tested the temperature.

(Thank you, Rei. Thanks to you, she won’t catch a cold.)

Jin insisted that nanomachine cleaning was sufficient, but Rei remained firm on installing the bath.

Honestly, he’d thought it would never be used… yet here he was, soaked through, needing warmth.

Jin could endure it, but Mio, still a child, could not be pushed further.

“Then, Mio, go in first and warm up. I’ll get in once you’re out.”

“Jin, Jin.”

Mio tugged at his left sleeve.

“How do you use it?”

Yes, that’s right, Jin thought.

In the end, they decided to enter together.

Unlike with nanomachine cleaning, they couldn’t stay clothed.

Without shame, Mio stripped off her clothes and stepped into the tub. Jin followed, submerging himself up to his shoulders.

“Aah…”

“Warm… so warm…”

They both exhaled, relaxed.

Heat seeped into their chilled bodies.

“This… is good…”

Jin, who usually considered nanomachine cleansing sufficient, found himself reconsidering—perhaps soaking in a bath wasn’t entirely without merit.

This sensation of dissolving—something nanomachines could never replicate.

"Why didn’t you bathe before now?"

Mio looked up from between his knees, asking that.

"Time, really. It takes time to prepare."

A simple matter of time.

Nanomachine cleansing took seconds. A bath required minutes—perhaps even an hour, depending on the setup.

"Besides, it uses so much water."

Jin thought he’d already used up a month’s worth of lunar water supply in just one day.

It was fine now, but given the circumstances, water rationing would likely be enforced soon.

Still, was it acceptable to waste so much water at a time like this?

He dismissed the thought.

Money was already accumulating uselessly, anyway.

Nice feeling, huh?

Hey, hey—stop struggling, Mio. The water’s spilling over.

Attention shifts to Mio playing on the water's surface.

The water, barely contained, drained away each time.

Since adding more would be troublesome, he tells her to stay quiet, and Mio obediently sinks into the bath.

Uh, well, I think...

Jin thinks, dully, that there were probably various rituals associated with the bathhouse.

Washing the body, washing the hair—things like that.

Jin had no intention of using the bathroom, so there was nothing necessary in that area.

Jin thinks he should buy it next time.

There is no resisting this sensation.

It is inevitable that it will be used again, perhaps more than once.

Well, I can always clean the nanomachines again later...

There is no rule forbidding their combined use.

Jin thought he only wanted to sway within this warmth now.

Remain motionless for a time, soaking lazily in the bath—.

Wait a moment...

Recalling the temperature of the water.

Too much warmth might cause adverse effects.

No—perhaps the effects had already begun, Jin realized.

Now that he thought about it, his mind had been hazy since earlier.

"Bad... Mio, I'm getting out of the bath. Mio?"

Pulling Mio from the tub, he met her face, flushed crimson.

"Jin... hot... ach..."

Her speech slurred, her eyes rolled back.

"Sorry, Mio!"

Apologizing, Jin hurriedly dried her body and carried her to the bed.

Covered her with a blanket, lowered the room’s temperature slightly.

After checking her condition, applying a cool, damp towel to her forehead—her color gradually returned.

She drank water greedily, then murmured, eyes half-lidded.

"...Baths are dangerous..."

"Yeah... dangerous for beginners like us."

Jin nodded in agreement as Mio finally managed to speak.

He sighed. "Indeed. That was too much for beginners like us."

"Next time, we'll study the procedure properly."

"Yeah..."

The day had imprinted a single thought into both of them: baths were pleasant—but dangerous.

The sudden rainfall had stemmed from a discrepancy between the weather control system's schedule and the one externally shared.

Anyone aboard the convoy would recognize that as a lie.

The weather had continued to deteriorate repeatedly since then.

There was no doubt the weather control system had suffered some malfunction. Citizens fearing the humanoid ASID attacks grew even more despondent.

As a side note, Jin himself felt a chill upon seeing the sharply increased water bill.