"Just take a bath after father"s done."

Said mother, so Rei gathered her bath towel and change of clothes and walked toward the bath room.

"Oh, Rei, sorry for making you bother today. Everyone was happy."

She ran into father, whose body was still steaming from the bath. The evening cla.s.s was the end of training today.

"No problem. I hope it fit everyone"s taste."

"What was it called, bound cake?"

"Pound cake."

Bound cake would be something that jumped. She imagined cake bouncing around like a rubber ball.

"The senbei you made last year was good, too, but it worked just as well."

"Is that so."

She made cookies for Valentine"s Day last year, but she didn"t correct him. Father lived the path of the sword. There was no need for him to be knowledgeable about pastry.

"It"s simple to make, shall I make some more?"

"Hmm&h.e.l.lip; well, if you"ve got time, you should go train."

"Yes. I"ll make some as a change of pace, then."

"Mm."

On Valentine"s Day it"d become a tradition to hand pastry to father"s students. At first, mother invited the students secretly and popped chocolate in their mouths, but at some point Rei"s cooking had begun circulating.

"My daughter made too much, so help yourselves."

Was how father put things, and so in order to keep up appearances, Rei made "too much" pastry on Valentine"s Day.

She didn"t find anything bad about that. Plus, because of that habit, she"d been saved this Valentine"s Day.

"Are you taking a bath now?"

"Yes."

"Warm up well."

"Yes."

With a quick bow, she went to the bath. She was used to training during the winter, so she thought she was relatively strong against the cold, but riding a bicycle for forty minutes in the snow was harsh. It was just a flurry, so the ground wasn"t frozen, but her hands and feet were freezing so there were a number of times she felt like she might lose control.

The bath room was nicely warmed because father had left the bath cover open. She scooped hot water with a bucket and dumped it over herself. Because her skin was cold, the water felt especially hot and electrifying.

Ah, paradise.

She soaked herself in the tub to her shoulders and unintentionally moaned. Her voice had become closer and closer to her father"s, so that left her with complex feelings.

But, thank goodness.

She was able to hand onee-sama and Yoshino Valentine"s presents.

After singing a full chorus of Maria-sama"s Soul, she stepped out of the bath. If she kept soaking in it, she thought she"d fall asleep.

She wondered if the muscles used to make meringue differed from the muscles used in kendo. When she scooped more water, her arms felt heavy.

"Wish we had a shower."

She thought this every time she shampooed her hair. But her stubborn father was adamantly against it, saying it didn"t fit a j.a.panese cypress bath. She could understand the desire to stay with a pure j.a.panese style, but it became a pressing issue after mid-summer training. Father probably never thought about the fact that his daughter was now a grown girl. As a result, she tended to use Yoshino"s house"s shower, but that"s a secret.

"Yoshino."

Having washed her hair and scrubbed herself from head to toe, she dunked herself in the bath again, and thought about Yoshino.

Rei giggled in the bath. Yoshino probably wasn"t amused by someone else finding the dating ticket. When she threw chocolate at Rei, shouting, "Idiot," ah, that was cute. It was just a complete beginner"s chocolate, where you boiled down store-bought chocolate and poured it into a mould, but it pleased her. Plus, compared to the straight, store-bought chocolate from last year, there was progress.

Was it because she was soaking in hot water? Rei felt like her brain was melting. And the strange feeling of satisfaction made her feel a bit high, so what the recipients were thinking was far from her mind.