Steam Miku: Reverse Observation Diary - Prologue

Introduction

I passed through the noren curtain of Sakurayu simply because I was drifting with the wind.
I had no place to belong, time on my hands, and days that led nowhere.
The wind outside was cold, but the humid air flowing from beyond the curtain beckoned me in.

There are all sorts of people in the changing room. 'Naked association' is a fitting name for it.
A place where people spend time with nothing to hide. The steam, different from the wind outside, began to warm me.
Suddenly, I felt a gaze.
A woman with blonde hair was sitting there, holding a fruit sandwich in one hand. She could have been a teenager or in her twenties.
White steam enveloped her, blurring her silhouette.
—I learned later that the regulars called her 'Miku'.

As I sank into the bathtub, I saw her listening intently.
As if she were trying to pick up sounds mixed into the steam.
As if she were distinguishing the sound of the water popping, the clatter of wooden buckets, and the voices of people's hearts.
She tilted her head as if confirming each one.

Even when she tilted a milk bottle after her bath, she spoke to no one, just standing there wrapped in the lingering warmth of the steam.
Droplets falling from her hair, translucent in the light, drew small patterns on the floorboards.

I instinctively took out my diary and wrote this down.
—Miku. Are you an illusion in the steam? Or are you a fantasy of my own?

By the time I left the public bath, even the cold night wind seemed to shimmer like steam.
And so, I secretly decided that I would continue to observe Miku from now on.

To be continued