The two younger Slayers dashed past Suna, both of them heading for the women's baths, where a huge amount of steam seemed to be gushing down the path. What were they doing, Suna wondered. And why was there so much steam everywhere? 

They considered following the Slayers, drawn by curiosity about these unanswered questions and about the argument they'd only partially overheard — but no. They'd come here for a reason! And if they didn't go to the men's baths now, they might never get another chance to explore. 

They peeled themself away from the wall and darted up the fork in the path beneath the MEN sign. The air was less steamy this way, but still hazy. Even the strings of lanterns overhead threw their light in a diffuse glow through curling ribbons of rising steam. Suna wondered if the baths were always like this at night. They decided it didn't matter much.

They crept on, breathless with anticipation. When they reached the entrance, they whipped the curtain to the baths back and—

The moonlight illuminated a low veil of steam purling over the ground, and a layout of baths that was essentially a mirror image of the women's side. The same robes, the same towels, the same shelves, the same number of baths — all just arranged in an inverse layout to the women's side. Suna stared, crestfallen. 

They crept further inside, peering around. Something had to be different! But no; the baths were impeccably clean and incredibly well organized. The only aberration they found, after they'd paced the whole perimeter of the space, was that one of the walls had a Dusting Force hose hooked up to a spigot. The hose itself was coiled on the ground in the space where the coldwater pool would have been in the women's baths. 

A rush of anger made Suna's face hot. 

All this secrecy and separation — and for what? Because the men had a hose in their baths and the women didn't? Their parents always said it was tradition, that everything had a precise order, and everyone fit into that order, but this didn't feel like order to Suna. It just felt like a pointless rule. Everything was exactly the same except for this one, single hose. 

In a fit of pique, they kicked at the hose. Its coil slipped a bit, the metal nozzle glinting in the moonlight. And then, a thought dawned on Suna. If they were here, and nothing else was interesting, they might as well see how the hose worked. They bent and scooped it up, and looped one coil over their shoulder the way they'd seen the members of the Dusting Force do. The weight of it on their arm felt nice, and that lifted their spirits a little. They aimed the nozzle at different baths, imagining shooting off streams of water to keep the decks and the pools clean. 

They could be good at this, they thought! It wasn't fair that they weren't allowed to try. 

They frowned at the hose like it would somehow make these things make sense.

It didn't. 

With a sigh, Suna slumped a bit. There was nothing left to do, they supposed, except sneak back home and get into bed before their parents noticed they were missing. They re-coiled the hose as neatly as they could, setting it back into place. Just as they set the nozzle down, the ground began to quake. Not an earthquake, Suna realized after the initial shock passed — more like a strong thudding. Like a giant stomping around nearby, rattling the earth beneath its feet. They looked around, frantically. 

The thudding happened again, and the wall between the men's and women's baths rattled with the force of the thud. On the third stomp, it became clear: the source of the quakes was in the women's baths. Suna thought of the two Slayers who had gone to the baths, suddenly alert with worry. Something might have happened to them! 

Suna dashed for the exit.. They scrambled down the path as more thudding shook the ground beneath them. They reached the fork by the courtyards and took the bend up to the women's baths so quickly that they nearly fell.  Up they went, the high bamboo walls shaking with each new stomping rumble. They were only a few steps away from the entrance to the women's baths when, suddenly, the curtains exploded open and a huge gout of steam ripped through the doorway and down the path. Suna staggered backwards, throwing one arm up to protect their eyes from the heat.

Someone shouted in the baths.

Suna dropped their arm just in time to see a body get thrown through the door. It landed hard at Suna's feet, groaning. Suna winced in sympathetic pain, startled and concerned, and then crouched, feeling for the figure in the steam.

"Are you okay?!" Suna gasped.

It was the Slayer girl, they saw, as the steam slowly cleared. She blinked up at them, her eyes unfocused.

"What… ?" she slurred.

Suna's heart jumped with fear. Was she hurt? Should they go find Keiba? "Do you need help?"

Wyn blinked at them, her gaze focusing. "I remember you…" She put one hand to her head, groaning again with pain. "You're that kid. From before."

Suna couldn't decide if being remembered was a good or a bad thing, but it didn't matter. "What happened?" they asked. 

Wyn held out her hand. "I…can you help me stand up?" 

"Sure." Suna held fast, bearing her weight as she got to her feet. Their heart raced as they looked at her, trying to make out any injuries in the gloom. "You're really all right?"

"Yeah, I think so." Wyn tried to take a step, then winced, stumbling forward. 

Suna grabbed her arm in a rush, holding her steady. 

"Ugh," Wyn groaned again, pressing a hand to her head.

"You should be careful," Suna insisted, frightened for her. They didn't know much about medical emergencies, but hitting your head definitely seemed like a bad thing. "You got thrown out the door!"

Wyn looked at them with dilated eyes, clearly confused. "What?"

Before Suna could answer, a thunder of strange, guttural clacks rumbled through the air. Wyn stood up straighter, her eyes wide. Suna had never heard anything like that noise and a frisson of fear ran down their spine. 

"Wynona?!" someone called from within the baths.

"Trent!" Wyn — Wynona — shouted. 

She tugged her arm from Suna's grasp and dashed, unsteadily, for the door again.

"Wait!" Suna shouted, scrambling after her. She was going to get hurt, they just knew it.

As Wynona  reached the curtain, the other Slayer — the young boy — burst through.

"Wyn!" he gasped, grabbing for her. "We have to run."

"What? Trent, no, we can't—"

Another heavy stomp made the ground shake so hard that the reedy walls around the baths rattled, making a sound like shivering sticks. Wynona looked around frantically, which didn't do much to assuage Suna's concern.

"What's going on?" they demanded.

Wynona and the boy,  Trent, both looked at Suna like they'd forgotten they were there. A second stomp shook them all again. When neither Slayer offered an answer, Suna huffed and made for the entrance to the baths. If no one was going to explain, they were going to see for themselves.

"Wait," Trent hissed.

Suna ignored him. Whatever was going on, these two clearly didn't know how to handle it. They grabbed the curtain and yanked it aside—

And froze in place. Inside, the baths had been reduced to obsidian rubble. And on top of all that rubble, a huge, spider crab loomed, so tall it had torn the roof off of the baths. It swayed a bit; a groggy giant, unsteady from only just waking up. Its mouthparts clicked like loud gears and steam gushed from the glowing vents in its carapace, rushing down to the ground in silvery streams in the moonlight. The infernal heat of the steam stung Suna's skin in the same way that standing in front of an open oven made the air feel like it was boiling.

They stumbled back from the doorway, looking wildly at Trent and Wynona.

"What is that?!"

"Um. Yura?" Trent said, just as another stomp shook everything around them.

But Yura was asleep!  That's what Keiba, and their parents, and all the books said. It was resting under the springs and keeping their water hot — except apparently not. This monster was clearly awake, and it looked just like all of the drawings Suna had ever seen of Yura. Also, it was on the brink of completely demolishing the baths. Suna looked at the Slayers in disbelief. The magic of them suddenly diminished in Suna's mind. As if for the first time, Suna could see that they were just two confused young people who had bumbled their way into a major problem. 

"You woke up Yura?" they said, incredulous.

"We're going to fix it!" Wynona answered in a rush.

"You can't fix it!" Suna shouted, wondering if these two were just entirely clueless. The stomping persisted, and with each tremor, it seemed more and more likely that the walls were going to collapse around them. "We need to get help."

They turned to head back down the path, but Wynona grabbed their arm.

"No, hold on," she said, her grip tight. "We have a plan."

"A plan?!"

"We read that Yura's like the fire lizards," Trent supplied. "It doesn't like the cold. We just need to cool it off!"

"Cool it off?" Suna boggled. The air around them was so smothering, sticky, and hot, and only heating up. "How are you going to cool it off?" Then they saw that Trent was holding a half-full bucket of water. From the coldwater pool, probably — what was he doing? Trying to splash cold water on a sea monster? Suna wondered if they were truly even allowed to actually slay sea monsters. "With that?" they said with some derision.

Trent's face fell. "It was worth a try," he insisted. "But really! We'll figure it out—"

As he spoke, the entrance to the baths exploded. One of Yura's legs stomped through the frame and tore it apart. The curtain caught on the point of its foot like a scrap of tissue. Suna and the Slayers all darted down the path to get out of the way. Behind them, the reed wall around the baths groaned and splintered as Yura lumbered in the space of the baths, which was in no way big enough to accommodate its long, sharp legs.

Shaking with adrenaline, Suna dashed down the path. They made it about ten paces before the glare of a bright flashlight stopped them in their tracks.

"What the hell is going on?"

Keiba! Suna saw her coming up the path, flashlight in hand. Wynona stumbled to a stop beside them, and Trent, out of breath in the heat, nearly crashed into Suna.

"Keiba don't," Suna tried to warn as Trent darted past them, waving his arms. 

"You can't come back here!" he shouted.

"What are you doing in…" Keiba trailed off, her eyes growing wide.

The ground rattled under their feet. The reeds behind them popped and ripped apart, destroyed as Yura approached. Keiba shouted at the sight of this giant creature destroying her springs. Disoriented, it lumbered on and Keiba launched forward, shining her flashlight up at its eyes as if to blind it and stun it into stopping. Suna's heart squeezed with terror. Keiba was perhaps the one adult in the whole village who didn't think all their questions were strange or annoying, and who let them sit in the shop and read. They desperately didn't want her to get hurt — but everything happened so fast.

"Keiba!" Suna shouted, just as Yura's stalk eyes swiveled.

It clacked and hissed through its mouthparts at Keiba. With the swing of one of its long claws, it smacked her aside like a ragdoll. She sailed through the air for one awful moment before crashing hard into the ground where she went limp with a groan. Yura clicked its claws and picked her slumped body up by the tunic. Suna watched in horror as Yura kicked down more of the soft, reedy wall around the path, carrying Keiba off towards the courtyard. As it moved, it's body passed over Suna and the Slayers, its legs making an enormous cage around them for a moment. Suna's stomach lurched with the nauseating slosh of helpless fear.

At their side, Wynona bent down.

"Hey!" she shouted, grabbing for a loose rock in the path. "Let her go!"

She pitched the rock hard and Suna watched in disbelief as it clacked against Yura's armored underbelly. The monster stopped moving, its body lurching as it searched for the attacker. Wynona scrabbled for another rock. Suna couldn't think of a more half-baked plan than…whatever this was.

"What are you doing?" they shouted, grabbing her wrist before she could let the stone fly.

"Scaring it?" Wynona cringed.

One of Yura's legs stomped so close to them that it nearly hit Wynona's shoulder. Yura's mouthparts clattered and clacked, and the vents in its shell glowed a hideous, infernal red. Steam blasted down around them, so hot it suddenly became hard to breathe.

Suna was pretty sure that, however Yura felt, it wasn't scared. Its vents glowed again and, suddenly, Suna had an idea. Trent had said it was like the fire lizards, that it didn't like cold…

And they knew at least one thing that would help with that. They yanked at Wynona's arm, pulling her back up the path, this time towards the men's baths.

"C'mon!" they shouted at Trent as they dashed past him.

Yura's legs scuttled and stomped all around them as it wheeled in a turn, making an angry, screechy noise through its clicking mouthparts. Dragging Wynona along, Suna ran as fast as they could, their breath tight, tight, tight in their chest, burning from the heat. The ground shaking made it hard to run, and the wrecked bamboo reeds were slippery with steam and uneven under their feet. 

Yura growled, loud as grinding gears, at their back. Suna's skin prickled with fear as it stomped after them — but they had to make it to the men's baths. The Dusting Force hose was there, and suddenly, it seemed like their only hope. Tugging at Wynona, they ran and stumbled and scrambled, their lungs burning, as Yura roared viciously up the path at their backs.