Valkyries are Obsessed with My Transformations! (Honkai Impact 3rd) Chapter 37 37: Bronya, Who Wants to Scrub Seele's Back

Evening of the next day.

Outside the living room window, the sky had turned a warm, molten gold, with the deep hues of twilight already bleeding into the horizon.

"No way! How could I possibly lose thirteen tis in a row?!"

Seele sat perched on the sofa, clutching a controller in her hands, her eyes wide with disbelief. Beside her, Bronya set her own controller down with a quiet, practiced grace.

"That makes... Bronya's thirteenth consecutive victory."

"You're seriously pathetic—total noob status," Sin Mal chid in from the side.

She was curled up on the couch in a pair of pink strawberry bear pajamas, munching on potato chips and wearing a look of pure, unadulterated schadenfreude. "You actually dared to challenge Bronya to a video ga? Did you miss the mo that she literally never lost a single match back at the orphanage?"

"Tsk."

Seele clicked her tongue in frustration and finally set the controller aside.

"Seele, would you like to go again?" Bronya asked softly, watching her friend's reaction. She had already decided that, if they played again, she would go a little easier on her.

"No, no more. I'll just lose anyway," Seele shook her head without a second thought. She figured she'd just leave her losing streak at thirteen—a nice, cursed number to call it quits on.

"Then, would you like to read Bronya's HOMU comics?"

Bronya offered a small smile and pulled out her prized collection of limited-edition HOMU volus to show Seele.

"Yeah, okay."

Seele took the books and began flipping through them with idle curiosity, but it wasn't long before the stories hooked her. She really did love HOMU.

Or rather, it was as if the very essence of the character she beca simply couldn't say no to anything cute. Even the version of herself in the gas would voice her soft spot for Pom-Pom the conductor.

"This world of yours... it's really wonderful," Seele murmured, her gaze lingering on the pages.

"What do you an?" Bronya looked up.

"The water," Seele said, gesturing with the comic toward the bathroom. "You use it whenever you want, wash whenever you feel like it."

Her expression turned pensive. "Anyone here can just use as much water as they like. Where I co from, every single drop has to be rationed."

As Seele spoke, Kiana's head popped up from the side, a half-eaten, juicy apple tucked in her cheek.

"Rationed? What's that supposed to an? Do you guys have a drought or sothing?"

"Mhm." Seele nodded, her eyes clouding with mory. "The Underworld is starved for water. There are no lakes, no rain. Even the few wells we have are only open at specific tis, and you have to trade supplies just to get a bucket."

The girls exchanged looks of quiet realization. It had never occurred to them that in another world, sothing as simple as a glass of water could be a luxury.

"I still rember," Seele said, a touch of lancholy in her voice. "The first ti I ever got into a fight as a kid, it was over water. Back then, if I was hungry, I'd trade scraps of junk I found for crackers from street vendors. If I was thirsty, I'd go to the orphanage relief station. One ti I got there too late, and the iron barrel for the well water was almost empty."

She spoke casually, but the image of a holess little girl wandering the streets with nowhere to go began to take shape in everyone's minds.

"There was a vagrant there at the sa ti I was. We fought over the right to drink those last few gulps. I won. He lost."

"Nice!" Kiana couldn't help herself, pumping a fist in the air with excitent. "That's my Seele!"

"Kiana..." Raiden i whispered, her face tight with sympathy as she motioned for Kiana to settle down.

i realized all too well that if water was sothing you had to fight for, then the person who lost that fight was likely facing a death sentence.

"Yeah, I won," Seele sighed, her expression turning helpless. "But later, when I saw that man again, he was lying in a clinic, drawing his last breaths."

"Wait, what?!" Kiana's excitent vanished, replaced by a stiff, uneasy look.

"I've never forgotten that. Since then, no matter where I am, whenever I drink from a well, I always make sure to leave a few gulps for the person coming after ."

As she finished, Seele managed a small, self-deprecating laugh. "I never imagined that one day I'd have more water than I knew what to do with. I can soak for as long as I want. There's even a whole ocean right outside the door."

"So... how did you guys actually stay clean?" Kiana asked, sounding genuinely confused.

"You'd wash up every few days," Seele shrugged. "And that was if you were lucky. Most people... they'd go a lot longer than that without a bath."

Bronya listened in silence, her silver-gray eyes shimring with heartache. "Seele."

"Yeah?" Seele turned, looking puzzled.

Did she take the bait? Seele wondered inwardly with a hidden spark of glee.

The whole reason she'd brought this up was so that when they went to bed, Bronya—acting like a doting "little-sister-turned-mommy"—would shower her with extra care and affection.

"For the next few days you're here... do you want to have a proper wash?"

"Huh?" Seele blinked, her mind going blank for a second. "Of course. I an, I've been bathing every day since I got here, haven't I?"

"That is not the sa." Bronya shook her head and stood up from the sofa, looking at Seele with total earnestness. "Bronya ans a real wash."

Seele blinked again, her gaze innocent. "A real wash? What does that an?"

"A scrub-down," Bronya said slowly and seriously. "Seele, you probably haven't had a thorough scrubbing since you arrived. There must be so deep-seated gri that has accumulated. Bronya will help Seele scrub it all away."

Seele's face turned bright red in an instant.

H-help scrub?!

Her mind imdiately spiraled into a flurry of suggestive thoughts. Wait, this isn't right, is it?

Even though she desperately wanted to say yes, she put on an act of shy modesty and shook her head vigorously. "No! No way! I can wash myself!"

"Seele cannot reach her own back," Bronya noted, her gaze calm and persistent. "Besides, if you go too long without a proper scrub, the dead skin and dirt will start to pill up into little grey rolls."

"Little rolls..." Yae Sakura muttered from nearby, a look of mild disgust crossing her face.

"What are 'little rolls'?" Kiana asked, her curiosity piqued.

"It's just old skin cells and dirt that build up on the skin. If you don't deep-clean, it rolls up into little strings when you rub it," Bronya explained softly. Kiana actually shivered at the description.

"I—I don't have those!"

Seele's face was now a deep crimson. If Bronya hadn't said anything, she wouldn't have pushed it, but now she knew her chance had co.

"When I was in the Underworld, I made sure to wipe myself down every few days!"

She fought to suppress her excitent, trying to argue her case, but Bronya didn't let her down. "Wiping," Bronya said with a stern finality, "is not the sa as scrubbing. Seele, let Bronya help you just once, and you will see the difference."

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