Ouroboros wanted to experience everything that Urr had experienced.
The things she couldn't do when she was in the forest, her other persona "Urr" had already come here and explored.
It was a scenery she'd never seen before. Different landscapes that she wouldn't have noticed from just a casual glance. The strange sensation of being able to blend in with people touched Ouroboros's hand.
She knew that her aura would diminish when she became younger, but she didn't expect it to disappear this much. She tilted her head, wondering if this was why she could enter society—because she didn't affect humans.
"...Washing?"
"You have to wash. You'll get filthy if you don't bathe every day."
"Demon Gods don't produce that much waste."
"If you only think about waste, that might be true, but people get dusty when they go outside. What can you do? At first, you were even covered in dirt."
Ouroboros tried to argue that she didn't need to wash, but her words fell on deaf ears. Since her logical argument was defeated, Ouroboros had no choice but to accept it.
She decided to follow Yuria's instructions for now, judging that if she didn't, she might not be able to experience "what Urr had felt" properly.
"I don't feel threatened, but this is awkward..."
Ouroboros grumbled as she took off her clothes.
She had never really worn clothes before. No one would see her in the mountains, and since she wasn't afraid of death, there was no reason to wear armor.
Before being educated, she hadn't even learned about shame, so being naked was natural for her.
In other words, Ouroboros wasn't hesitating about undressing now, but rather about the act of washing itself.
She strongly felt that Demon Gods don't get sick, so why go this far? But in the end, she entered the bathroom according to Yuria's insistence.
"You need to be clean to play with friends."
"Friends..."
Yuria also took off her clothes and stepped into the bathroom.
Ouroboros glanced at Yuria and murmured blankly.
Friends. No matter how she thought about it, the word was too unfamiliar, too awkward for Ouroboros herself, and she couldn't shake off the sense of dissonance.
"Those are Urr's friends. Not mine."
"You're both Urr and Ouroboros, so you can just be friends with them too."
Ouroboros shifted her gaze to Yuria's voice as she turned on the shower and adjusted the water temperature.
These friends would be humans, right? Not Demon Gods.
"Are there other Demon Gods here?"
"No. You're the only Demon God."
She got a definite answer.
Either way was fine, but she thought it was better that there weren't any unruly ones around.
"Come to think of it, has Ouroboros never killed a person even once?"
Yuria sprinkled warm water on Ouroboros's body. And at the same time, she casually asked for information she wanted to know.
Although Ouroboros had become a child's body, while her thinking ability wasn't quite as good as in her prime, she was still perceptive enough.
Hmm, Ouroboros made a nasal sound, opened her eyes wide, and looked up at Yuria with a tilted head.
"—If I say I killed, are you planning to kill me again?"
"Probably. I'd push you back in before you could feel more joy."
"I'm joking. I've only killed Demon Gods, so don't worry."
Though she thought it unlikely, Yuria believed that if Ouroboros had killed people, if she had taken someone's family member and destroyed homes, then she wouldn't deserve to experience the happiness and joy that Urr had felt.
In that case, she was prepared to push Ouroboros back in by any means, and afterward, protect Urr so that only she could live.
Surprised by Yuria's determination, Ouroboros waved her hands and answered. She had never actually killed a person. There was no reason to.
Considering that there are murderers in society despite education, it wasn't strange that there were beings who didn't kill even without education.
"If you joke about things like that, you'll be hated. You'll become a target for extermination."
"Then I just won't do it."
Ouroboros grumbled at Yuria's words.
Yuria, as if wanting to protest to Ouroboros, splashed water on her head and swirled her hand around. Ouroboros's head shook violently as Yuria roughly stroked it.
Having an immortal body seemed to give her a sense of safety insensitivity, as she wasn't very cautious. Yuria found this quite fascinating.
She wondered if this was how Demon Gods' tendencies varied according to their characteristics.
Should she assume that Demon Gods who survive by taking human life tend to enjoy slaughter? And that Demon Gods who can simply live eternally strive to achieve their own goals, or exceptionally, take up murder as a hobby?
Considering how things would diverge based on circumstances and the Demon God's disposition, it was a complicated subject to approach.
Yuria shook her head and thoroughly wet Urr's hair. That abundant, long hair became quite heavy as it absorbed water, causing Ouroboros to stagger noticeably.
"Oops. Be careful not to fall."
"Despite appearances, I maintain my balance well."
"Are your eyes closed?"
"Yes."
Even though it was Urr's voice, the stiff tone with which she answered made Yuria feel strange.
But if asked whether it didn't suit her, that wasn't the case either. As much as Ouroboros claimed to be the original, Yuria felt that this version seemed more like a Demon God.
"Keep them closed."
Yuria squeezed a generous amount of shampoo into her hand. An enormous amount of shampoo went in, like washing a fluffy dog. Bubbles began to form in the hair that had been preserved by Urr's stubbornness.
Ouroboros, seemingly curious, slightly opened her eyes and raised her head. Yuria didn't think much of it, but Ouroboros took a shampoo attack to the eyes and began to suffer.
"...Ugh!"
"What, what's wrong?"
"My eyes...!"
"I told you to keep your eyes closed."
Yuria quickly finished shampooing and sprayed water on Urr's eyes. It must have hurt quite a bit, as the area around her eyes looked reddened. Ouroboros rubbed her eyes with both hands and then firmly turned down the corners of her mouth.
"This is painful. What's the point of putting this stuff on your body?"
"...It hurts when something gets in your eyes."
Yuria, wondering if she really needed to explain even this, sprinkled water on Ouroboros's body while sweating profusely. The water washed away the bubbles, starting from the crown of her head.
The snow-white foam fell to the floor and disappeared down the drain.
It took quite a while just to wash her hair, but Ouroboros didn't particularly complain. Even at this moment, she thought she was doing something new that she didn't know about, so she decided to enjoy this too.
"Now I'll wash your body with this. Should I scrub off the dead skin first? I usually scrub Urr's skin every weekend."
"...Dead skin?"
"Here, sit down."
Ouroboros tilted her head, wondering what that meant. Yuria thought it was better to show once than explain a hundred times, so she took out a towel and secured it well in her hand.
As Ouroboros sat crouched on the bathroom chair looking blank, the towel began to roughly scrub across her body.
"?!!"
"Stay still. You said you're used to pain, right?"
"W-wait a moment..."
Dead skin was a kind of waste product. Demon Gods might produce less of it, but it wasn't completely absent. Moreover, with external factors like fine dust, even Demon Gods weren't without dead skin, so this process was essential.
An essential requirement for staying clean.
As Yuria's hand with the rough towel passed over Ouroboros's body, Ouroboros was at a loss, experiencing this kind of pain for the first time.
She had tried stabbing herself with something or falling from high places before, but she had never experienced the pain of having her skin scraped off, so she instinctively tried to struggle.
Thankfully, enough reason remained for her to barely restrain herself from violently pushing Yuria away.
"Nngh..."
"You're just as whiny as Urr."
"Whiny, whiny...?"
Ouroboros let out a bewildered laugh at Yuria's words.
How could this be called whining? She felt pain as if her skin was being scraped off, as if her skin was peeling and burning hot—how could this be dismissed as whining?
She understood the desire to be clean, but she wondered if there was any reason to be this clean.
"Ugh, it hurts, it hurts..."
For such words to come from the stoic Demon God's mouth, Yuria momentarily took time to check if she was controlling her strength properly.
She didn't feel like she was being particularly forceful.
The process continued. And at the end, Ouroboros, with all the dead skin scrubbed off her body, looked up at Yuria with dazed eyes. Her body was trembling, and Yuria poured warm water over it.
"Uuuugh."
Her body was already hot and stinging. And with the added pressure of the shower and the sensation of water, a voice mixed with breathing escaped from Ouroboros's mouth.
Yuria felt a bit tired, like she was raising a child who complained too much.
"Ouroboros, I've filled the bath over there, so get in."
"...I just thought dying would have been better. Couldn't you have scrubbed me when I was dead?"
"Don't say such creepy things."
Ignoring Ouroboros's strange words, Yuria sprayed water on her own body.
"Ack."