Playing Dress Up

"I can't believe how many of them said no." Arata lamented as he and Erina were walking to get some clothes for her new outfit. Unlike the party, most of them just couldn't come. He cursed at the date of the event for the reason, because it seemed that they wanted to go.

"Oh well, it's no big deal." Erina kept positive over it. Especially since one certain boy was going to be coming.

"Yeah, and at least Yuki and Hifumi can come too." Turns out that being into that type of stuff, is a pretty good motivating factor for being able to make time to go to the convention.

At least now that they knew who was coming with them, they could get to making proper preparations. Which entirely consisted of finding the right clothes to make Erina, not Erina anymore.

Shopping was not Arata's usual idea of fun, but with what they were looking for. He could hardly contain his excitement. This was a dream come true for him.

"We can start here." He pointed to one of the clothing shops, a pretty safe bet that it would have what they need.

"Shouldn't be too hard." She assumed. "She's just a school girl, so how bad could it be?" As she would soon realize, a little tougher than it sounded. And a little more exposing at that.

"I don't know." He found what was the right design for the skirt. But seeing on it her, there was just one thing wrong. "It's a little too long."

"Arata, how is it too long?" She whispered, not wanting to draw attention. "It's already short as it. Any shorter, and I think people might be able to see my… You know." She blushed at having to imply it to him.

"Aww." He hung his head in disappointment. The dream of getting a fully realized waifu was gone. Though, he wasn't going to force her.

"Plus, why would someone wear this at school?"

"School?" He replied, confused. "No, this is what she wears casually." Arata wanted to do her casual clothes. Sure, the character was seen more in her school uniform, but that design wasn't his favorite. Now that he thought about it, maybe it really was because it was more revealing. "Here, this is a good shirt that looks right."

"Arata, I already have a shirt like this." She informed him. It was a snazzy shirt, with stripes of various colors. He figured that was a great thing, they could spend less money than planned. "Just how similar am I to this girl?"

"A lot more similar than I thought." He commented. "But the only thing in common about your personalities, is your approaches to love." He reminded her of when he was scoping over all of the girls. When he was attempting to find how to get Yogi to like her. Erina seemed like a yandere to him at first glance. That obsession over that boy, stalking him, sneaking into his room, taking pictures without him knowing. Things like that.

"I still do that now." She said, her tone made it sound like bragging. As if this was a completely acceptable thing to do."

"Yeah, and I'm glad too."

"That's something that sounds weird coming from you." Usually, he'd just roll his eyes in response to hearing her say that.

"Because I remember what you said back during the Fall festival, about that other guy." When he reminded her, she got hot under the collar. Arata didn't know what boy she was referring to, and he also just assumed that she kissed Yogi that night as well. "See, you were so worried about betraying Yogi or something, but you didn't."

"Right…" She meekly replied with a lie. "That's pretty much what I did."

"Exactly, you did the right thing."

"Yeah… I did." She turned her eyes down in shame, to so boldly lie to his face. Though, he seemed to believe her. They returned back to finding the right things for her to wear. He grabbed out a hat that the character wore, plus a sweater to put around her waist.

Playing dress up was pretty fun for him. However, it was starting to grate on her a bit.

"You know what? Why am I the only one doing this?" She asked, getting close to the final product. "You're the fan here, you don't have a costume to wear?"

"Hmm? I don't really think I look like anyone, but that hasn't stopped some people before…" Arata snapped his fingers, at the idea he just got in his mind. Quickly, he got some tights and a mask sold in the store. Along with that, an American flag that he tied around his neck. It appeared like a cape when he wore it.

"Um, who are you supposed to be?" She asked. He looked absolutely ridiculous in this. Why would anyone with a sane brain want to wear this, she had no clue.

"I'm Entirely Strong."

"You look... pitifully weak." She looked on, unimpressive with his display.

"No, no. That's the name of the character. He's a super hero, and he's from America." He pointed to the flag as unnecessary proof. If he was supposed to be some guy called Entirely Strong, then she was entirely unamused.

"Maybe we'll just stick with my costume then." And that's what they did. The two of them returned back to gathering the clothes for her to wear. Top, bottom, now they just had to deal with what the girl had on her face.

"Maybe these might work?" He held up a sticker pack to under her left eye. It would create a line of stars, ending with a crescent moon. Erina felt that this girl's outfit choice was… Interesting. But she accepted it, as it was fiction anyway.

"I'll make sure to put them on before we leave for the convention." That was another thing for them to check off on their list.

"What else is there?" He asked, but their stomachs were the ones to answer that question.

"Maybe we should get something to eat." She giggled softly.

So they hit the food court as their next stop. Erina got her usual big bowl of noodles. She slurped it up without any care of manners with him. Meanwhile, Arata got himself something different. Grabbing some fried chicken from the popular fast food chain, SFC.

"Interesting choice." She said to him in between bites. "I didn't realize that you liked that type of food." Unlike Erina, he was a lot more polite with his table manners. Arata took a moment to finish chewing food, then he put down chicken leg and wiped his mouth.

"I don't usually eat it." He finally answered after some time. "But there's usually plenty of people from the states that come to the convention, so I wanted to get into the spirit of it." She thought that did sound like a good idea. So she asked to take a bite of his chicken.

Arata was fine with it, but he wasn't just going to give it for free. Some noodles were going to have to be given in return. So with a slight-of-hand, they swapped meals and started trying the others meals.

"This is pretty yummy." She had a glow of enjoyment. This was just so good, she didn't wait to finish chewing the food to tell him that.

"Yeah, it is." He said, maybe reserving it for a certain time shouldn't be what should be doing. But it might make it less special then. He wasn't sure, which side he was on that argument.

"All right." She finished wolfing down the chicken, which wasn't what they agreed upon. "Where next?"

"I didn't get the chance to finish my food." He said in a mono tone. He'll have to buy another meal in the future. Plus, there were still plenty of noodles considering she got a large size.

"Hehe, sorry." She apologized playful tone. This wasn't something he'd get all that mad over. "If you want, I can just go on ahead and pick up whatever else we need." She got up, but he stopped her.

"Actually, we don't have anything else to shop for." He told her, double checking his notes. There was only thing left, but it wasn't something you could buy. However, it was something he already had on hand. "I got it right here." He held out in his hand, a simple hair piece. One made of tied grass, topped with glowing gemstones.

"Wow." She gazed over it in awe. "Where did you get it?"

"I made it." It wasn't easy, especially looking for the gemstones. Those weren't something he could find in a store, so Arata spent a couple of days scouring by the river for them. "I wish there was merch of it, because I think it's the best part of her design." However, no one seemed to agree with him, probably because there didn't seem to be any meaning to it. However, he felt from some of the ways they showed it in the manga panels, there just had to be something behind it. Behind the story of that girl.

"You did a really nice job." She appreciate the work he put into it. All of the effort shone through in the radiance of the gems, mixed with the simple nature of grass. "I can't wait to try it on."

"Here, I'll help you." He got it back from her, and walked to her side. Gently, he got it onto her hair. Even though she wasn't wearing anything of what he picked out for her. Arata could envision her in that outfit, as if it was a physical manifestation of a character come to life.

"So, how does it look?" Arata didn't say anything at first. To taken into awe of how she appeared to him. Then, after some time, he finally spoke up.

"Beautiful."