New Clothes.

Posy pocketed her card again. "Is this all you need from me?"

I stretched out my arms. "I mean you're so good at this I might as well ask you to help me pick out some clothes too right?" I said jokingly. 'Realistically I'm probably fine. I could use some new leather to help in my armor crafting. Hm… And I could go look at some plots of land or some house prices to get an idea of what I'm working with.'

"Impossible."

'Wh-what?' "I-I mean, you don't have to… I was only joking, if you're busy you can go."

She folded her arms and looked around the store. "I'm not busy, but I don't know any stores that sell guys' clothes."

"I-I'm a girl! Promise." my voice cracked, making the nearby staff members look at me as I suddenly became more than a little uncomfortable.

She shyly looked away. "That was supposed to be a joke… Sory…"

'Then why did you say it so seriously…'

Quickly scanning over everything in the store she quickly clarified. "The real problem is that there aren't any clothes that suit you… Although there aren't any clothes that don't suit you either, aside from skirts or dresses, that's only because you personally don't seem to like them. Generally speaking, it also won't matter what I pick out because if you wear something specifically because I picked it out, that would be you putting effort into your appearance, which would then make you uncomfortable regardless."

"Oh…" 'I don't really get it… But she seems pretty certain.' "Alright, I guess…"

She glanced at me again before quickly looking away. "That isn't… What I mean is, you see I…" She growled, pausing for a moment. "I could still pick out some clothes for you… If that's what you want."

'After all that you're going to do it anyway? She's taking this a bit too seriously isn't she?' "Sure… Oh, but walk me through your reasoning, I'm curious." 'Being inside Tooly's head was scary… But being inside hers would be pretty interesting… No… Actually, it's more likely it would fry my brain…'

Posy walked until we were at nearly the other end of the store. Without a word Mochi and I quietly followed behind her as she started sorting through different sizes of clothes and naturally picking out sizes that would fit me… Even accounting for my slight increase in size.

"My thoughts on your habits aside… You hate putting effort into your appearance because you're afraid of the possibility that people will still think you are a guy even if you do. Because of this, you are now very comfortable with putting as little effort as possible into things like figuring out what to wear. You like hoods though, for one reason or another. You also don't like tight clothes, because they outline the shape of your body. So for these reasons, you would like clothes that are a little loose, but only a little, and they should be thick and soft enough that you can comfortably get away without wearing anything underneath them. Contrary to the rest of your personality, you like cute things… Although we disagree on what that term constitutes… Although you like simple clothing, you can appreciate designs on said clothing. For these reasons, I think these clothes are appropriate."

Before I knew it the three of us were holding multiple pairs of what was all essentially just sweat pants and hoodies, most of which skewed towards winter clothing in design, making it softer and thicker like she said. They were a lot more expensive than the clothes I had been wearing, but the quality of the fabric spoke for itself in that regard. "Why… so many?"

"Having more clothes means each piece individually will be worn less often and thus last longer. It's also better to have more rather than less because if it gets cold you could layer two or even three. This is why you buy six pairs and have one for every day of the week, assuming you take a day off and never change out of your pajamas, which in this case refers to a light blue set that is much thinner and designed for hotter weather. I threw that in because you seem like the kind of person who probably just sleeps naked, which is a bad habit."

'Has she always been this long-winded? Or… Is this just because I asked her to explain…' I sighed. 'I mean, I like the cute little bear symbol stitched on them so I'll go ahead and buy them.' "For the record… I don't sleep naked… Though admittedly I never thought I'd feel the need to clarify that. No way I'd ever be comfortable without at least some clothes on… Though, there was a time I thought it would be convenient to have fewer clothes to wash, but then I got better at magic and stopped caring."

She paused and we awkwardly stared at each other for a while until she bit her lip and began tugging at her hair as she looked down, no doubt counting the number of lines in the wood grain of the floorboards, at least that was my best guess.

"Are you ok?"

She let out a small groan tensing her whole arm. "You gonna rip your hair out…" By the time I grabbed her wrist, she had already relaxed her arm on her own, resting it on her head as she slowly opened her eyes, lifting them to mine.

"I'm fine… Sorry… If I worried you. I don't like making mistakes."

'I'd hardly call that a mistake… It was just a vague assumption… And considering everything else that she got right today even more so…' I nervously chuckled. "I guess you're not perfect after all…"

She lowered her hand with a sigh and I took a step back. "When the healer isn't perfect, people die."

Her voice was the same as always, the rhythm and volume at which she spoke, her tone and inflection. But her words still felt somehow heavier than before as she walked away towards the store clerk's counter. 'Is it normal for priests to feel so much pressure?'

Mochi called me, softly tugging on my hand."Chika…" 

"Yeah?"

"Is she like us?"

'What?' "How do you mean?"

"Is there something wrong with her head?"

"Eheh…" 'excuse me… Us? What's wrong with my head? Sure I guess I get nervous when I almost die, but I'm pretty sure that's normal!' I twisted and bit my tongue, keeping my thoughts to myself. "If you get to know enough people you'll learn that everyone has something wrong with their head…"

"Oh. So what's wrong with your head?"

"That's what I want to know…" I grumbled.

"So you don't even know? Is it that bad?"

I let out a soft dull growl. 'I can't get mad… If I get mad at her now she'll retreat back into her shell…' Taking a deep breath I quickly got over any annoyance I felt and my face slowly relaxed again.

"Chika?"

"Hey, I know… How about this, if you ever find out what's wrong with my head, you can let me know, how's that sound?"

She smiled brightly as she gave a slight nod, prompting me to just roll my eyes. Thus ended our little shopping trip.

From there we parted ways, and I went to a healer, having to give them a few silvers to properly repair Mochi's teeth… It was annoying we had to visit more than once to fix the same issue, but I did want to make sure they were actually fixed. Regrowing them was one thing, but apparently, we also needed to make sure they settled in her mouth properly, the traces of the cavities were completely gone, the enamel grew back, and not just the bone, as well as this that and the other… Halfway through I started wondering if it wasn't just a way for them to get more money out of me, but realistically, habitually lying would make their powers weaken, so I doubted it.

It was sad watching my wallet slowly bleed, but seeing how bright her smile became made it almost feel better…

The whole experience made me more confused about how exactly I should handle her though. She was obviously afraid of letting someone poke around inside her mouth, but she never complained, listened to every direction perfectly, and never sought any sort of comfort, making it even harder to figure out how to give her any.

Normally it would have been a good thing and considered mature of her, but I couldn't help but feel like it was an issue. 'I guess for now… I'll just give it time. She might get better on her own.'