“Simple and casual is really best, after all,” Nobuhiko said.
“No, no. Since we’re here anyway, we should get something more aggressive,” Rinko said.
“…”
His real dad and his step mom were arguing with each other as they fiddled with the console.
Meanwhile, Shinichi was looking down toward the bag by his feet.
“Kyu, kyu kyu”
From that bag peeked out the head of a certain living creature, who was currently laughing at her master’s bewildered face.
“Shinichi-kun, don’t move!” Rinko said.
“That’s right. Make sure you stay still!” Nobuhiko said.
“Ah, yes…” Shinichi said.
They were currently within the premises of a clothes store.
As soon as they entered, Shinichi was immediately pushed into the dressing room, where he was then turned into a doll to be dressed.
However, he wasn’t actually trying out the clothes physically. Instead, only his clothes were being changed as he stood within the small room with a mirror.
His clothes changed into all sorts, from casual to outdoor to visual kei… etc.
“…Suddenly, I don’t know what the point of science or magic is anymore.”
“Kyu… Kyu kyu.”
Indeed, she said as she failed to hold back her laughter.
It was a rare sight to see her master being toyed with like this.
Knowing that it was his parents responsible made her understand that he was indeed the child of a man, but it was still strange.
“Yeah… You just laugh like that to yourself. I’ll remember this.”
Shinichi looked down at her with a cramping face, but with how he was currently being treated like a dress up doll, his words weren’t the slightest bit threatening.
One weeks has passed after Shinichi was taken into the new Nakamura family. It was currently a holiday.
Since Shinichi came to Nakamura family, he has never gone out on his own accord, or at least that his parents knew of; so, his parents decided that they would take this opportunity to bring him out. The two parents happily picked out some new threads for Shinichi.
The first store they chose was one that employed publicly available otherworld technology. It didn’t have any products on shelves. Instead, it had mannequins lined up by the display window to show its sample products. It also had some complicated fitting rooms.
Using the console allowed one to access all the purchasable clothes and accessories of the store. Upon making a selection, the person within the fitting room will appear as if he’s wearing the options selected. Height and differences in body shape will be automatically taken into account. Of course, the clothes one is actually currently wearing can’t be seen during the process, and there also won’t be any time wasted from changing clothes.
From the store’s perspective, having this convenient technology means they can save on space that would otherwise be used to display their products, as well as save from expenses incurred from all the clothes the customers would use in the fitting room.
After purchasing, the product will be delivered on the same day from a warehouse in the suburb. The customer may choose to wait for the product at the store or receive it at his residence instead.
This is one of the new kind of stores that came with the application of otherworld technology, though Rinko did not yet know whether this sort of store would catch on or not.
“Shinichi, which one do you like?
I think this one is good, but what do you think?”
His father had picked out a denim shirt and cut and sewn border set [1]
“I think this one is pretty good.”
While his mother had picked out a black jacket and a black cat and sewn with the chest part slightly open.
“Just say if there’s anything you want.
We’ll accompany you however long you want. Today’s a paid holiday, after all,” Nobuhiko said.
“You don’t have to worry about the money since I’m the one who’s paying!” Rinko said.
“Ouch!” Nobuhiko cried.
For some reason both the husband and the wife puffed out their chest when they said that.
Shinji even imitated them while he was being carried. He seemed happy.
The husband, though, became a little down when the wife said her line.
“U-Umm…”
Unfortunately, Shinichi was never really someone who cared much about fashion.
For 2 years, he spent his life traveling without giving himself much attention, and then, when he came back, 8 years had suddenly passed. Given such conditions, asking him for his opinion on such matters would just trouble him.
As such, he didn’t really have any expectation for the clothes they were picking out for him.
“Umm, something exposed like this is a bit…”
Despite that, however, he couldn’t just say nothing, as that would surely destroy the atmosphere. And he also didn’t want to stand out. The V cut on the upper clothes were simply too deep.
“Oh, okay.
You have a good body, so I thought you wouldn’t mind.”
During inspection Rinko noticed that Shinichi’s body was quite lean, so she thought for sure he wouldn’t mind showing it off, but since the person himself said he didn’t want to, then that was that.
That being said, Shinichi did feel somewhat sorry seeing how readily Rinko gave up and that disappointed expression on her face, so he added, “Umm… I’d rather not have something aggressive. Something normal would do. Ah, actually… What’s normal today anyway?” Shinichi said.
“…”
“…”
“Huh? Ah, no. That’s not what I meant!”
Shinichi had only hoped that they wouldn’t think that he ‘didn’t want to think’, but he made a mistake and accidentally made them realise that he ‘didn’t even know what was normal’. He quickly tried to correct this mistake, but it was too late.
“R-Right… We’ll have to start from there, won’t we?”
“Y-Yeah… We’ll have to start with some basic.”
Although his parents managed to keep smiling, their smile was stiff, and it was clear as day that they were down.
They felt guilty for not even realizing something so simple.
Meanwhile, Shinichi also felt guilty since it was because of what he’d done that they ended up feeling guilty.
“Kyu… Kyuu…”
Naturally, ‘she’ couldn’t laugh at this outcome. She could only cry as if troubled.
[1] – I don’t actually know much about clothes, so if there’s something off just let me know.
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