Yuriko’s modelling session for Madeline didn’t involve nudity this time. The clothes she wore were her regular school uniform though the art class professor directed her to wear it more…alluringly?

For one thing, her shirt was unbuttoned enough to show her collarbones, the tie was loosened so that it looked more like a pendant than an article to close the collar. Her left sleeve was rolled up to her elbow, while the right one was just open. She had her hair in loose waves down her back. She wore stockings and a garter belt, black lace, and didn’t wear shoes while lounging on the armchair. She also had her left leg over the armrest though her skirt was arranged so that her panties weren’t showing. Ah, she wasn’t wearing a bra, and the button-down shirt’s fabric was sheer enough that if her nipples stiffened, they would be quite obvious. No, Madeline didn't demand that of her, but the gazes of twenty teenagers affected heavily by her Mien and sending bedroom eyes at her did take its toll.

Well, it had been an interesting two hours, and she must admit that the fee was more than worth it. Two hours alone accounted for half of what she made normally during the week.

“Next week again?” Yuriko asked Madeline after the end of classes.

“Yes, until the end of the semester,” the professor chirped happily. “Perhaps next semester too? If you haven’t completely turned pro. I won’t be able to handle your fees then.”

“I’ll be happy to continue our arrangement at the current rate,” Yuriko smiled.

“Ah, that’s great!” Madeline reached over and pulled Yuriko into a hug. She started sniffing her too, but then again, the woman was heavily affected by the Mien. Yuriko patted her on the back and kissed her cheek.

“Thank you.”

“You’re quite welcome.” Madeline chuckled while blushing.

She had an appointment in Pixel Fairy’s office, Downtown Windefield at two o’clock. She’d already informed her boss at Macy’s that she would be on leave. Hopefully, she’d be able to secure a gig to compensate for her week. She left the campus and headed to her apartment to change out of her uniform and wash the varied oils Madeline rubbed on her shoulders and chest.

“Lily.” For some reason, Scarlett was waiting in the apartment building’s lobby.

“Oh, hey. I didn’t expect you here,” Yuriko said.

“Hmm, yeah, I’ve thought of something. Ah, don’t let me disturb you.”

“Sure.” Yuriko led her friend to her apartment. “I hope you don’t mind that I need to bathe. I’ll leave the door open if you want to talk.”

“Ah, if you don’t mind?”

“Nope.”

Scarlett sat on a stool just outside the bathroom while Yuriko went into the shower. Since she had to let the oils absorb into her skin, her Anima couldn’t get rid of it easily and she had to resort to using soap. She wore a bathing cap to keep her hair dry and then scrubbed the oils off with her hands.

“Lily, if you don’t mind, can I come with you to your interview today?”

“I don’t mind, but I didn’t see your car earlier?”

“Saving petrol,” the redhead gestured vaguely.

“So how are we getting there?”

“The subway,” Scarlett said firmly. “I know you hate it, but it's faster than taking the bus. At least we won’t get stuck in the jam.”

Yuriko had integrated Lilibeth’s memories enough not to be thrown off by the differing terms. Bus was the same as the commuter tram back home, and was simpler to express, even if it contrasted with other similar terms.

The subway, on the other hand, Yuriko had to process for a moment. The term meant nothing to her personal experiences after all. An underground path for trams? Trains was the correct Astorian term. Either way, it was a network of underground passages that crisscrossed the entire Neo Prism City. The problem was that there was no station for the subway in Trinity Valley. The nearest one was only a ten-minute walk away, near the same grocery where Yuriko encountered Weavemaster, or rather, where Weavemaster encountered her freshly transmigrated self.

“Hmm, I don’t mind so much,” Yuriko said, “if I have company.”

Scarlett gave her a lidded gaze, then just hummed, agreeing. Yuriko wore smart casual, basically a white button-down with the top two buttons undone, a pair of dark grey slacks, and Mary Janes and skintone ankle socks. Her golden hair reached the top of her bosom now, and she left it loose. It curled and framed her face perfectly, though the mystery of her Tell never let it get in the way of her vision. Oddly enough, women’s clothing didn’t have functional pockets here, so she was forced to carry a handbag, which had her wallet and her phone and assorted sundries. She skipped out on makeup, as the stuff no longer suited her body. Radiant physique meant that the product she put on her face inevitably broke down and vanished within a few minutes. Not worth the cost or the hassle of reapplying it.

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Hmm, that might be troublesome in the line of work she wanted to be in. She could always suppress the natural functions of her physique, though it would be uncomfortable doing so. Kind of like not breathing as deeply as she normally would.

“You look great!” Scarlett said enthusiastically. Her friend was still in her student uniform, though she tossed off the blazer and the tie. The Season of Fire would come within three weeks and already, the weather had turned warm.

“Thanks. You sure you want to waste your time coming with me?”

“It’s not a waste,” Scarlett muttered. “I feel like spending time with you.”

“HHmm, if you say so.”

The two of them walked to the station. Trinity Valley’s pavement was shaded by strategically placed trees, but the crowns were not enough for the erstwhile showers, one of which happened to fall on them while they were between shelters. It lasted for a couple of minutes and left both women damp. Yuriko didn’t mind, but Scarlett grumbled while brushing her shirt and hair.

“It happens,” Yuriko giggled.

“Couldn’t have happened at the best time.”

The station wasn’t quite the end of the line, but since it was just past noon, the crowds weren't thick enough to annoy. Yuriko paid for her ticket while Scarlett had a consolidated access card, then they took the stairs to the platform and waited behind the yellow line. Yuriko barely resisted the urge to look at everything like a tourist. She did use her perception aura for it. The train ran on two parallel metal tracks and both had electric currents running on them. She could feel the hum of power as a tingle across her skin, and she felt that she could siphon it out using her Anima. Even the slightest touch of her perception was enough to forge a connection.

She resisted her urges, however. A slight pull would have probably caused a spark to flow from the rails to her body, and even if the underground lobby was brightly lit, an electric bolt was hardly subtle. Instead, she focused her attention on the varied screens hanging from the ceiling or mounted on the wall. Videos, advertisements mostly, played on the screens, and she wondered if her Mien would be able to connect through it. If it did, then showing up on television or movies would be the easiest path to create thousands of connections that she could generate Quintessence from.

The train came along soon after and they entered the carriage that stopped in front of them. There were benches along the walls, and the entire thing was roughly two and a half paces wide, just enough room for a couple of people to stand comfortably in the middle if the benches were full.

Well, there were no seats available when they arrived, so Yuriko and Scarlett stood next to a guard post. There were handholds along a rail above them, but she didn’t need it and Scarlett couldn’t reach it unless she stretched her hand all the way up, altogether quite uncomfortable. Chuckling to herself, Yuriko snaked her arm around Scarlett’s waist to help her keep her balance.

The trip would take them half an hour if they were lucky, and probably forty-five minutes on average. They had to go through a dozen or so stations, and with each one they passed, the carriage grew more and more crowded, to the point that people were pressed against each other unhealthily. At that point, passengers didn’t need to grab the handholds to keep their balance, plenty of bodies around to stay upright in.

Which brought about her own discomfort.

There was no way to use her condensed aura to create a barrier without being noticed, and soon enough, something hard was pressed up against her thigh. A few minutes later, some cretin was feeling up her bottom. She reached around and pinched the offending limb, then twisted hard enough to hurt, but not quite enough to just tear the skin off the flesh. The perpetrator, a youngish man that had spiky hair, eased off and squiggled his way out of her vicinity. A few minutes later, another pair of hands groped her bum.

Suppressing a sigh, Yuriko did the same thing, but this time, the perpetrator was a grinning middle-aged woman. The glare she gave the other was enough to drive her away. All the while, Scarlett was protected within Yuriko’s embrace and her face was adorably as red as her name.

‘Ah, she’s fallen too.’

Yuriko sighed in her mind. Well, Scarlett was cute enough to pass muster, and the long years of her friendship with Lilibeth allowed Yuriko to know the other woman just as easily. The question was if she wanted to press the issue, or if Scarlett would even accept her advances. The tangle of emotions radiating from the smol cutie bounced between heavy attraction and self-doubt.

‘Ah, I won’t unless she’s sure of herself.’

Soon enough, they arrived at their station with time to spare. Yuriko and Scarlett followed the map to Pixel Fairy’s office, which was on 2311 34th Avenue, in a building called Azure Solitude, on the twelfth floor. It wasn’t quite a skyscraper, but it did have almost twenty storeys on it. As with the name, the building was painted sky blue with white clouds floating across it.

The lobby had a directory and Yuriko found that Pixel Fairy actually occupied three floors, twelfth to fifteenth. For some odd reason, there was no thirteenth floor. The lift just went from 12 to 14 without pause.

They arrived on the twelfth, took a left from the lift lobby and knocked on the glass door that separated the office from the rest of the floor. The receptionist behind the desk, a pretty woman in red, with curly hair, looked up from what she was reading and pressed a button to unlock the door. Once the two of them were inside, “Good afternoon, how can I help you?” the woman asked with a cold tone.

Yuriko gave a slight smile, not minding the subtle hostility. “Good afternoon. I have an appointment with Darrel Schutter.”

“Are you an applicant?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have your resume?”

Yuriko raised an eyebrow. “I’ve sent it through email upon Mr Schutter’s request.”

“It’s customary to bring one with you.”

“A foolish and wasteful custom,” Yuriko said flatly.

The woman stared at Yuriko for a long moment, then coughed and stuttered, “Y-yes, I guess you’re right.” She fiddled with her computer for a moment, then a printer activated beside her. She gathered the papers and handed them over. “I printed it for you. You’ll probably need it.”

“Huh. Thank you for your consideration.”

“Allow me to bring you to the meeting room,” the receptionist said as she walked around her desk. “Will your friend accompany you?”

After she acknowledged, the receptionist led the way down the hall.

Scarlett had her jaw agape and she muttered, “Why are they bending over backwards for you?”

Yuriko giggled. “Who knows?”