Chapter 78: Distraction
[Edited by: Arthur300000, deathbricks, Bunny, and ArchmageNaoki]
"These shorts will look cute on you." Pristia showed me some fashionable-shorts. It was too glittery though.
"Ah, that! It would go along well with this hoodie." Barbara also held up a gigolo looking hooded sweater, then she began to undress me. Thankfully we did it in the dressing room.
"Uhm, you see, I can do it by myself." I told her. How did I get myself into this? Well, I asked them to help me find some warm clothes for winter, but somehow I turned into their dress-up doll instead... I should have known this would happen...
"Kuro, you change too slow. You’ll never be able to try on everything with that speed." This was Barbara’s excuse. In my defense I was confident in my undressing speed. It was just that I didn't know how to put on the previous dress which was too complicated for me to wear. Anyways, I blame the demented designer who put buttons on the back and those complicated sash and ribbon binding things.
"Wait, didn't we come here to buy a computing device for Barbara?" I asked while Pristia and Barbara coordinately wrapped me in some strange clothings again. They seemed to be happy with what they were doing, but the more I looked at it, the more the clothes they picked seemed to be further and further away from the warm clothing I wanted.
"That can wait. Youth is short Kuro, you should wear all the cute clothes while you still can." Barbara talked like a philosopher and Pristia nodded sagely. Their logic was weird though.
"I'll take back Skynet today, you know?" I threatened her with the impending doom of Skynet-less-ness.
"Heh, don't worry, I will ask Aunos to buy one." Pristia said, and ran out of the dressing room. She came back a moment later and said that everything was okay... It seemed I couldn't stop them after all.
About two hours later, they were finally satisfied with dressing me up with what seemed to be all the clothes in the store and beyond. I found two sets of winter clothes that were both comfortable and cute. Both of them looked like a smart casual dress with a glimpse of a fancy school uniform style. On the downside, they were a bit complicated to wear and their streamlined pockets were hard to find, but that was nothing to worry too much about, with a bit of practice I’d get used to them in no time. However, the most glaring issue about them was their prices.
"They are too expensive," I told them and pointed at the price tags. The total was a whooping 498 credits, which was about 50 panties in total. I could continue using the heavy battle jacket that I have, but that gear was too heavy, with the weight of 30kg, it made that spell bouncing jacket was not comfortable enough for everyday life. That was why it took me quite a long time to decide.
"It's alright, I will buy it for you. If I can't buy just this for my cute little sister, what kind of big sister am I?" Barbara grabbed both sets of clothes and put them in her basket before I could put them back on their respective shelves. Then she showed off her ID card proudly... 5,000 credits turned my niece into this, huh?
"You know it’s for an entire month, right? And they’ll only give you 1,000 credits next month." I grabbed the edge of her basket and tried to warn her to spend more prudently. I also noticed that in her basket were a lot of other clothes. When did she have time to pick out her own dresses?
"That means I got 4,000 credits extra for shopping!" She replied back and pulled the basket away... Barbara was beyond help, I realized. At that moment, I was afraid of what would happen if she knew that I had around 600,000 credits on me.
"And besides, I’ve always wanted a little sister to spoil. So please, let me do it." She turned back midway, bent down to my eye level, and patted my head. My niece was so cute... Wait, I had to stand my ground, so I looked at Pristia for help, but she just nodded sagely again and said something like she understands Barbara completely.
The cashier announced that it was 1,405 credits in total for all the clothes inside that basket. Damn, that was almost 30 percent of her income. Pristia also bought a fancy pajamas for me which I never asked for.
Their spending streak didn't end there. They entered the cosmetics shop next.
"Whoa, a magical cream!" Barbara exclaimed as she read the label of the first package she picked up. I was sure that it was an advertisement scheme. It couldn't be anything magical, right? ... Wait, this was a fantasy world, so anything was possible.
I let Barbara leave with Pristia, into the deeper part of the shop before I curiously tiptoed and grabbed the cream in question. Maybe I could research something from this.
One for all™
Super long lasting
All day fabulous
One for four formula
Foundation, concealment, primer, and skin nourishment
SPF 25
30 mL
What’s so magical about it? And that was everything written on the bottle. There wasn’t even an ingredients label or instructions on how to use. Moreover, what were these foundation and primer things? Weren't they sold in bulk in a hardware store? Holy crap, the price tag said that this tiny bottle cost a whooping 33 credits, that was about three panties!
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"Uhm, little miss. This section is for adult uses, it might not be safe for a girls' skin." A saleswoman approached me. Heh, she realized that I already saw through her evil marketing scheme and tried to cover it up, huh?
"We have a great selection for girls and tweenagers in that corner." She added. I looked over to where she pointed, but I found a shelf decorated with vibrant pink, purple, and green... This world seemed to like kids too much, even in its cosmetics shops they also had a girl's corner.
"No, thank you, I was just looking around." I returned the expensive fraud product in my hand to her and ran after my sisters. I'll protect them from these crooked merchants.
With that in mind, I patiently watched them take a long time to test out a few dozen products and discussing something lengthily with a shopkeeper. The worst part of it all was when they tried out several perfumes.
"ACHOO!" I sneezed violently at a perfume called ‘Breath of the Queen’ that Barbara tried out. I'm sorry for the queen that’s mentioned in the name, but it smelled horrible.
"Please don't buy it." I begged Barbara as my eyes began watering. She sniffed where she sprayed that toilet water again and put the accursed bottle back. But to my horror, I saw her smirk and heard her mumble something like, "Kuro repellant spotted."
"It’s 506 credits in total, miss." Even with a lot of dissuasion from me, Barbara still spent a lot. Well, I might’ve annoyed her a bit when I told her that I could mix some foundation, primer, and concealer from a hardware store for her in place of that cream. But that hardly warranted a reply with something like, "If you do that, I will spray that ‘Breath of the Queen’ on you." She looked like she wasn’t joking either.
After that, we spent a lot more time window shopping. It was surprisingly fun to fool around just us three girls. To put it simply, it felt more relaxed and fun, rather than a chore of everyday groceries that I always do.
Hmm, was this feeling alright for me? I was a man, more importantly, I was Barbara's uncle. Wasn't it my job to supervise her properly? Wow, these panties look great! I'll have Barbara try them on. Guhehehe...
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"Yay! A game center!" Barbara ran to the game center as soon as she spotted it. Well, I saw it a few times as I walked past it, but I always hurriedly went on to other businesses. Alright, let's see what this world's game center was like.
As we entered, I realized that this game center was painfully empty. There were around twenty game stations, and there were only four people playing on them.
Out of all players before us, there was a couple playing a first-person shooting game together that were sticking out like a sore thumb. They sweetly supported each other while using their magic devices to shoot at a horde of zombies coming at them. Ahh, most dishonourable zombie kind, please do your best to get them...
"Kuro, let's play some games together!" Barbara suddenly pulled me to the biggest Gamestation in the center.
I was wondering what this thing was. It looked like a silver platform with nothing on it. but as Barbara swiped her card on the machine, a holographic projection appeared around us... It seemed to be a dance game.
"Scan completed, begin stage 1 in 3... 2... 1... Go!" A synthetic voice announced after a mesh of laser beam moved up and down. 'This thing looks so futuristic.' was what I thought when the music started.
Normally, in this kind of game there would be a keypad on the floor for players to step on. This place, however, had none of that.
"Tap the green marker with your hands, and yellow marker with your feet." Pristia shouted from the sidelines.
"What about red markers?" I asked Pristia as I saw a couple of holographic markers that was floating in the air just turned red.
"Just ignore them, it means you are too late for those markers or you tapped it wrong." She replied. Oh, that was how you played this game, huh?
We played smoothly after that. Barbara seemed to be a natural dancer. She was so cool and elegant in her dance. Compared to me, I was like a cat trying to catch a laser pointer.
To be honest, it was fun. I liked it most when I caught those markers and they blew up like fireworks. Pristia also took out her huge ass camera and snapped its shutter rapidly as we played.
"Oh, look at those two girls, aren't they cute?" Passerbys and other games' players began to notice us and gathered around. That made me begin to feel self-conscious, but Barbara told me not to mind them and have fun.
"Hell mode begins!" The synthetic voice announced as I got a perfect score on several consecutive stages. The hell mode was difficult, I had to tap around four markers per second to catch up with the game. Barbara also struggled with sweat sexily clinging to her body. I still had some room to spare but a shout almost threw me out of the rhythm.
"Do your best, my cute catgirl!" A gang of nerd like people suddenly cheered me on. Plus, for some reason they wore an embarrassing pink hairband and were waving a strange flag. When did they get here? And please stop that, your behavior is too distracting!
"Boom! Game over!" I pulled my focus back to the game as I heard that, but to my surprise, I still hadn’t lost. I turned to Barbara and saw her sitting on the floor.
"No, don't stop! Do your best!" She panted. She seemed to be serious about this game for some reason, so as her cool uncle, I had to do my best.
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"Wow, isn't this level 80 already? What is the top score?" After a while, I learned the game's patterns and began to choreograph my move ahead of time, then the game became easier again. However, what worried me most was the group of people that began to gather.
Not everyone around the dance platform were wearing those nerdy pink costumes though. In fact, those pink people were just the minority, but the problem was Pristia joining them for some reason. Damn, please stop corrupting my sister, you villains. And why would they call Pristia their leader? It must be some kind of scam. I gritted my teeth and was debating whether or not to jump down and whack them all, but the holographic markers suddenly stopped coming and everywhere around me was filled with specks of light and fireworks.
"Boom! Congratulations, you cleared the game! Please enter your name in the hall of fame." The disembodied voice announced with a lot of holographic confetti falling from the ceiling. Oh, it seemed I had become a top-scorer or something.
I typed K and u on the floating virtual keyboard, but I changed my mind and deleted them. I couldn't type Kuro Velvori here, right? Otherwise a lot of people here would know my catgirl disguise. Hmm, lets see... Ah, I could use that.
I entered the name and pressed enter. Then the platform projected a list of top scorer players.
Dance Dance Extreme Hall of fame
1st..... Noir ............................................ 9,999,999,999 pt.
2nd... Jack Rabbit.................................... 8,824,326,122 pt.
3rd.... Sir Dance A Lot.............................. 2,789,723,001 pt.
4th... Mary Loo ....................................... 2,411,555,327 pt.
It was difficult to get away from the crowd, but I finally managed it by removing my cat ears and hiding my cat tail. For some reason, Noir seemed to be more popular than me. It was as expected of my favorite waifu.