Riho checked her mail and found among the spam bills a large letter with a wax seal.

“Hmm? What's this...awfully fancy to be mixed in with the rest of this...”

She took it back home before opening it. Inside was a handwritten invitation to an art gala! Riho blanched, she wasn't usually the type to attend such things. She wondered why this had been delivered to her, when she checked the name: Kumi Nagi.

Her shoulders sagged and she sighed, there was no way she was going to get out of it. Another thought crossed her mind, and before she could even finish it her phone buzzed.

The name she had set for that number appeared in a notification: Dumb Mazoku.

She had a feeling she knew what Kikyo was going to say before she read it, and she sighed again.

'Nagi-san sent me an invite to a really fancy nice art party thing what should I do?!' it read.

Riho was about to reply when a second message appeared, 'I don't have anything to wear...'

Riho thought about this for a moment, she was in the same boat, and it had been some time since they had met. She still had a lot of conflicting feelings towards the Mazoku girl, but she no longer hated her just for existing, that much she was sure of.

She bit her lip, and entered a line of text.

'Want to go shopping together? I'm in a similar spot myself...'

Immediately the reply came, in the form of a sticker depicting a cat with 'OK!' in large letters next to it.

“Hoh? Look at thee, taking the initiative. I'm sure the Mazoku maid knows how difficult that must be for thee as well,” Lasrefel encouraged. This reassured Riho a little, but she also felt embarrassed. She had the intentions of being an adult, but it seemed like in the end she was treated like a child.

Her phone vibrated, another message from Kikyo: 'I'm glad you're going with me, you have good taste for stuff like this! Nagi says I have childish taste in clothes.'

“What's that supposed to mean,” Riho said with a smile, some of her embarrassment fading.

The next day they met up by the train station, they would be going to a large department store on the other side of Kiaba. Kikyo arrived first, and sent Riho a picture of the place she was waiting in. Upon arriving the first thing Riho noticed was that since they last met Kikyo had gotten bigger. She could probably same the same thing to her, but Kikyo's figure was noticeably heavier towards the bottom now, whereas Riho had maintained some level of balance. She felt a sense of victory, but didn't dare say as much to Kikyo's face. Kikyo on the other hand didn't pick up on any change in Riho's appearance at all, and herself felt a sense of victory at being the larger between the two. She kept this to herself, knowing that for a lady it was a strange thing to be proud of by normal standards.

“You look well,” Riho commented while checking the time, “Sorry I was late.”

“No, no, you're just in time!” Kikyo said, “I just like to come a little early to things like this.”

“Well, shall we enter the beast?” Riho asked, nodding towards the towering building a short distance away.

Kikyo gulped, “I'm as ready as I'll ever be...”

They made their way inside and up to the floor on which clothing was sold. Most of the climb was in relative silence, neither knowing what to say, especially with the crowds of people around them. When they finally reached their destination, Riho finally spoke.

“So how do you wanna go about this?”

Kikyo thought for a moment, “Let's wander around and pick out some things that jump out! I'll ask you for advice if I can't decide.”

Riho nodded, “Okay, let's meet at the fitting rooms then.”

“Got it!”

They separated, and a short time later me up in front of the fitting rooms. Riho stared in disbelief at the colorful pile in Kikyo's arms.

“No.” She said simply and strongly.

“Eh?!” Replied Kikyo looking genuinely confused.

“Absolutely not. If it was just for around town, I might compliment you for being cute, but this is an Art Gala,” Riho explained, “This might take longer than I thought...”

“Ehh...What should I look for then?” Kikyo, as a Mazoku and hailing from the bland gray scape of Makai was used to bright or pale colors being necessary to stand out against the land and architecture. Dark colors were usually for mourning or camouflage.

“Try blacks or browns. If you're that set on something bright, think whites or creams,” Riho replied without missing a beat.

“Eh, is that how it is?” Kikyo said, returning the things she had picked out to where she had found them, Riho instinctively followed her to continue the conversation.

“It is on Earth anyway,” she paused, noticing the care Kikyo was putting into putting back the garments, “Dutiful, aren't you...”

“Eh? Isn't that normal?!”

Riho smiled, “It should be, it was a compliment. Too few people do things that are 'normal.'”

Kikyo thought back to her irregular sense of victory and grimaced back, “Well, I can't say much else about me is 'normal.'”

Riho noticed a nice outfit and picked it up as Kikyo continued putting things back, “I think that's fine. How about this?” she held it up for Kikyo to see. It may have lacked the sense of color she was used to, but it had intricate accents of leather-like designs around the waist, shoulders and sleeves.

“Ooh that could be nice!”

They spent a while longer looking together, Riho assisted in tuning Kikyo's senses to Earthen trends.

“That should be plenty for our first set, let's go actually try them on,” Riho suggested.

“Okay!” came the energetic reply.

The returned to the fitting rooms and began to try on the outfits they had picked out. Riho made Kikyo go first so that she could give her opinion on each one first. However almost immediately a problem presented itself.

“Riiihooo...” Kikyo cried piteously, poking her head out of the fitting room door.

“What is it?”

Kikyo stepped out a bit, and Riho immediately saw the problem. The dress, which should have come down to Kikyo's shins only made it to her thighs.

“Ah...Yeah, that's a problem...Give me a minute!” Riho replied, and quickly made her way back to the section it had come from, she grabbed the next size up and brought it to the embarrassed Mazoku.

It still didn't make it quite as far as Riho had imagined, but it just passed her knees so Riho thought it was a winner.

“Alright, give me a twirl,” Riho demanded.

“Eh?! Do I have to?” Kikyo said nervously.

“Better now than at the Gala, right?”

“Mmmmm...” Kikyo didn't have answer to her sound logic.

She spun timidly, the dress stayed down keeping all the important things hidden. Though it did sit rather tightly around Kikyo's hips.

“Good, but let's try the next one.”

Riho had expected as much, but the next outfit clung too tightly to her frame, making her look chunkier than she was.

“Next,” she said.

Kikyo was looking at her reflection and didn't seem to hear her.

“Oi, Kikyo,” Riho called.

She flinched, “Ah!? S-sorry, what did you say?”

“Next one, let's go.”

“Y-yes ma'am!”

Riho thought her reactions were a little odd, but didn't give it much heed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The next one, a full black dress with frilly sleeves and lace accents had the reverse effect. Head on, Kikyo looked almost as slim as she had when she had arrived on Earth.

“This is the one!” Riho said.

Kikyo looked disappointedly at the mirror, “Really?”

“What don't you like about it?” Riho asked, genuinely confused.

“Eh!? Ah!! Nothing, it's fine!” Kikyo said quickly, “I-I do like black a lot! Ha ha, mm. I'll get this one!”

“What kind of reaction is that? If you really don't like it we can keep looking...”

Kikyo grabbed her arm, “No, it's really fine, I love it. It's your turn now!”

Riho didn't quite get what was going on, but she was happy to move on if Kikyo was that desperate.

“Okay then...My turn it is.”

Kikyo's comments were all positive and didn't give Riho any real bearing on how she looked objectively. That was one of Kikyo's good points, but not very helpful for choosing the best out of several options. In fact she felt one of the outfits, one that pulled tightly across her stomach got a higher compliment than one nicely masked her rotund form.

In the end she too settled for her first choice, which had received the most neutral praise from Kikyo and was neither too tight or too loose.

“Alright, now that we've decided let's head out,” Riho said.

“Okay!” Kikyo said, “Wanna get lunch after this?” she asked.

Riho gave her a side eye, then acquiesced, “Sure. What do you have in mind?”

“Wasn't there a food court a few floors down?”

“Ah there was wasn't there, let's check out then head down then.”

They regrouped by the escalator and headed down. The food court was crowded, and lines for all of the restaurants were long.

“Aww, it's so crowded,” said Kikyo in disappointment.

“Maybe it's for the best, the Gala's in a few days but if you really over did it that new dress could go to waste.”

Such a thought scared and excited Kikyo, but scared won out. It was an expensive dress and she needed something to wear to the Gala.

“Want to come over to my apartment again? I can cook you something,” she offered.

“Sounds good,” Riho said, wondering what kind of food Kikyo would cook. She had assumed the Mazoku was like her, living off of SupaEats.

“Did you ever find a job?” Riho asked, remembering their talk at the festival.

“No! Which is why I ended up learning to cook...Just playing games and drawing got boring after a while so I wanted to mix things up.”

“You can draw?”

“Ehh...I'm working on it. I like to draw, would be more accurate. If I could make money off it somehow I'd like to, but I dunno if I'm good enough yet...”

“Heeh? I heard something good,” Riho said, “For me work is the same as ever...If anything has changed, I get along with the other two better now. The job itself is still a pain though...”

“It's good that you're getting along with them now! I was worried after our first battle that you'd just outright refuse to interact with anyone!”

“I thought about it, but overconfidence has taken down many a hero so even then I at least pretended to be friendly,” she suddenly stopped, she had just shared that so naturally.

“Riho?”

“It's nothing...” Riho said, mystified. She had no intentions of becoming friends with Kikyo...she had thought.

“Hey.”

“Mm?”

“Are we friends?” Riho asked Kikyo all of the sudden.

“Eh?!” Kikyo thought for a moment, “I-if you want to be? You helped me out a lot today...”

Riho gave it some thought, then shook her head, “No, not yet. Something must be wrong with me today.”

“Oh...Okay...” Kikyo said, a little disappointed.

“But, well...Nevermind,” Riho walked quickly in front of her, now that she knew the way to Kikyo's apartment she could take the lead.

A part of her didn't want to lose to Kikyo, whatever that meant at this point. For now giving in and calling a Mazoku a friend felt like stepping over a line that she wasn't ready to cross. Though she did feel bad for bringing it up only to shoot it down herself. For that on the way to Kikyo's apartment she bought her a cake.

“Eh?! Are you sure?”

“I feel bad, so just take it...”

Kikyo didn't know what to say so she took the cake and kept a big grin plastered on her face.

Kikyo had finally gotten a table and a few chairs, enough for herself Maji and Komomo to sit in.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Riho asked.

“Can you cook the rice?” Kikyo asked, already pulling out ingredients and pans.

Riho's gaze flicked over to the rice cooker in the corner, “I think I can manage it,” she said, despite having only ever used the one at work.

Kikyo, while cutting vegetables and seasoning the meat they would be using asked, “Will you really be alright? That wasn't a very confident response...”

Riho had picked up the rice cooker and turned it upside down to see the safety labels and use instructions.

“What are you doing?” Kikyo asked, finally looking up.

“Making sure I know what I'm doing,” came the flat response.

“Ah...well, do your best...” Kikyo said, tilting her head, “You could've just asked me...?”

“But then you'd have to stop what you're doing and show me, right?” Riho replied, still investigating the labels.

“I guess that's fair. You're serious at the strangest times...”

“I'm always serious!” came the joking reply.

Kikyo found herself smiling, “Eh, is that true?”

“I've got it!” Riho declared, returning the rice cooker to its proper position, “Of course it's true, it brought me all the way here!”

They prepared the meal to the point until they had to wait for it to be cooked through, and in the meantime played on Kikyo's S4ND 7, which was Riho's first video game experience. Akiho wasn't a fan of arcades and until recently she had been slightly evasive of Ikue Airu.

“What does 'sand 7' even mean?” Riho asked first of all.

“Ah, you're gonna ask that?” Kikyo said smugly, “It stands for Stand alone 4-core Network Device, and it's the seventh model.”

“What's a 'network device?'”

“Uhh, I guess that just means it can connect to the internet? I acted all smug, but I don't really know all the details. We should ask Maji sometime, he seems to know about these things.”

Riho recoiled a little, unsure if she would be able to participate in a conversation with him present, “Um, sure...”

Eventually the food was ready and they sat down to eat. Both gave thanks in unison and looked up at each other in shock. This was the first time they'd eaten together, so it wasn't surprising that they hadn't seen this side of the other.

“So they do that in Makai too...” Riho said softly.

“I'm sorry...” Kikyo said out of nowhere.

“Mn?! Why?”

“I thought Pririponians would be all stuck up and not do that either...”

Riho laughed, “Really? I guess that means we really do know next to nothing about each other...I guess it makes sense though, Otomi Mao was originally from Priripon and all.”

They continued with playful banter until Riho felt it was time to go home. She said goodbye and headed back to her own apartment.

“I had more fun than I thought...” she buried her head in her pillow, unsure how to feel, but most of all looking forward to the Art Gala in a few days.