Izumi looked her over, mentally preparing a to-do list for Ranko’s foray into femininity. “Okay. Let’s start with the basics. I couldn’t help but notice that you don’t usually wear a bra.” She had no doubt that some of the bar’s patrons had noticed, too, and she didn’t much like the way it made some of them look at Ranko. “Do you not want to, or do you just not have any?”
The redhead shook her head. “I left home with basically the clothes on my back.” It was the most effective way she could think of to say “why not both?” without betraying her utter lack of feminine experience. Her eyes were filled with shame, not just at her lack of appropriate undergarments, but also at the destitute state she had been in when Hana and the girls had rescued her from her own brash stupidity.
“Okay. That’s easy enough to fix. Do you know your size?”
Ranko just shook her head in response.
Izumi nodded. Whoo. Okay. Really started from ground zero, huh? “Okay. That’s easy too. We’ll start there.” She began leading Ranko toward another shop in the plaza. She pushed open the door to a store that seemed to deal exclusively with womens’ unmentionables. Ranko’s stomach turned, both at the reality that she would need things like this, and at just how much this place looked like Happosai’s bedroom.
“Okay, what do we do?” Ranko took a deep breath, preparing herself for an adventure.
Izumi smiled, trying to will some confidence into her protege. “Okay, so we need to figure out your size. To do that, we need to get you measured. Normally, the shop clerks help with that. They’ll have you, ya know, pull your boobs out, and they’ll take two measurements, one around them and one under them. The under measurement is the number on the size, and the around measurement determines the letter. So, a 30B and a 30D have the same body size, but the D has bigger breasts. Make sense?”
Ranko nodded. “So, I have to get undressed then?” She blushed. Feminine modesty had never really been a thing for her before, but the vulnerability of her new permanent state had given her a new perspective on such things.
Izumi smiled. “Yep, but they do it in one of those private booths there. You ready?”
Ranko swallowed. “As I’m gonna be.”
Izumi took her hand and led her to the counter, waving down a twenty-something shop girl who was doing a word search with the tiniest nub of a pencil. “Hello, good afternoon! Can you help us, please? My little sister needs a hand getting her measurements.” Ranko didn’t know if she’d ever stop blushing at being called anybody’s little sister.
The clerk put her puzzle down, picking up a fabric measuring tape from a drawer behind the counter. “Sure thing. C’mon, hon.” She motioned Ranko toward one of the fitting rooms. Ranko looked back to Izumi as if for rescue, but got nothing more than a reassuring smile.
The clerk, whose name tag read Taiko, closed and locked the fitting room door behind them. “Alrighty. Let’s pull down your dress just a bit, okay?” Ranko shrunk a little tentatively, turning her back to the clerk and starting to slide her arms out of her sleeves. She shivered visibly as it slid down her body, goosebumps forming all over her sensitive skin at the additional exposure to the air.
Taiko reached around her with the measuring tape, tucking it under her breasts and calling out a number. She then wrapped it again, this time around her breasts. Ranko was grateful that Izumi had warned her what to expect, or the poor woman might have gotten herself clocked. “Okay, all done, you can pull your dress back up now, hon.”
Ranko gratefully complied.
“Alright, let’s show you what we’ve got in your size.” The clerk opened the stall door and led the diminutive redhead to a wall rack, motioning to a row of wall pegs and three drawers. “These are going to be what you need.” Izumi caught up with them, taking note of the size indicated.
“Thank you!” Ranko managed a smile, despite being both embarrassed and nervous as hell. She felt like a pervert even handling this stuff, but she tried to coach herself that she was a girl now - a woman, as of today - and this was perfectly normal. Or at least it was supposed to be.
Taiko walked off, and Izumi knelt on the floor so she could more easily rummage through the drawers. “Okay. Like the purse, we probably want to start you off with some neutral colors that go with everything.” She pulled a fairly basic black bra, with a small white bow attached to the bottom band. “Here, this isn’t too over the top.” Digging a little further, she pulled out another, this one a pastel pink, with more of a lacy design. “This one’s nice for when you want something a little more fun.”
Ranko took them in her hands, and one of the straps popped loose from the pink one. “Damn, I broke it!”
Izumi looked up and giggled. “No, honey, let me show you.” She unhooked the other end of the strap from the bra, then reconnected it. “This is so if you’re wearing something where your shoulders aren’t covered, you can wear it without straps. It’s a little less supportive that way, but it’s a necessity for certain outfits.” Ranko nodded; she couldn’t help but feel like she should be taking notes.
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“Let’s see, one more should give you a decent variety to get started. How about this?” Izumi handed up a white bra that was identical to the black one, but with the colors inverted. “You’ll want some light colors so it doesn’t show through when you wear lighter shirts and dresses.” Ranko nodded absently – right now, she felt that it might be easier to learn how to land a rocket on Mars than to dress properly like a girl.
Izumi stood. “Okay, that sorts that. Do you need bottoms?” Ranko squinted for a moment, then blushed. She meant panties. Girls’ underwear. She’d only done that once or twice. She nodded, a bit humiliated to admit it. Izzi stood from the floor. “Okay, that’s easier. We know you fit in my clothes, so it’s fair to guess you wear the same size I do.”
She led Ranko to a bin, picking up two plastic bags, each containing six pairs of relatively simple panties in assorted colors. “This’ll be a good start. Oh, one more thing.” She walked back over to the bra section, opening a drawer near the ones she had looked through before, and drawing out a pair of light pink lace panties that were a perfect match for the bra she picked out before. “Here. For everyday stuff, you can do whatever’s clean and comfortable, but when you want to feel extra cute, you’ve gotta be able to match.” She smiled brightly. Ranko could tell she was really enjoying this, and she was – well, she was trying to. She couldn’t imagine a scenario where she would care to be “extra cute” in her underwear, but better not to push back.
“Do you like this stuff? You don’t have to go with things just because I picked them.” Izumi smiled reassuringly at her new little sister.
Ranko looked around the racks, trying to see if anything appealed to her. She still felt dirty just looking at this stuff; the majority of the times she had even held a bra or panties involved retrieving them from Happosai’s hoard for their owners. “I mean, it’s new to me, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.” Ranko blushed demurely.
“Okay. Let’s get these checked out, and then you can put something on now if you want.” Izumi took the items back from her companion, darting to the checkout counter and returning in a few moments with a bag and a receipt. “Okay. Do you want to get changed now, or wait?”
Ranko looked over the bag. Izumi did just buy this stuff for her; she’d hate to seem ungrateful. She reached for the handles, and taking it from Izzi, she headed to the fitting room. Removing her dress, she looked at herself in the mirror, braless and wearing nothing but her shoes and her ever-present yellow boxers. She had to admit, it did look kind of ridiculous. She looked in the bag, debating what to choose. Her eyes landed on the pink set. It wouldn’t be my first choice, she thought to herself, but Izumi is working super hard to cute me up, so I should probably play along. She slipped off her boxers and pulled the panties up over her legs. The slippery slither of the satin, coupled with the slight scratch of the lace trim against her hypersensitive skin, sent a not-unpleasant shiver up her spine.
Now, for the bra. Moment of truth. She wrapped it around herself, reaching behind her back and fumbling for the clips. What idiot designed these things to latch in the back where you can’t see?
Izumi sat in a chair outside the fitting room, when she heard a loud thud against the stall door. “Dammit!” Another clumsy thump echoed from the stall as Ranko bumped into the wall, trying to fight with the garment.
Izumi stifled a giggle; it wasn’t nice to laugh at her just because she hadn’t had the opportunity to learn these things before. “Ranko, honey,” she said quietly to avoid embarrassing her, “do you need a hand?”
A few seconds of silence, followed by another thud, and then a defeated “yes, please.” came from the stall.
Izumi heard the door lock unlatch and quickly stepped in, closing the door behind her. She could tell from Ranko’s face that she was truly mortified to be in this state. “Hey…” Ranko looked away. “Hey!” Izumi’s more insistent tone got her attention. “What did we talk about? There’s no need to be embarrassed. Every single girl has struggled with this the first few times. Every last one.” She gave Ranko a gentle hug of reassurance, and felt the smaller girl shiver in her arms. Ranko must have been cold, she thought – she definitely never fathomed the effect that the Full Body Cat’s Tongue pressure point would have on bare nipples brushing against the faux fur trim of Izumi’s coat.
Releasing her, Izumi continued. “Can I show you a trick to help?” Ranko nodded emphatically, her face afire from the overwhelming sensation that had rocketed through her a moment before. Izumi spun the strap around on her body, so that the clasps now joined in front of her, just under her breasts. “Look, now we can see what we’re doing. Go ahead and clip them on whatever row is most comfortable.” As Ranko complied, she continued. “Great, now we can spin it around to the back, and then all we have to do is put our arms through the straps and voila!” The redhead shook her head – she couldn’t believe it was that simple, and she’d made it so complex purely through her intimidation.
She looked at the full-length mirror in the dressing stall, and she had to admit, Izumi was right. It was, in fact, pretty cute. For a real girl, anyway. Which she totally, really was, she reminded herself again. She blushed at the sight of her own reflection, and Izumi leaned over her shoulder so her face could be seen in the mirror. “Not bad, huh?”
Ranko shook her head, a little shell-shocked. “C’mon, get dressed, we’ve got more stops to make.” Ranko threw the dress over her shoulders and pulled it back into place. She checked herself out in the mirror once more, quite surprised at what a difference her new undergarments made in her shape even through her clothes. She didn’t look like a boy in a dress anymore, and she didn’t feel like she was cross-dressing like she always had in the past. She was just a girl, and a pretty one and that. She adjusted the bow in her hair, which had been knocked slightly askew when she put her dress back on. “Good?”
Izumi looked her over approvingly. “You bet. Let’s go, gorgeous.”
Izumi stepped out of the stall, carrying their shopping bag. Ranko looked down at the floor, where her yellow boxers lay at her feet. She picked them up, looking at them contemplatively for a moment, before dropping them into the small pink trash can in the corner of the stall and following Izumi.