Haze leads us to a vet, and I drop off the little kit. The vet lady was very friendly and understanding. She said it would be at least a couple of hours before she finished healing the little kit and that we should go and keep busy until she was done. Reluctantly I agreed to keep shopping and left the vet.
“Where to now?” I asked, and Cami brightened.
She pointed down the street. Back the way, we came to a shop on the opposite side of the street. “We should go shopping for clothes!” then she took me by the arm and pulled me along, bubbling with excitement. Haze just chuckled and followed after us.
The shop was full of shelves with clothes on all of them. Anything from simple PJs to formal ceremonial clothing. I had to admit I did need new clothing. Wearing my only gi all the time is pretty nasty, but at least it’s cleaned every day. I immediately went to the PJs and picked out two purple PJs with little red cartoon foxes on them. They’re a little on the nose, but I liked them, and I got them a couple of sizes bigger so I can wear them for a long while.
Bundling up the clothes in my arm, I turned and saw Cami as she grabbed my arm excitedly and said, “All though those are cute PJs. You need something far more important.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Like what?”
Without answering, Cami pulled along to the opposite side of the shop, where the formal ceremonial clothing was folded up. One person stood in attendance next to a standing mirror. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and wore a professional-looking business suit with a long tape ruler and a collection of markers in her breast pocket. Her hazel hair was tied up in a bun, and she looked at us with an adoring smile as she pushed up her glasses.
“Hello, dears. I’m Qi Xiao. Can I help you with anything?” the woman asked.
“Yes, you can, Ms.Qi,” Cami answered matter of factly, “Can you make a cute Kimono for my friend here? One that will last quite a while.”
Ms.Qi looked me up and down and smiled, “I can indeed. But before I continue, can you tell me your budget for the Kimono?”
I looked down, “I don’t have much to spend for this.”
“I can supplement whatever you’re lacking,” Cami offered.
“Oh, no, no. I can’t ask you to do that.”
“No, I insist,” Cami countered.
“Really, I can’t—”
“Before you two finish hashing out the details,” Ms.Qi interrupted, “Just know that the minimum price is five-thousand Lucre.”
Cami and I bulked at the exorbitant price and hung our heads in disappointment. “I take it you can’t cover that much, can you?” I asked.
Cami shook her head, “No.”
“Oh, don’t despair. The premade Kimonos can be as little as one-hundred twenty Lucre,” Ms.Qi said apologetically.
“Thus making them worthless,” a familiar male voice said behind us. I turned to see Haze and Orrin standing a few paces behind us. Orrin had a shopping bag full of neatly folded clothes and another bag full of hats, specifically fedoras.
“Oh, sir Orrin. I didn’t see you there. My deepest apologies,” Ms.Qi said, a little flustered and giving a deep bow.
“It is quite all right, Ms.Qi,” Orrin said, sniffing the air, “Is that a new perfume you’re wearing? It smells divine. And did you get a haircut? Your barber did a marvelous job capturing your beauty.”
Ms.Qi blushed and waved a hand away as she fiddled with her hair, “Oh, why thank you for noticing, sir Orrin. Uhmm, what brings you down here?”
Orrin approached us and said, “I was picking up some custom-made clothing when I ran into a few of my friends. How are you doing today, Ms.Zeana? Ms.Cami?”
“I’m doing good, Orrin. We were just shopping around for stuff,” I answered.
“And I take it you want to buy a Kimono?”
“Well, it would be nice to have, but—”
Before I could finish, Orrin interrupted me and said, “Please, Ms.Qi, if you would make your best Kimono for young Ms.Zeana and Cami, I will cover the bill.”
“What?! No, no. It’s fine, really,” I protested.
Orrin scoffed, “Nonsense. Consider it a gift. You can pay me back with a thrilling fight in the tournament.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded and said, “Thank you so much, Orrin.”
“It is my pleasure, Zeana. And be sure to visit a barber. Your hair is becoming quite unkempt. It will do you some good. I suggest the barber one block down on the left. He’s my favorite,” Orrin said with a wink.
I nodded and thanked him again as Ms.Qi quickly pulled me in front of the mirror, told me to hold my arms out, and spread my legs while Orrin left the store. She quickly began measuring my legs, arms, height, waist, chest, shoulders, and so on. She finished about ten minutes later, writing down all the measurements while noting the wing holes in the back of my gi. Once she finished, I stepped away from the mirror, and Cami took my place.
While I waited for Cami to get measured, I continued shopping for clothes. Picking out a few casual options. I picked four shirts, one green, one blue, one red, and one purple. And I picked out three pairs of pants that fit me. One was a pair of black cargo pants, one just a regular pair of blue jeans that would fit right in back in my original world, and the last one was a pair of beige cargo shorts. In case you didn’t know, I like pockets, and my gi has none. Then finally, I picked out a purple jacket. Because purple.
Once Cami finished, we went to the counter with all the stuff we had picked out, fighting with Ms.Qi to let us buy it and not charge Orrin for our shopping. Finally, she relented, and I paid eighty-six Lucre for my stuff. Cami paid forty for two new pairs of pants, and Haze bought a new shirt for ten Lucre.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
According to Ms.Qi, it will be another hour before our Kimonos are done. So we left the store, bags in hand, and went to the barbershop. The shop had red, white, and blue stripes on the window, and at least a dozen people were waiting in line inside. Cami and I went in while Haze waited outside.
Three people were cutting hair in front of a mirror, and as soon as we came into one of them, a man took a moment to walk over to us. He had a slender build and wore a dress shirt, waistcoat, and apron. His hair was immaculately done and brushed back, and he had a well-trimmed curly mustache.
“Hello, my dears, came for a haircut?” the man asked, his voice a little high.
Cami nodded, “Yep, Orrin suggested this place.”
The man’s eyes widened as he turned to the back of the room and yelled, “Christoph! We have friends of Orrin!”
Cami and I looked past the man to either side and saw a man open a door at the back of the room. He looked like a mirror image of the man before us. Christoph clapped his hands together and said, in an exact vocal match to the first man, “Welcome! Ah, I see why Orrin sent you to us. Come, come, we have a lot of work to do.” Cami and I shared hesitant glances at each other and went to the back room of the barbershop.
***
One hour later, Christoph finished his work. It wasn’t just a haircut, though. It was almost a whole spa experience. Hair washed and trimmed, nails trimmed and filed, lavender skin moisturizer rubbed into our faces, and a foot wash and message for me. I had never felt so clean and slightly violated in my life, not including the time I spent in the bath with two grandmasters.
Christoph turned our chairs around, so we faced the mirror and saw his work. My hair was now half the length, just below my shoulder, and the ends of my hair quickly changed to white before my eyes. On the other hand, Cami now had curls in her hair, which was now neck length.
“Soooo,” Christoph began, “am I good or what?”
“So good!” Cami exclaimed.
I nodded, “Yeah, I like it.”
Christoph looked at me and winced, “Oh, I almost forgot.” He pulled out a long piece of string with red, blue, and yellow dyes coloring the length of it. Pulling my hair back and tying the string in a bow changed my look. Instead of just shoulder-length hair, I had a white bob cut with a fox-colored ponytail.
My smile grew, “I like this even more.”
“Fantastic! I knew I was good.”
He pulled the towels off us and let us get up. I turned to him and asked, “How much for the haircuts?” I asked, a little scared to know the answer.
“Normally, I would charge five hundred a pop, but since you’re friends of Orrin, It’ll be two-fifty.”
Cami and I gulped at a price but reluctantly complied and paid the man his dues. Then we left the barbershop as it was starting to get busy. Haze complimented us on our haircuts, and we returned to the vet, where they should be done taking care of my little kit.
The vet that took care of my kit walked out. She was a short and stocky old lady with a kind air around her. She smiled, “Welcome, back. You’re just in time.”
“Perfect,” I exclaimed, following her to the back room, where they had my little kit.
When she opened the door, my kit darted out of the room and jumped up to me, full of energy. I caught the little kit and hugged it as it squeaked with happiness and rubbed against me. “Aww,” the vet said, “she is adorable.”
“She?” I asked questioningly.
The ved nodded, “Yep. Do you not know what your pet is?” I shook my head. “Well, come on in and sit down. I’ll tell you everything we know about her,” she said.
I entered the room and sat in an empty chair beside an examination table. “So, what did you find?” I asked.
The vet pulled up an extra chair and took a deep breath, “Well, your new pet is called an ice fox. They are generally harmless unless you attack first, in which case, they will be very deadly. This one looks to be only a few months old. She was malnourished and maybe only had a few days to live. If you hadn’t brought her in here, she would have died. She had ticks all over her body. So, we extracted the ticks, gave her a trim, washed her, and gave her enough food and water to choke a horse. She just loved the water and bathing. It was adorable.”
“Thank you for doing all of that. How much will it cost me?” I asked hesitantly.
The vet raised her hands, “No, no. The Wong empire funds us and provides free pet care. You don’t owe us a single Lucre. But I want to know what you plan to name the little kit?”
I held the kit up and looked into her rubellite eyes, feeling her ribs and seeing the bulging stomach. I chuckled at the bulge and said, “I’ll name you Yuki.”
Yuki squeaked with approval, and I pulled her close for another hug. She was just so hugable, and she was super soft with the trimmed and washed fur. The vet laughed, “Ha! That seems like a fitting name for her.” I nodded in agreement and, on my way out, grabbed a few bags of kibble, which I did have to buy. Costing me another hundred Lucre.
With three bags of kibble and the bags of clothes, I couldn’t hold Yuki, so the little fox wrapped itself around my neck like a soft scarf and looked around excitedly as I walked out of the vet. Cami cooed happily as she saw Yuki and how cute she looked before taking a couple of the kibble bags. Then we went to the clothes store and placed everything on the counter or floor. Haze said she’d watch everything while we got our new clothes.
Ms.Qi quickly hastened us to the back of the store and brought us into a changing room. She pointed to the left room and said, “Zeana’s Kimono is in there,” then pointing to the right, “Cami’s Kimono is in there.”
We each went into our prospective rooms to change. I pulled open the curtain and saw a wooden box on a chair waiting for me to open it. I closed the curtain and opened the box, pulling out instructions on wearing the Kimono and tying the belt. I undressed as I read the instructions, much to Yuki’s displeasure, as she was currently on those clothes.
Once I was fully undressed, I began to put on the Kimono. This process took quite a while, but I wasn’t disappointed with the results. The Kimono went down to my feet in skirt length, and I could make it short if I folded some parts correctly. The Kimono was black, with white highlights along its trim and light blue lines weaved down the body of the Kimono. The belt was red and had a light blue ribbon in the back. The arms of the dress had long tassels that stopped at my knees with snowflakes every shade of blue sown into them. At the bottom of the box was a pair of wooden sandals, which I put on.
Once I finished getting dressed, Yuki jumped up to my shoulders and wrapped herself around me again. Completing the outfit. I walked out of the changing room and saw Cami’s Kimono. It was pink with purple flowers growing on green vines around her body, with a matching belt and bow. Cami gushed over the Kimonos, and I couldn’t help but join in and ask if I could wear mine out of the store. Ms.Qi didn’t stop us, and we left looking fabulous. By now, the sun was setting, and we decided to return to our rooms.
We finally returned to our room a long walk later with a lot of stuff, clothes, kibble, a box for Kimonos, etc. Haze handed me the key, and I opened the door walking into a pitch-black room. I flicked on the lights, which ran on chakra somehow, and screamed as everyone yelled, “SURPRISE!!!”
Shiro, Jax, Xiao, Scarlet, Leila, Shersha, Haze, and Cami had screamed that, and I looked around our room. The words happy birthday lined the ceiling, the beds were moved aside to make room for a table full of food and wrapped gifts, and Xiao held a small birthday cake with a single candle in the middle.
Yuki was shaking on my shoulders, and her claws dug into my collarbone, but I didn’t mind. I reached up and pet Yuki to calm her down as I said, “You guys! Wha-? Why? I—”
“We heard you talking to the twins before we left,” Jax said.
“So, Cami came up with a plan,” Xiao added.
“Just needed to get you out of the room,” Scarlet said, “Now, make a wish!”
Tears of joy welled up in my eyes as I set all my stuff down and turned to give Cami a big hug, which she returned happily. “Thank you so much,” I sobbed.
“You’re welcome. Because Haze probably won’t let you have another one for a while. So enjoy it while you can and make a wish already!” I let go of Cami, whipped the joyful tears from my eyes, turned, and blew out the candle. And I wished I could spend the rest of my life with these fantastic people I love as my only family.
***
Ding
Blockage 2/3 cleared