Fame

Shigure kept glancing behind him even after they'd left the hotel, and even after they'd gotten into another egg taxi. He'd also taken the suitcase. It was busy during this time of the... day...? But while vehicular flow was heavy, it never seemed to stop. "What's wrong?" Stella asked.

"Staying in that hotel was a bad idea, that's what."

"But you stayed in my house."

"I—you know what I mean." He sighed. Shigure pressed his forehead against the window of the egg. "What did you do when you found those things under the... never mind, I feel like I know the answer already. That's what I get for being cheap. No wonder it was basically empty. With my luck..."

"I understand."

"Do you."

"That hotel was a front for a criminal syndicate selling illicit—"

"That's a movie. Stella." He sniper stared at her from the corners of his eyes.

Why be so secretive about it? Because of the driver? Was the driver part of this organization? How did Shigure know? Was he part of the syndicate it all made sense now that's why he wore suits and had that gangster scar and such an aesthetically pleasing physique and was trying to escape his past but his past was catching up to him just like in—

"Not that movie." He also had telepathy. "You're thinking of one where the side character was social worker and nothing else. Nothing else, before you get any ideas."

"Hmph." Stella liked her scenario better.

They were silent for some time. Fine, maybe he wasn't a movie gangster. He just happened to really look and act like one, be a criminal, and know how they operated. Made perfect sense...

...but then again, could drug syndicates even exist in this snow globe? Everything seemed to be so... controlled. If people could have AI devices forcibly implanted into them that sent alarms to men on phones whenever said people acted vaguely suspicious, then how could anyone commit a crime? She got it, though. Best not to ask in this place, at this time.

"By the way, Stella, did you like any shop in particular? I put a list on the instructions I showed you earlier."

She'd been too busy having an ethical dilemma to notice. "The first one looked good."

"Really? What was the name?" When Stella failed to respond, Shigure smiled at her.

***

Stella's neighborhood looked like the one in the movie with the guy who had scissor hands. Everything else in the snow globe looked relatively Japanese. Maybe? Once Stella bought balls of her own, she'd research more on the subject. Her knowledge of Japan began and ended with nukes. She said this to Shigure, who told her to never say that again in public.

The shopping center was neither pastel nor Japanese; it looked like a cubist painting. It sounded like one, too, especially when Shigure hummed along to the background music. He probably only did this because of how empty the place was. Then again, it was the middle of the morning and most people weren't jobless bums like Stella. "Clothes first," she said, "Then peach pie, milk, and coffee ingredients."

"Sure. From what I read, there's only two people running this thing. They'll get an alert once you walk into a shop, so just go wherever you feel like. They'll show up eventually. I'll follow along."

Stella went to the underwear shop.

"Of fucking course."

There were two other customers inside, plus who Stella strongly suspected was 'one of the people running this thing' since she stood behind the counter. "Given your arbitrary morals," Stella said, as they reached the entrance, "I was about to suggest you wait outside, but then I remembered I don't know how to access my fortune."

"You just have to log in to... ugh..."

"But you can access it, correct? Isla could."

Shigure handed her his phone, but before she could take it, he snatched it back. "Never mind. Terrible idea. I'll just go with you."

So then the underwear shop had four women and one man. The other two customers chattered among themselves. They looked and were ageless. Shigure, meanwhile, sat on a red, heart-shaped cushion, where he played games on his phone. He'd probably stay there until Stella asked him to pay.

...so... what did she have to do? Grab one? Tell the owner that she wanted it? But what if it didn't fit?  She stood beside the waffling girls, but unfortunately, they spoke in a language Stella's modules couldn't translate.

"Need help?"

"Yes," Stella blurted out, and only then did she notice that the owner, who'd walked over to her side, was none other than Irina, who had her hands on her hips, dirty blond hair tumbling freely down her back, and a ribbon on one of her cat ears. That last bit looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Good morning!" She said, despite the self-imposed torture. "Any style you're looking for in particular?"

Stella couldn't stop staring at Irina's ear. "Ribbon..."

"Something lacy? Sure." Since she was almost a head taller than Stella, she had no trouble reaching for the items near the top of the display. "How about this one?" That bra sure had ribbons. "No? Hmm... this one?" That one had slightly less ribbons. "How about this one?"

Did Irina not recognize her? Because if she did, she'd probably be scared. Right? After all, the entire neighborhood had signed an eviction notice. "That one's fine," Stella said, because it was. "Shigure?"

"Hm? You ready?" He looked up, then flinched, probably because he recognized Irina.

Before Stella could feel dumb for not thinking things through, however, Irina waved at him. "Hello, Mr. Stella."

"Uh... hello." Shigure and Stella exchanged glances.

"Why so shy? Did you think I wouldn't recognize you two?"

He nudged his head, as if to say, talk. Stella shot him a look. "No," she said. "Yes. Hello." She'd had better moments. "Why aren't you scared?"

"Of?"

"Me?"

Stella might as well have told Irina doing that to her ear could cause irreparable damage; such was the way her face fell. "Aw... no, I'm not. If you're talking about yesterday... I mean... it did surprise me when you shot lasers from your fingers—"

"It was just one."

"—but after you left, everyone kind of... just did the same. I don't know. Awww." Out of nowhere, Irina hugged her. Half of Stella's processors shut down at once. "I'm sorry. You too, Mr. Stella. C'mere."

"I'm good," he said.

Irina waddled over to him, with Stella still in her arms.

"Really," he said. "I'm fine. Please. No. Please."

So then Stella was the ham in a sandwich. Thankfully, this didn't last for long. If Shigure could've bristled, he would've. "Asaba actually defended you," Irina continued. "He and Mrs. Aoyama were the only ones. I would've, but... yeah. I'm a coward. I don't know. I'm really sorry. I was planning on pretending like nothing happened, but... yeah. I was more shocked than afraid, personally. I promise."

Without thinking, Stella skidded next to Shigure. He sat, she stood. Again, they exchanged glances. He was the one who spoke this time. "It's fine. To be honest, I probably would've reacted the same way." Lies.

The other two girls were leering at them and clearly gossiping, but since nobody else seemed to notice or care, Stella didn't bring this up. "Maybe," Irina replied. She had her hands on her hips again. "Underground boxer, eh? Back on Earth?"

Shigure took a moment to respond. "Yeah."

"Oh, sorry. Touchy subject. And you, Stella? What kinds of things did you do? Shoot lasers, and...? What else?"

"Nu—"

"She cooked," Shigure said. "She was the military... chef... something like that. It's a touchy subject for her, too, so."

Irina grinned. "Ah, sorry. For what it's worth, you two are not the only ones with shady pasts. Asaba was in the mafia for—" She cleared her throat. After a pause, Irina added, "He told me not to tell anyone. Pretend you never heard that. Oh, yeah, and Tsukiko was a gambling champion. I don't even know how you become a champion at luck, but she has trophies and all, and apparently she's even banned in a lot of casinos."

Something told Stella that Isla and Irina would get along. Their names even started with the same letter.

...wait.

...Stella... Shigurebob...

"Let's just get back to work," Irina said. By this, she meant choosing out.. fits? Underfits? Stella just kind of let Irina pick whatever. In the end, these garments weren't meant to be that showy anyway. Shigure just kind of went back to his phone games, which made sense, since he lacked the structures to wear these. 

The problem was that, when Stella went to try them on, none of them fit. 

She told this to Irina, who responded, "Oh, my. I mean... yeah, that makes sense. They're pretty big. Your shirt is pretty frilly, so I just hadn't noticed."

"They're pretty big," Stella told Shigure.

"Cool," he replied.

"Hmph."

Irina snorted. "So he's one of those, huh?"