Ryuuto and the Cosplayer (2)

The car made its way through downtown Tokyo, as the scenery changed from towering skyscrapers, to government buildings, then to more suburban housing and trees, finally replaced by university buildings. At this point, most of the building and street lights have turned on, illuminating the area with their LED luminescence— as we got closer to campus, there were fewer and fewer pedestrians around…honestly, for the better.

The car stopped, roughly a block or two away from the campus dorms, conveniently where no one was walking by. Lafon and I exited the car, and she waved to the driver, who nodded and sped off into the distance.

Walking back to campus, Lafon carried onwards, neither of us exchanging words for the entirety of the trek. To be fair, wearing a hoodie over her outfit looked pretty ridiculous, and whatever mess of a situation she just went through was probably more than enough to occupy her mind, and having a conversation with someone who just learned of her identity is probably the last thing she would want. I scanned my student ID at the side entrance, and we made our way up the elevator to the 7th floor. Nobody was in the common room, and the lights were off; it was still early evening, though the atmosphere gave an eerie ambiance.

She got to her door, Room 709, and got her keycard to unlock her door. She opened it, looked at me, and said, “Come in.”

“Me?” I’m sensing a death flag being triggered at this very moment, unskippable cut-scene and everything—and autosave!? Welp….this is it. This is where the story of my life ends.

“Yeah.” She walked in, and I followed, closing the door behind me. Being in Lafon’s dorm room was not on my bingo card. Size-wise, it was pretty much my dorm room, without the extra kitchen.

She took off the hoodie and gave it back to me. She started wandering to her closet, seemingly to find some clothes, yet stopped midway, looking back at me.

“A-actually, if you could wait outside for a minute.”

“Gotcha.”

***

After she welcomed me back into her room and we sat down on the floor, I had a moment to get a better picture of her abode. The preconceived notions of what I imagined a fashion student’s dorm room definitely gave me a more aesthetic impression, contrasting with my barebones bedroom– yet as my eyes glanced around, it was quite…minimalistic. A poster here and there hung on the wall, a row of mini plants near the balcony; otherwise, not much else for decor. What did stand out was the abundance of sewing tools, fabrics, and other materials—some were neatly organized on her desk, much was scattered on the ground in a sort of workstation-like area.

Lafon, now in her casual wear, took a seat on the rug in the middle of the room, on top of which a small table sat. I sat down on the other side of the table. She opened her mouth to speak, but as if she was reminded of something, stopped and turned towards the right, where a mini-fridge was. She reached for the fridge handle, opened it, and pulled out a slice of strawberry cheesecake. Then a chocolate cake slice. Then a red velvet one. “You can pick one.” Lafon sharing a dessert?! This is quite the honor…

“Ah….thanks–” I replied, taking the red velvet slice. She then got spoons and took a bite from the other two slices.

“Thanks for your help,” she started. “I honestly didn’t know what my options were if you weren’t there.” She explained how she had left her wallet with her student ID in her room, then her change of clothes were soaked in coffee, so she couldn't change into them after the show.

“It is tough, you pretty much have idol status here,” I reflected. “Which comes with its costs…”

“Mm..” she nodded lightly. “Figured it wouldn’t be easy to keep this hidden forever. Especially once I realized my ID wasn’t with me, I’d need help from one of you three.”

I thought about that….“Why not ask Sato-san?”

She made a slightly annoyed face. “Serina, if she knew, it’s like her head has TV antennas sticking out, broadcasting to the world I’m a cosplayer.” A little harsh on her….I mean not entirely wrong… “...and Chloe had said she was out of town today.”

“Plus,” she added, “you’re a loner, so it's safer if you know rather than somebody else.” That one stung a little bit, thanks, Lafon.

“Straight to the point,” I sighed. “I mean, Sato-san, as airheaded as she may seem, I’m sure she’d be able to keep your secret under wraps.” Look, Sato definitely has her moments where a thought or two or pause to evaluate the situation could be useful and avert some predicament of sorts, but she does do her best and, from my perspective, cares very much for everyone on the floor.

“Maybe…” Lafon shrugged. “She did send that picture of you two in the group chat by mistake–”

Right….the one at the cafe. “Point taken.”

“By the way, how’d you end up there? That dessert looked so good,” Lafon reverted to her glittery-eyed phase, taking another bite of the cheesecake.

“Well-” Wait, I wasn’t sure if Sato had told them about her interests yet, and it wasn’t my place to reveal it to her unless Sato was okay with that. “--it just happened to be a common point of interest, touristy, good food–”

“Mmm…that so,” she nodded. “Sounds like a nice date–”

She looked at me for a moment and sighed. “Whatever you two do isn’t my place to comment on, anyway,” she replied. “But don’t worry, you don’t have to cover up that you two went to buy that lightbulb-gizmo, whatever-the-heck that is.” She knew already??! “Serina showed me and Chloe a few days ago.”

“Is that so–”

She grinned slightly. “Seems I was right to believe you’d keep her secret, so I can trust you with this one.” Was that some sort of test, then? Clever…

“Alright,” I raised my hands up in surrender. “Still can’t believe this situation, with you being Eris-sama and everything. So many people are looking forward to your Azure outfit–”

“Tell me about it,” her mood changed a bit– “It should be arriving from my home back in France soon…and then I can finish the alterations for the competition–”

“You do it all by yourself?”

She shrugged again. “I like the process, though it can be time-consuming at times—the armor was annoying to get back to standard over the past few weeks.”

So those times she was completely tired and looked like she wanted to murder us, probably she was working at night to fix these outfits. Still wonder how the desserts fit in all this…

Speaking of desserts, it looks like she already finished her two cake slices, naturally.

She got up and started moving her duffel bag with her props to the side. “Well, now you know, and I believe you won’t tell anyone. At least I don’t have to resort to Plan C.”

“Plan C?”

She grabbed the sword from her bag with one swift motion, swung, and stopped it inches away from my neck. “C for coupe la tête.”

No translation needed.

Lafon was one scary woman. Very cool, but still scary.