39. Shopping

“This would be absolutely stunning on you,” Kiandra stated as they arrived at the first clothes shop the next morning. Waldina looked around experiencing a mild case of shopping anxiety: she had of course imagined the shops to match this era’s style and not be full of clothes like modern shops. From the outside they looked as expected yet on the inside there were all sorts of different versions of each and every possible cloth combination. Each style was available in multiple colors and there were a lot of different styles in there.

And the worst part was that they’d arrived at the very first shop just now.

“Perhaps we should focus on looking for clothes for Diaz,” Waldina suggested hopefully, yet received three different ‘no’s as a reply. She sighed and followed Kiandra to the clothes on display. At times she absentmindedly touched the fabric of the clothes. She glanced around yet saw no one - no one who would direct such an intense look at her, yet she could clearly feel it.

“This would suit Waldina,” Claudia called out, drawing Waldina’s attention back to clothes shopping. Claudia was pointing at a lilac dress and Kiandra nodded next to her. Though Kris had shown such interest in shopping yesterday, right now he was all but interested. He had his trademark charmer’s smile on yet it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Waldina frowned at the sight, glanced one more time behind her before going to Claudia to check out the dress.

“It’s pretty, I could take that,” Waldina nodded, and even if her words were somewhat sincere, she wanted to quickly get this over and done with. She didn’t see much use for clothes impractical for ninjas. So why waste money on such things?

“You obviously have to try it on first,” Kiandra pointed out, causing the ninja to sigh.

“Well I guess just this once will do,” Waldina mumbled and grabbed the dress. She looked around for a fitting room and turned towards it. Then Claudia grabbed her shoulder with Diaz’s strong arm and forced her to stop:

“Don’t rush so much, you have to try others as well.”

“But I already found what I like?” Waldina began arguing, only receiving a couple of head shooks in answer.

Claudia and Kiandra were pretty much competing in who’d find the best clothes for poor Waldina. At times Kris would offer his half-hearted opinions. And Waldina experienced an almost endless fitting hell. Every time she managed to take off one of the dresses, either Claudia or Kiandra brought her another one. Kris commented on the fitting shows with nonchalant flirting, as usual. Claudia and Kiandra were way more vocal about their opinions, either complimenting the clothes all the way to heaven or criticizing them to the lowest hell. Waldina pitied the shop owner who was currently helping out another customer. She was sure the owner heard each and every one of their comments, yet she didn’t show a hint of annoyance.

Finally, after countless shops, Waldina agreed on buying five of Kiandra’s and Claudia’s suggestions. She chose the lilac dress as it seemed elegant yet casual enough for strolling around the town. Her second choice was a long formal dress, as Claudia convinced her that as a ninja she’d have to one day infiltrate some party for noble’s. The third choice consisted of a costume mainly meant for men: it had long brown-gray pants and stylish white shirt; yet not too stylish so that she could easily use it in casual occasions. The fourth choice was a dress similar to the first one, though this one was shorter and reminded her more of the modern world’s clothes. It had a nice light yellow color. Waldina thought this one had immense potential for fighting and hiding in streets. It was short enough for comfortable fighting and innocent enough that most wouldn’t expect she’d have any fighting skills. Lastly she chose a light short and a dark skirt that fit it. Due to the pressure coming from her friends, she left on the light yellow dress for the rest of the day, and put her ninja costume back to her bracelet, or in Kris point of view, on her magic back.

After she paid for the last costume Waldina turned to her friends with a wide smile on:

“Then we can start searching for clothes for Diaz.”

Claudia froze after hearing that and began thinking of suitable arguments. Kris sighed deeply: he much preferred shopping for ladies clothes as it was more of eye candy for him. Only Kiandra was half as excited as Waldina, though their enthusiasm stemmed from different reasons. Kiandra was merely interested in shopping for clothes whereas Waldina was enjoying the fact she didn’t have to shop for any more clothes. Shopping could be so taxing.

However, Claudia had better luck than Waldina - half of it was Kris’ fault who didn’t want to prolong the men's shopping part any more than necessary. Kris quickly gave tips for the best shops for men’s clothing, which he had previously visited. Hearing that Waldina pouted in dissatisfaction: she was sure Kris could have helped her find suitable clothes faster as well so she wouldn’t have had to shop for so long. Though perhaps the result would’ve been the same, taking into consideration the group’s enthusiasm for getting her new clothes. Even though her ninja clothes were already cute enough.

It took only half as long to find Claudia - meaning Diaz - suitable clothes. Kris kept giving Diaz friendly tips for costumes and what he’d need to have while in academy. Waldina couldn’t help but notice the sudden warm change in their relationship. She felt a painful sting in her heart, ignoring it with all her might.

Thanks to Kris’ tips the four managed to move on to other tasks at hand quite fast. Waldina was so content as she stepped on to the most recommended weapon shop in all of Jimdar. She headed to the counter determined and began talking to the person behind the counter, a young-looking man.

“Welcome. How can I help you?” The boy began with a low voice which didn’t quite fit his appearance.

“I’m here to buy a new sword and to sharpen my old weapons,” while talking Waldina put both of her swords and a couple of daggers and shurikens on the counter. “Oh and if it’s possible I’d like to sell some of the weapons I don’t use anymore.”

The boy nodded sharply before turning around, facing the backroom:

“Master, could you come here for a bit?”

Soon a man at least double the age of the young boy stepped out from the backroom. He had a thick beard and he was wearing an apron meant for fire works and old pants.

Without a word he took a look at Waldina’s weapons. For a moment he examined the weapons before nodding in approval. The weapons meant for disposal he just glanced pointing: “You can take those to the back. We can still make something out of those.” After hearing the words the boy grabbed the disposal weapons and took them to the backroom.

“These are still worth sharpening,” the old man stated, pointing at the weapons Waldina had brought in for sharpening.

“Great. I’d also like to buy some new swords. What do you have to offer?” Waldina nodded content. After her words she turned to look at the swords hanging on the wall.

“Hmm well. For a ninja I recommend this,” the man walked to the wall and grabbed one of the swords on display. “It’s light and cuts through most materials, on top of which it lasts long. Better quality than either of your current swords.”

“If you want something fancier, then this one here can even cut through diamond,” the man went on to present another sword to her. Waldina kept listening for a while and taking a look at all sorts of different options. Finally she tried holding the most promising ones. The second sword was slightly too heavy yet she'd manage to get a proper hold of it once she improved a bit.

“Good, I’d like these,” Waldina stated and put on the counter the second sword and one other, lighter yet sharp version. Additionally she bought more daggers and shurikens and one shortsword.

“You can come get the other swords tomorrow morning, the ones in need of sharpening,” the old man told her before she and her group exited the shop.

“Thanks a lot,” she called before closing the door behind her.

“Why’d you keep those old swords still?” Kris wondered as they got back on the street.

“Hmm, I think they’re still alright and there’s always space for extra weapons,” Waldina shrugged while pretending to think through her options. In fact she was planning on gifting one of her old swords to Claudia once they parted ways. Surely the lady would need a sword in the academy, at least if she planned on focusing swordwielding skills. And then a weapon meant for someone slightly over the beginner stage would be perfect.

“Ohhh I can understand that,” Kris shrugged without pressing the issue further. As an adventurer he had plenty of experience of needing to constantly get new weapons or other stuff. Waldina smiled and felt once again a stinging gaze at her back. Without a word she turned around and threw a flying kiss accompanied by a wink to the person watching her.