Chapter 4 Part 2

This was it. The final boss for any single guy.

The clothing section of the local branch of 999-Mart.

What, you think I had the gall—and money—to go to a designer women’s clothing store? Of course not. The point of this was to buy something she could dress in before buying her proper clothes, so any crappy thing would do.

And 999-Mart was ideal for that. They were the biggest discount store chain in Luhou City. Every store consisted of a big warehouse with tightly packed aisles filled from floor to ceiling with literally anything you could think of for just ¥999—including, naturally, a vast array of clothes. Plus, there was automatic checkout, so I didn’t even need to go through the embarrassing display of buying female clothes as a guy. Win-win!

And even in this already ludicrously cheap store, there was a treasure trove just waiting to be mined in the depths of these dark caverns.

The 499 Corner!

The way there, though, proved to be a fairly difficult ordeal.

Five water glasses for just ¥999? That’s a steal! I thought as I grabbed them off the shelf.

Oh, might as well swipe four bottles of shampoo for Mana too, I thought as I grabbed them.

Three packs of family-sized pasta?! That’s a steal—

“Wait, what am I doing?! I’ll run out of money at this rate!”

This always happened whenever I came to 999-Mart; I was too entice by the massive savings and ended up buying crap I didn’t need. Regrettably, I returned the glasses and the pasta to their respective shelves (but kept the shampoo; Mana definitely wouldn’t like to use mine).

After dodging the aggressive discounts, I finally made my way past the main clothing section to the 499 Corner. It was a large metal basket tucked away in a corner of the warehouse filled to the brim with clothes that, for one reason or another, were heavily discounted. Maybe they had defects, were from old collections, were out of season, or had been returned. Whatever the case, I used the male version of this wonderful place to buy almost all my clothes on the cheap.

“Okay, let’s see here…”

The pile really was a complete jumble of clothes, thrown together without any care at all, from summer dresses to winter polar mufflers. It might seem anti-consumer to force people to hunt for something useful, but that was part of the charm of this wonderful place!

Since I knew Mana’s sizes, I didn’t hesitate about whether something actually fit her or not. For starters, I picked a handful of safe (and cheap) baggy options, like T-shirts, shorts, and sweatpants. The real problem was with more form-fitting clothes.

“I don’t think these would fit her…” I said as I scanned through the handful of dresses, tank tops, or slightly more form-fitting clothes I had found.

Mana was, to put it plainly, quite busty. Without her trying these out, it was quite difficult to tell if they would fit her okay or not.

I can’t believe I’m cursing myself for making her boobs so big for some reason.

“Now what should I do…?”

I could probably buy all these clothes, have her try them out at home, and then return the ones that didn’t fit—but that seemed like a hassle.

“You seem like you’re having some doubts, young man,” I heard a crackly voice from behind me. It made me jump in place.

“Well, it’s a bit embarrassing,” I began saying as I turned around. “I have to buy clothes for—Wait, M-M-Mana?!”

“It’s me, in the flesh!” She said, striking an idol-like pose with her hand in a V-shape over her eye.

Mana was just there, her still damp white hair loosely cascading down her back, dressed in one of my sweatshirts and shorts. Both were ridiculously baggy on her.

“W-What the hell are you doing here?! No, before that, how did you find me?!”

“Oh, that was easy. I just asked around what was the best place for a shut-in, unemployed loser to buy clothes for girls, and people pointed me here.”

“Hold on, is that what you think of me?!”

“Eh-eh. Just kidding. But I did ask around; that much is true.”

Sigh. “Guess you made it here safe.”

“Yeah! I only fell like three times!”

It’s a miracle this girl is even alive… At least she showered like I told her.

“Well, I guess there’s no point in sending you back home now. Since you’re here, you can just try out the clothes to see which ones fit you best. I don’t think you need to try out the T-shirts though—”

“Are these it?” She said, as she approached the pile of clothes I had put to the side, the faint smell of my shampoo coming off her hair. “They are all kinda ugly.”

“W-What, really?”

“This dress, for example,” she began, “who’d wear something this green and pink? It’s just awful!”

I guess that’s a reason why it was in the 499 Corner in the first place.

“All of these are either ugly or too plain,” she began. “Isn’t there anywhere else we can buy clothes from?”

“No,” I vehemently said. “I’m on a budget here, and besides, you’re not planning on going outside much, right? No one is going to see you.”

“Tsk tsk tsk. A girl must always look her best, even if she doesn’t go out!”

“That’s rich coming from someone who didn’t remember to shower for two days.”

She was silent for a good three seconds.

Gotcha!

“Fine. I’ll just take these plain ones, then. Better than nothing. But I still wanna try them out. Where’s the fitting booth?”

I escorted her there, with a few clothes in hand, and left her to her devices. I noticed some people were staring at us, and I couldn’t really decide whether that was because Mana’s looks were so exceptional or because she clearly wasn’t dressed in the right clothes for her.

Time passed as I waited for her to try out everything. I could hear the rustling of clothes, so she clearly was trying them all out, but she was oddly quiet.

“Ju, are you there?” I heard her from inside the booth.

“Yeah. What is it?”

I saw her head popping out from between the curtains. “Could you find me a bra?” She said, so matter-of-factly, it took me a good three seconds to catch up to her.

The eyes of the entire store were on me—or at least that’s what it felt like.

“…Excuse me?”

I… I totally forgot about her underwear!

Panties were easy enough, and sure, I knew her sizes, but I knew firsthand just how difficult it could be to find a bra that fit and was comfortable. Just ask my sisters about the countless hours I wasted waiting for them outside underwear stores.

“I mean, look,” she said as she opened the curtain.

Mana was dressed in a plain, summery white dress that reached down to her knees. Her arms were exposed, as well as a fair bit of her chest. The dress seemed to fit her well enough at first glance.

There was just one problem.

You could tell she was clearly topless.

“The dress definitely fits me, but I can’t really tell how it will look with a bra on—”

“Hold on just a second,” I said, trying to comprehend the situation. “You came out of the house without one?”

“Well, duh,” she said. “I only have one bra, and you said to put all my clothes in the clothes basket.”

“Then why the hell did you come out of the house if you didn’t have one?!”

“Huh? What’s the big problem?”

She really doesn’t get it, does she?!

That was the moment I realized Mana was completely oblivious to society. Sure, she looked just like a person, and she could talk the same language, but she had never learned what "decorum" and "shame" meant. She really was a blank slate in all senses of the word.

“I mean, your clothes are baggy enough that I wouldn’t be flashing anyone,” she added. “It’s only in this dress that it looks weird. Even I care about this stuff. I’m supposed to be a model, you know?”

Sigh. “Do you want anything specific? Sports bras would probably be best for you, right? But I can’t spend much money on them. 3-for-1 packs are all you get.”

“Sports bras are fine! They are comfy! Oh, but I’d like more normal ones. Can’t go around wearing a sports bra with a dress, right. Preferably in black or white, thanks!”

I’ll just get her the cheapest I can find—

“Oh, and while you’re at it,” Mana said like she wasn’t about to drop a bombshell, “get me some matching panties, will you?”

I froze.

“W-what did you just say?”

“I said, find me some panties! Nothing too crazy, just plain ones are fine.”

I looked back at her, and my eyes naturally gravitated not to her smiling facebut to her legs.

She… she wouldn’t…

“D-Don’t tell me you’re going commando…” I said in a whisper.

She cocked her head. “Uh? What’s that face for? Of course I am. I had no other panties!”

I am sure I had never felt as embarrassed as that moment in my entire life.

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

“Phew! That was a fun trip!” Mana said while skipping along as we made our way back home. In the end, she ditched my clothes and got dressed in a loose T-shirt and jean shorts she had just picked for herself.

“Only someone who wasn’t busy worrying about getting arrested could say that!”

“Bah, what’s the harm?! Everything got resolved!”

Somehow, I managed to prevent what could have been an absolute disaster by sneakily self-checking out a pack of panties and bras that fit her and then coming back in and letting her put them on without anyone noticing. After that she happily tried out all of those clothes I was on the fence about, and we ended up with a nice stockpile of clothes for her.

“We bought too much stuff…” I said with a sigh as I felt the weight of the bags on my hand.

“Hmm? What was that?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Nah, something’s on your mind. Out with it! I’ll do my best to help out.”

I was still a bit on the fence about speaking with Mana about this, but against my better judgment, I decided to go for it anyway.

“Hmm? Is the bag that heavy? I offered to carry it, but you refused.”

“No, it’s not that. Not that sort of weight, at least.”

It was more the weight on my wallet.

“Hmm? What is it, then?” Mana said, looking at me from slightly ahead.

“Well, I didn’t want to bother you with this, but… supporting two people is expensive.”

Not only had we bought her clothes, we also ended up buying those shampoo bottles, other amenities, and a reinforcement of snacks for her. I ended up spending way more than three days’ wages on her. My bank account didn’t have an infinite money cheat on—far from it. It had been some time since I had a commission, so I was basically living off my meager savings.

And with Mana now living with me, my expenses will double… or triple, considering how much she eats.

“Oh… So that’s it,” she said with an apologetic tone. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Nah, don’t sweat it. It’s not your fault.”

“I know!” She said, bouncing right back up. “How about I find a part-time job?!”

“You can’t.”

“Huh? Why not? Are you trying to keep me as a house pet or something?”

“It’s not that,” I said. “You’re completely undocumented, you know? People don’t usually just show up out of nowhere.”

“So you mean they rarely show up out of nowhere?!

“It’s a turn of phrase. Don’t take it literally,” I explained. “Point is, without any documents, you’re basically an illegal alien. You’re basically forced to not interact with society at all, unless you’re ready to have the entire world’s attention on you. And that also means you can’t have a job or anything. Just coming out of the house is a bit risky.”

I imagined for a second trying to explain that she literally was a fictional character come to life to some government official. Not only would they not believe me, but if they did, Mana would pretty much shatter society as we knew it.

Yeah, so that’s an awful idea.

“Oh, I see,” she said, a bit distraught. “Guess we gotta start saving up, huh?”

“Well, don’t worry about it. We just need to—hmm?”

“What is it?”

“I got a notification on my phone… hold on,” I said, taking my phone out of my pocket. When I saw what it was, my eyes went wide. “Ohh! Finally! I got one”

“Huh? What is it, Ju?”

“I got a commission!”

The notification was from a site where people could commission artists directly, and someone had just sent me a request. I quickly scanned through the details, and it seemed pretty easy to do—just draw their OC in a particular pose.

“Ohh, so someone is paying you to draw something for them?”

“Yep. Enough to pay for all these clothes and then some.”

“That’s great! I’m happy for you, Ju! Hopefully things will continue to go well!”

I did hope for that, too, as I made my way home with a stupid smile on my face.

⬡⬢⬡⬢⬡

Things didn’t continue to go well.

Mana thankfully gave me space to be alone and focus on my work, but when I began sketching the basic idea, I quickly bumped against a big problem

This pose is kinda tricky.

The pose appeared to be a normal pin-up, but the character was lying down, and the way the client wanted the shadows to look made it quite tricky to visualize.

“You’ve been redoing this drawing a bunch. Something wrong?” I heard from above my shoulder.

“W-Wha—Mana? How long have you been there? I thought you were watching anime.”

“Yeah, I got bored,” she said as she stepped next to me. “What’s the problem?”

“I can’t seem to get this pose right,” I said. “The lighting is quite a bit difficult to figure out too… And I can’t seem to find any good references.”

“Huh, is that something artists struggle with?”

“Yeah… it’s not like I have photographic memory and can imagine everything in my mind.”

“Oh!” Mana said as if she had just had an idea. “Then I have the perfect solution!”

I turned to her, more than a little bit skeptical. “And that is?”

“I can just pose for you, duh!”