Chapter 10 Part 1

“Oh wow! This is incredible!” Mana said when she first set foot in the cosplay store. “I can’t wait to try all these out!”

“You know that would literally be impossible, right?”

“Not with that attitude it isn’t!”

Sigh. This really is her element, huh.

After Mana put it in her mind that she wanted to do cosplay, no amount of reasoning convinced her to back down. I even attempted to order some outfits online, but we quickly realized that such form-fitting clothes were kinda dangerous to order without her trying them, so I relented and decided to go out to a physical store.

And in Luhou, there really was no better place to buy cosplay outfits than CosWorld. It was a sprawling warehouse-type store with all sorts of accessories, wigs, bulk fabrics, and pre-made outfits—everything an intrepid wannabe cosplayer or a veteran of the craft would need to make a splash.

My wallet is gonna take a hit again… but I guess this is important to keep her happy.

Problem was, CosWorld was located on the opposite side of the island city from where I lived, so we had to ride the subway all the way there. And Mana, with her clearly unnatural white hair and superb looks, drew more than a little attention to herself.

Guess she does look as if she’s already cosplaying, so I guess it’s fine?

“Oh, look here, Ju!” Mana said as she perused the aisles. “It’s the school outfit for that anime I was watching the other day!”

Indeed, a very familiar sailor uniform was prominently displayed on a mannequin, alongside all the accessories one would need to cosplay different characters from the show.

“Let me try it out!”

“Wait, Mana—”

Great, she’s not listening.

She snatched a folded bunch of clothes next to the mannequin and trotted over to the row of fitting rooms, disappearing inside one. After a couple of minutes she emerged, the flowing blue skirt and white shirt of the sailor outfit fitting her like a glove.

Oh wow. She looks straight out of the show!

I’d become used to her white hair, but seeing her dressed in such an outfit, it made me realize just how much she looked like she was ripped straight out of an anime.

“Ahem. How does that line go again?” Mana began saying. Then she put her hands on her hips and enunciated with a frown. “‘I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, demons, or angels here, come join me. That is all!’” And then she relaxed her mouth into a big smile. “What did you think, Ju? Pretty good, huh?”

Damn… she’s great!

Her entire posture, her tone, and even the timbre of her voice changed to match the iconic character’s almost perfectly. A few of the nearby shoppers even stopped to look at her impromptu show.

She really is a natural at this. However—

“The line’s wrong,” I pointed out. “It’s sliders and psychics, not demons and angels.”

“Potato, tomato,” she fired back. That’s not how it goes, either. “Okay, we’re buying this one. Let’s move on to the next!” She said as she trotted out of the fitting room.

“Wait, aren’t you going to change out of those clothes?”

“Nah, too much of a pain. If I did this for every outfit, I’d be changing in and out of clothes all the time! And I’m going to buy this outfit anyway, so it’s fine if I wear it now.”

She can be so smart with the most ridiculous of things…

And so, sailor-uniform-clad Mana walked around the store, picking all sorts of outfits she wanted to try out for herself, with me serving as her designated clothes-carrying lackey.

“Oh, look, Ju! Over there!” Mana said, pointing to a certain mannequin among many others. “Isn’t that Lara’s outfit?”

“Huh. You’re right. It is Lara.”

I immediately recognized it, of course. There was no way I could mistake that bikini top that the flat mannequin did a wonderful job at showcasing.

“I’m surprised they already have one considering she just came out.”

These companies really do be working fast, huh?

And then Mana said the most absurd thing she had said so far.

“I wanna try it on!”

I stared at her like she had just said she wanted to eat dirt.

“Even for you, that’s a ridiculous joke.”

“No, I’m completely serious.”

So not only does she not have any shame whatsoever, she also has no body awareness?!

“Look, there’s no way you can dress yourself in this.”

Standing next to the mannequin, it was obvious just how different their body types were.

“Oh, what’s the harm? If it doesn’t fit me, I won’t buy it.”

“No, no, you’re missing my point. This is an anatomical impossibility.”

Just the idea of her getting dressed in this made me shudder. It took the perfect balance of eroticism from Lara’s outfit and shoved it right into corn territory.

But Mana, if nothing else, was as stubborn as a mule.

“Look, they have bigger sizes here too!” She’s totally not listening to me. “See? Up to D cup size.”

“You’re way bigger than that! It’s never going to fit you!”

“Man, you’re really insistent on it, aren’t you?” Mana said, puffing her cheeks. “That’s it, I’m gonna try it now!”

“Woah, hold on. Why are you so insistent on trying it out? It’s gonna look off on you. You’re better off trying out other—”

“...because it’s her,” she said, under her breath. I couldn’t catch the start of her sentence.

“What was that?”

“Because it’s Lara! Geez,” she said, turning away from me. “I just wanted to make you happy since you didn’t get her the other day.”

Oh, so that’s why? That’s a pretty cute reason.

“I know you’d prefer if she was turned real instead of me, so this is the least I can do,” she said in a whisper.

“What are you talking about? That’s totally not true.”

“But… I’m no good for anything,” Mana said. “I can’t cook or clean. I’m just a money sink. All I can do is look pretty for the camera, and even that’s failing lately. At least Lara—”

“Hey, don’t compare yourself to her, okay? She’s just a character, and—”

“But I’m just a character, too,” Mana said, clutching the outfit to her chest. “What’s really the difference between us?”

Oh. Right.

We still didn’t know what sort of magic had turned Mana real, and by the look of things, we’d never be able to. But who’s to say that that figurine wouldn’t have turned into another character if I wished for them? What if I had gone to that gacha ramen machine just a couple of days later and had Lara in my mind instead of Mana? Would I have Lara with me now instead of her?

But that’s the wrong way to think about it.

“Look, Mana. Look at me.” My OC turned around, her face struck with a sad expression. “That doesn’t matter. I wished for you to become real, and so you did. I highly doubt the figurine would have turned into a character I didn’t have a strong affinity for. You were created by me, yes, but you’re your own real person now. What could have been doesn’t matter anymore.”

“I’m… my own person?” Mana said, her voice telling me she didn’t quite believe it.

“Yeah. You are,” I said, shooting her a smile.

“I… I see. So I’m real, huh?”

“You are.”

“Ah… Okay. I see. I see… Thanks, Ju,” Mana said with a smile.

“So really, there’s no need for you to cosplay as Lara—”

“No,” she replied. “Now I wanna do it even more. This is what I want to do,” she said.

“O-Okay…?”

I gulped dryly.

This is so gonna go wrong…

With a stride that was ever so slightly different from the one before, Mana walked to the fitting rooms with Lara’s outfit in hand and closed the curtain behind her. I stood right outside, hearing the rustling of clothes from inside, my heart beating stupidly fast, until Mana’s head and white hair popped out of the curtains—and nothing else.

“Mana? Are you done?”

“Yeah… Ju,” she said, sounding particularly apologetic, “I managed to put it on.”

“But…?” I asked the question that I could sense underlying her tone

Mana looked to the left and right, as if she was trying to make sure there was no one else there.

“I… I need your opinion on it.”

And before I could stop her, she opened the curtain to reveal the outfit. The shorts and jacket fit her like a glove, and other than her white hair, which she hadn’t bothered to cover with a wig, she looked like a carbon copy of Lara—

But who am I kidding.

I didn’t really pay any attention to that stuff.

The two seconds the curtain was open were enough for me to understand that she could never wear this ever again.

I don’t think I need to explain exactly what the problem was.

Even if it was designed for a bigger chest, the flimsy cloth of that sort of bikini top barely covered anything. It wasn’t a matter of underboob or sideboob—she was basically topless. And even worse, the pressure on that flimsy cloth was so immense it was moments away from snapping away from that central ring and sending her straight to jail.

So as fast as humanly possible, I rushed forward and closed the curtains on top of her body.

“Absolutely rejected.”

“…That bad, huh?”

“Yeah. I think my account would be banned if you posted a picture wearing that.”