Back in the centre of the village a smallish shop was just opening. The runner of said shop stood just outside the building hanging up pieces of fabrics over wooden poles fixed into the doorway. She was a rather plump old woman with more grey in her hair than brown and her eyes starting to cloud over by what looked like cataracts. The dress she was wearing was straining at the seams but looked to be good quality. It had to be to stand the strain of her size.

The two were stood a few feet back from him as he spoke to the woman, and surprisingly this one didn't behave as the others had.

"She's almost as old as the elder, apparently, meaning she knew what life was like before him. Because of that he doesn't treat her like the others who've known no different." Alice explained leaning in close to whisper into his ear.

He nodded his head softly, staring at the elder as he managed to convince the woman to open her shop to them.

"Alright, Alice you and your friend can choose from a few things. But don't take too much nor take too long. I can't keep giving stuff away for free."

"I can trade you a little something, if anything I have attracts you?" She offered as she stepped forwards.

"No, love, don't worry I don't mind making an exception this once." Shun gave her a soft smile, seemed that people were quite nice back here. Minus the old man who he suspected would sicken sexist men from his time.

"Thank you" Alice answered as she stepped forwards. "Come on Shun, let's have a look around"

She grabbed at his wrist and pulled him in, leaving Shun to follow silently behind. Thinking somewhat if people were as bad at shopping here as they were back home. If so, he doubted he'd fare any better than the countless husbands or boyfriends being dragged around the mall by their significant others. Collapsing in a chair before the day was out.

Inside the quaint shop were numerous different fabrics hung against the wall or laid out on small, poorly built tables. There were multiple different patterns sewn into the materials, from flowers to animals to things that looked purely random and sewn in on a whim. Like their own form of abstract.

Shun stared around the room watching with a small smile as Alice ran her hands over the fabrics.

"They're beautiful" she breathed as she stared at all the clothes.

"They are" the old woman agreed

"But I think for Shun we should find something simple. One coloured. He's not one for vibrant colours." She spoke with the woman in a hushed tone, perfectly recreating Julie whenever she went shopping.

Her arm draped around whoever was working, speaking quietly either trying to get a bargain or to speak about the unlucky unwilling participants who she's dragged along.

The thought made him laugh, something he quickly covered up. Wouldn't do to make Alice think something was up.

"Shun, come over here will you. And place that bucket down at the door, I don't need some of it ruining these clothes." He almost pointed out that water did nothing to clothes but halted himself. That may be true back home, but he knew nothing of now.

Following instructions he placed down the water and followed after the voice. Navigating his way through the racks of clothes with practiced ease. It did help when one was trained to track even the smallest of sounds since childhood.

It took moments for her to be found. Encased in all range of colours. From reds to oranges to greens. Even a few blacks that resembled remarkably to his training clothes. All the colours were draped over her arms.

"Pick whatever you like" and on instinct he grabbed for the black fabric resembling his training outfit. But his mind backtracked to the heat outside. Black was no good for that, but he was already holding it. So he reached out again and grabbed the light green. It was pale but he was sure he could recreate a close replica to an outfit he wore back home.

"You want those young lad?" The woman asked, just making sure. It was rare someone wanted black this time of year.

"Yes, but if you don't mind I'd like to tell you how I want it to go."

"Of course, I was going to ask what you wanted it to look. I found men to be quite reluctant about that aspect of buying clothes."

"Shun's different to the guys around here. Almost like he's more advanced. And though it's going to sound a little crazy, it's almost like he's from the future"

"Well, I don't know about that Alice, but I do know that he's far more mature than these men" as they talked he felt a bubble of nerves grow in his stomach. Was it that obvious that he wasn't from around here? He knew Alice had spoken offhandedly but he couldn't stop feeling panicked. What would they do if they found out? He'd be classed as magic and probably killed. He didn't know what they believed in.

"Shun are you alright?" Turning to the soft concerned voice he locked eyes with Alice.

"What?"

"Are you alright? You've been dazed for a few minutes"

"Yeah, sorry, just got caught up in my own head"

"You should be careful young man. One might mistake you for not sound in the head, then we'd have to kill you, we can't have that in our village"

Not showing his bemusement at the prospect of being killed for daydreaming he smiled and nodded but all he was thinking was. It was mad, this world was truly mad.

"Of course, I understand, it's different to home but I understand." She looked mildly confused but Alice just smiled knowingly.

"Don't look so confused, Shun's home is very different to ours, his is far more understanding. From what I know"

"Well, I wished I lived there, I'm beginning to lose patience with the men in this village. If the elder doesn't drop down dead soon I'll speed it up."

"Don't speak rashly miss"

"I suppose boy, but come now, let's see if this advanced village also passes into fashion." With a warm smile on her face she led the boy over to a table held together by thick rope.

Settling the fabrics on the table out of the way she brought over what looked like a poor replica of paper. It looked about half a centimetre thick the corners holding little slivers of what appeared to be bark on it. It looked like nothing more than bigger wood shavings and Shun suspected that was literally all it was.

"Here boy, tell me what you want and I'll draw" she told him snapping him out of his musing. Hiding his initial shock he stared at the black stone in her hand which he suspected to be lead and started describing his clothing from back home.

He kept his instructions short not going into size because, from the look of her clothes, it was a trial and error sort of method she used. He tried not to get ahead of himself, but it was difficult when he wanted to describe the slender bits or the crossover of fabric that allowed it to flap over at the top.

The old woman was impressed with the teen, unknowing that he was just describing by memory. She believed this was his very own design, and not just the look of one of his favourite shirts.

As he kept explaining he couldn't help hating the fact that the material was all one colour, he wished he could have had a few blues or whites. Hell, he even wished for a light purple for his flap of fabric. But he knew he was getting ahead of himself. Back here they were probably only used to simple designs, hence the lack of colour variety. Everything here was one or two colours. And multiple colours were close to the same colour anyway. Should he create an exact replica he'd probably freak them out.

It took a few minutes of silent work for the woman to get the design to Shun's standards. She quickly realised that he wasn't expecting what the others did when she drew. Most of the others, men and women alike, stared at her silent while she sketched out their idea, Shun watched it with a critical eye, simplifying things down. The opposite to the rest of the village.

The shape had been drawn spread open and how the final design should look, and safe to say she'd never seen anything like it before. It held a similarity to some of the clothing worn by some members of the village, but a vague similarity was the only thing that made it familiar.

"Shun, are you finished?" Alice asked as she came over to inspect the clothing, her own already picked out.

"Yeah, we just finished a moment ago." The onyx haired teen answered as he leant back against the table to watch her as she looked over the design.

"It looks incredible. And fairly simply considering everything." She noted as she looked over it. "How the hell did you do that, can you make me one? Something from your village?" Alice asked placing her hand on the teens shoulder trying to usher him into complying.

"I don't think that'd be a good idea" he tried to persuade as he was sure that giving her modern clothes would do no good for time. Hell, he'd probably cause a paradox.

"Aw but Shun, please, I just want something simple."

"See you say that now, but the last time someone asked me that I ended up going shopping for four hours. I don't see how Julie can do it"

"Shopping?"

"Yeah, you have shopping here"

"Well, I know but we only shop for maybe half an hour a week"

"You'd be dying if you were dragged around by my friends then" he answered for once not watching what he was saying.

"What're you saying?"

"I'm saying they live for shopping. Where I come from there're a lot of places to buy unneeded things and they can't say no to them."

"Sounds like they haven't got a lot of self-control" the old woman noted as she picked up the makeshift paper. "I'll go and start making this"

"Thank you"

"Shun, are you sure you can't design me a simple piece?" Alice asked once more, looking up at the raven haired boy with wide eyes.

"As I said I don't think it'd be a good idea"

"But why?"

"I already explained"

"You didn't you just talked about your friends" damn, he'd hoped Alice wouldn't notice his subject change

"Look, it'd just be better if you designed your own stuff" he didn't know how to explain. How could he without revealing his secret? 'I can't design it for you because I don't want to create a paradox'? It was too complicated.

"I suppose" Alice answered, shocking the teen with the speed in which she gave in. He wasn't used to such a thing. He was used to his pig-headed friends complaining till they got their own way.

"Oh, good, I-I'm glad you see it my way" he answered, able to hide the shock for the most part bar the slight waver in his voice.

"Alright, I'll go browse a little while she's making your outfit. See if I can find something I like." With a small nod from the teen she left to wander through the fabrics and some made clothes trying not to show her disappointment. It wasn't as though she didn't understand why Shun was being the way he was. Ok, despite telling herself that countless times she didn't understand at all.

It was just an outfit, why wouldn't Shun give her just a small outfit? He knew she wasn't like his friends so why?

She didn't know, and quite frankly she didn't want to think about it. She'd just push back her annoyance and not speak a word of it for quite a while. She'd always been told to bottle things up. Though she wasn't sure if that was a good thing to do, her mum had done it and the explosion she had was enough to get her banished.

Wiping away a quick tear at the memory of her mother she focused on shopping. Maybe that'd help her forget?

Shun was stood by the makeshift table, looking over the countless grooves in the hard wood. He couldn't help noticing that this would have been thrown out in his time. Not because of make but merely because grooves were the last thing and tailor wanted in a work bench. Things were simpler back here, they've learned to survive of little and want for not. It was almost a guilt trip for the future teen.

Shun wasn't the needy type, he wasn't one who bought things whenever he felt like it. But still, he felt incredibly selfish right about now.

"Shun, can you have a look at this for me?" Alice's voice called from within the shop and he glanced around trying to locate her. Moving through the small shop he easily found her holding up a thin white cloth. "Do you think this would look good on me?" She asked holding it up before her body.

"Well, as a full piece I don't think it'd look quite as good as it could. But, if you used a little for a shirt or shorts it'd work quite well"

"Shorts?" She asked, sounding more than a little confused.

'Crap, don't they have short back here?' He asked himself.

"Uh, yeah, shorts. It's this thing we have. It's, uh, just the name we gave to uh, short trousers-I mean, these" he answered awkwardly as he pulled at his trousers not knowing what to say. He didn't know how to save himself. He'd just slipped quite badly.

"Oh, alright..." she answered, more than a little confused. He was using a lot of words she'd never heard before.

"Yeah" Shun added, scratching the back of his head. An action he would have chastised Dan for he found himself doing. But, he couldn't find it in himself to feel hypocritical.

"So, uh, can I have these...shorts?" She asked, quietly hoping she could get a yes. She'd never heard of them but if they came from Shun's village then they had to be good. Shun's world seemed like it was a thousand years in the future to her.

But that was impossible.

"Well, if you promise no one else will wear them and you won't tell anyone what they're called then I suppose." He agreed, hoping for anyway just to end this conversation.

"Yay, come on then. Let's go design them." Grabbing onto the teen's hand she pulled him to the work bench, wrapping his hand around the bit of lead needed to draw. "I'll leave the designing to you Shun" she told him simply watching as he started to draw.

She couldn't deny how excited she was. But who could blame her? She was about to get clothes from Shun's village.

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