"Hey, Saki-chan! Wake up!" Lily softly patted her on the forehead. "It's time to get ready!"
Saki brought a hand up to her face and rubbed her eyes. "Jeez, is it morning already?" She sat up, stretched, and opened her eyes. She blinked to let her eyes get used to the light then turned to face the child who woke her up. "Alright, gimme a- GWAH!" She jumped to her feet and got into a fighting stance. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
"Hey, calm down! It's only us," Ai explained. She wore her yellow t-shirt, her black jeans, and black socks. "These are the disguises Lily was talking about last night."
She stared suspiciously at the humans before her. Upon closer inspection, they did all resemble members of her team. They even all retained their crimson red eyes. Oh, it is them. She sighed a breath of relief. "Jeez, guys! Don't scare me like that!"
"You didn't recognize us, Saki-chan?" Lily asked with a cute smile. She wore a blue t-shirt, white socks, and khaki shorts that went down to her knees. "This is how I looked when we went to Kouno park!"
"Isn't it wonderful?" Junko asked, sporting her white t-shirt, blue jeans, and black socks. "Look at us!" She held her hands out in front of her. "I still can't believe this is real! Look!" She showed Saki her hands excitedly.
"Jeez, you're excited, huh?" she laughed. "Where do I get some?"
"Pappy will help you do it in the bathroom down the hall," Lily said.
"Ah, alright." Saki walked across the deflated air mattress and pushed her way through the other girls. She walked into the bathroom to find Lily's father sitting on the edge of the bathtub. "Yo! Takeo! Hit me up!"
He looked up at her. "Good morning, Saki. Is your stomach okay?"
She lifted up her shirt to reveal that she had already put bandages over the hole in her abdomen. "It's coming along." She lifted her hand up and felt the dent in her head from the crowbar. It was slightly less deep than it was when she went to bed. "Man, I guess zombies heal really fast," she observed aloud. She reached for her hairbrush on the counter and started running it through her hair. "So, how does this whole makeup thing work?"
He showed her a number of tubes, cases, and bottles on the toilet lid. "There's a lot to it. I'm going to teach you so you can do it yourself next time. I can't keep taking days off work," he chuckled.
"Alright," Saki said, continuing to brush her hair. She took a seat on the rim of the bathtub next to him. She could see herself in the mirror.
"Okay, so let's get started." He picked a tube off of the toilet. "First, you want to apply foundation. I'll just do your face and neck, and you can do the rest yourself when I'm done teaching you."
Saki emerged from the bathroom a new girl. She wore a black t-shirt, her red jeans, and black socks and she looked just like a regular human. She ran down the hall and ran into her and Lily's room. "Shrimpy, look at me!" she yelled to an empty room. Oh, they're probably watching TV. She sprinted down the hall and jumped over the railing down onto the first floor and landed on all fours. Hahaha! I'm dead! I'm invincible! She climbed to her feet and ran into the living room, where Ai, Junko, and Lily sat watching some cartoon on TV. "Guys! Look!"
The three girls turned to see Saki standing before them with her arms outstretched and a wide smile on her face.
"Oh, good, you're ready," Ai said. She stood up and checked her phone. "Maria should be here any minute."
"You look so good, Saki-chan!" Lily yelled. She jumped off the couch and ran up to her. "We're humans!"
"Yeah! We're humans!" she yelled back excitedly. She couldn't stop smiling.
Junko smiled. "You're very passionate when you're excited, Saki."
"Oh, Saki!" Ai called. "Sakura's arm is upstairs in our room. What should we do with it?"
Saki looked up at her. "Oh, I forgot we had that."
"So did we, but then we got our clothes out of the backpack and saw it in there."
She put her hand to her chin. "Uh, you guys can do whatever with it, I guess. I don't care. Use it as a back scratcher for all I care."
"We should put it in the microwave!" Lily cheered.
"Jeez, that's dark!" Saki exclaimed in morbid glee. "I like it!"
"Huh?" Ai exclaimed as her phone vibrated. She opened it. "She says she's outside. Why doesn't she just ring the doorbell, then? Or knock?"
"She's here?! Oh man, wait 'til she gets a load of this!" Saki turned and ran back down the hall. She jumped down into the genkan and threw open the door excitedly to reveal her boss standing on the porch in a red t-shirt, black shorts, and grey sneakers. "Hey, Maria! Look at this!" She turned her head and fluttered her eyes. "Don't I look good?"
"Whoa," Maria whispered. "You look just like how you do in my mom's picture."
She smiled. "Pretty cool, right?" Her eyes naturally drifted to Maria's hair. "Oh, cool!"
"You like them?" she asked, bringing a hand to her hair's new purple highlights. "I did them last night."
"That's so awesome!" she cheered. "It looks sharp as hell!"
Lily appeared from around the corner. "Maria-chan! You're here!" She ran over to the door and hugged her. "Look! Aren't I cute?"
"Whoa," Maria whispered to herself again. "This is so weird."
"Weird?" Lily asked. She pulled out of the hug. "I asked you if I was cute!"
"I mean, you're cute, but…"
Ai and Junko appeared from around the corner.
"See! You all look just like you do on the internet! It's so weird! I mean, I saw you all look like this in pictures, but it's different in person!" She shook her head. "It's weird! I never saw you guys as actual celebrities until now."
"Former celebrities," Ai corrected her. "We're done being idols."
"Right, sorry." She straightened her back. "You guys ready to go?"
"Let me grab the backpack," Ai said. She turned and walked up the stairs.
Junko walked down to the genkan. "Maria-san, your hair is very pretty." She sat down and started putting on her boots.
Lily looked up and gasped. "Maria-chan! Your hair!" She reached up and touched it. "It's so pretty!"
"Thanks," Maria said. "I did it last night."
She sat down and started putting on a pair of sneakers. "I want something like that, Saki-chan."
Saki sat down next to her and slid into her boots. "Dying your hair is pretty big. You'll have to ask your dad."
She pouted. "Lame."
"Hey, I'm not gonna go behind his back to dye your hair. He's a good dude."
She finished tying her shoes, took out her phone, and started typing on it.
Ai walked back down the stairs with her backpack. "Alright, is everyone ready?"
"Just waiting on you," Saki replied as she stood up and walked out the door. She stood next to Maria.
"Oh, sorry." She sat down and started putting on her boots. "I think we should get clothes first. Then we can all split up and get whatever else we need in groups." She turned to Lily. "Do you have the money?"
She put her phone back in her pocket, stood up, and nodded. "Yeah!" She joined Saki on the porch.
She looked at Saki. "You're wearing socks, right?"
"Uh, yeah, why?"
"The makeup makes it look like we don't have toes."
"Huh? No it doesn't. What're you talking about?"
"That's only true if you bandage the whole foot at once, Ai," Junko reminded her as she stood up. "Saki probably doesn't."
"Oh yeah," Ai said. "You wrap each toe individually? Why?"
She shrugged. "I like to wiggle 'em. Besides, I only have to wrap one foot."
"I guess that makes sense," she sighed. She finished putting on her boots and stood up. "Alright, let's go!"
Maria and Lily sat outside the dressing rooms next to a pile of shoeboxes. The three others had each chosen a changing room and each only stepped out occasionally to receive modern fashion advice from the two. While Ai and Saki didn't have too many issues with fashion, Junko was having a hard time not looking tacky while still remaining comfortable. This was their seventh trip to the dressing rooms.
"Of all the construction machines, I think excavators are probably my favorite… I've been in an excavator before," Lily informed Maria. "I like excavators a lot, but they didn't have any, so I got the steamroller instead." She held up her phone and pointed to the charm on it.
"I think I like the ones that you use with your hands more," Maria rebutted. "Jackhammers and stuff. That's way cooler."
"No way! Those ones shake-" she stopped mid-sentence as her phone vibrated and its screen lit up. She looked down and read what it said. "Saki-chan! Pappy says I can get highlights!"
"Cool!" She yelled from within the changing room. "Ai! Junko! Are you guys gonna?"
"I wasn't really planning to," Ai said, "but now that everyone else is, I'm not sure. I might."
"I'll do it if Ai does," Junko answered.
"That's fine," Saki replied. "You guys do whatever."
Junko's door opened again. She stepped out wearing a blue and white striped shirt and light brown shorts. "Does this look good?" She asked nervously.
Maria held up a thumbs up. "See, now you're getting it!"
She smiled in relief. "I think I'm finally understanding modern summer fashion." She stepped back into the changing room and closed the door. "I think I have enough clothes…" she observed.
"You're done?" Ai asked.
"I think so."
Ai and Saki immediately stepped out of the dressing rooms with relieved smiles on their faces. Each held multiple coat hangers with garments hanging from them on their arms.
"I thought she'd never be done," Saki whispered.
"Well, she's from a totally different era…" Ai replied quietly. "It's like she time traveled thirty years into the future."
She sighed. "At least we got everything sorted out."
Maria and Lily stood up and each grabbed a stack of shoeboxes. The group stood there awkwardly while they waited for Junko to emerge from the dressing room.
"So, where are we all going after this?" Ai asked.
"I need to go to a hardware store to get some tools for modding bikes," Saki replied. "Maria, you should come with."
"Oh, I need to get a nail gun," Ai remembered.
"You were serious about that?" she asked.
"It's not that bad a weapon," she defended. "If I get an electric one, I can just charge it at night."
"How are you gonna carry it around?" she asked. "Those are pretty big."
"Maybe I'll modify my jacket to have a slot for it on the inside," she answered. "Sayama sewed the kanji into your jacket, right?"
"Uh… I dunno."
"She did," Maria answered for her.
"Do you think I could get her number?" Ai asked.
"Wow, you're really serious about this whole nail gun thing," Saki observed.
"I mean, Junko bought a butterfly knife online last night while you were in the shower," she replied.
"She did?"
"I did," Junko replied from within the dressing room.
"Huh. Well, anyway, you can come to the hardware store with us once we get these back home." She turned to Lily. "What about you, Shrimpy?"
"I'm gonna get highlights!" she cheered. Her eyes just barely peeked over the stack of boxes she was carrying.
"No, Shrimpy, you gotta wait to do that. You're not going alone."
"I'll go with her," Junko offered.
"Okay, nevermind," she said. "You can go. But just buy the dye. You can apply it yourself. Don't pay any of those damn stylists to do it for you."
"Wait, how are we gonna get these home?" Ai asked. "We can't fit all these in our bikes." She gestured to their many coat hangers and dozens of shoeboxes.
"Oh crap," Saki replied. "I didn't think of that. I guess we'll have to make multiple trips."
Junko stepped out of the dressing room. She had a similar amount of coat hangers on her. "Why don't you call Go-san? He has a car, right? He can pick them up."
"Oh yeah," she said. "Shrimpy, get on that."
"Okay." She dropped all the boxes on the floor and took out her phone. Multiple boxes opened and shoes spilled onto the floor.
"Awh, don't just drop them!"
In a bustling Starbucks, Shinta Okoba sipped his coffee and stared down at his laptop. The piece he had been assigned was a stupid feel-good story. Normally he was a sucker for feel-good stories, but he had uncovered a massive conspiracy unfolding before his very eyes and nothing else mattered to him at the moment. The only issue was that the one connection he had to the story had literally closed the door on him and he didn't have nearly enough information to be satisfied. He sighed and held the cup up to his lips again.
"Dude, did you hear about the zombie biker girls?"
Shinta nearly spit out his coffee. He turned to see two kids in line talking to each other.
"The ones who robbed everyone who went to Maeda's ass-beating? I heard about it. No way it's true, though."
"No, dude, like, the stories actually all match up. I didn't think it was real, either, but everyone fucking swears it happened. I dunno. Riku's even in the hospital right now. Apparently he got kicked super hard in the gut."
"When was this, again?"
"Yesterday in the park over by the library."
"Pfft. Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it."
Shinta smiled to himself. Seems like he had just found a new lead.
