Chapter Fourteen: Break Time!
I actually looked up Shibuya 109's website and wrote down the names of a lot of their stores so that, when the girls go shopping there, it'll seem more realistic. Now, I don't know what the exact inventories of the stores are (the site just says the category of each store—most are "lady's wear"—and gives a little picture of the store), so I'm making all that up. Also, Ayumi Hamasaki really does live in Azabu. And the three sizes mentioned as being small (3, 5, and 7) are like American 0, 2, and 4.
At schools all over Tokyo, it was now zero hour. In a matter of mere minutes, the final bell would ring and dismiss legions of antsy children into the arms of their spring break. Teachers knew that their students wouldn't remember anything learned during zero hour, so they basically allowed their children to have free time until the school day was over. The Sailor Team, however, already knew what they wanted to do after the day was out. They would all meet up at The Sweet Bean, have coffee, and then head out to Shibuya 109, a humongous, trendy shopping mall, to at least do some window-shopping.
The final bell sounded at Juuban Junior High, which caused the students inside to cheer and victoriously race out of their classrooms. At T.A., when the bell sounded, the girls tried to keep their composure as they exited, but when their teachers were no longer watching, they started cheering and celebrating loudly.
"I'm so happy!" Sakura shouted, punching the air, as she exited her class.
"I can tell," Suzumi said cheerfully.
"Oh, I'm excited about going to 109, I haven't been there in a while," Sayaka added.
"Mm, me neither. I hope there will be some good sales," Natsumi declared.
"Should I go home and get more money?" Aiko queried.
"Yes!" the others replied, always wanting to see more of Aiko's classy condominium.
"Okay, then we'll detour to my house real quick, then to Sweet Bean, and then to Shibuya!" Aiko exclaimed. The others were excited and breathlessly ran the short distance to Aiko's complex.
"Hi, Haruka! Hi, Michiru!" Aiko called out when she opened the door to her house, a blanket call she always performed to see which of her mothers happened to be home at the time. Suzumi amused herself by going out onto the porch and peering out at the impressive pool, an amenity she loved to use. Sakura and Sayaka oohed and ahhed at Haruka's trophy cabinet and Natsumi did the same for Michiru's trophy cabinet.
"Hi, Aiko!" Michiru called from the master bedroom.
"Hi, Michiru-san!" Sayaka, Sakura, Suzumi, and Natsumi called out.
"How was school, Aiko?" Michiru asked as she entered the living room and greeted the girls.
"Eh, it was the final day before break," Aiko said, shrugging.
"We're going to Shibuya 109," Natsumi said cheerfully.
"Oh, Shibuya 109! I used to shop there, but I'm too old for their clothes now," Michiru said.
"Where'd Haruka go?" Aiko asked.
"She went to the track for some practicing," Michiru explained. "Do you need some money, Aiko? I know Shibuya 109 can be expensive and I don't think I've given you your allowance this week."
"I suppose that would be fine," Aiko said bashfully. Michiru immediately retrieved her wallet and peeled off a few bills, handing them to Aiko, who gracefully accepted them and slipped them into her pocket.
"You girls have fun," Michiru said with a smile. "You deserve it."
"Wow, that was so cool, she just went ahead and gave you some money," Natsumi reflected after the group left the condominiums and went in the direction of the Sweet Bean, where Reiko and Keiko were already waiting. The girls each purchased their favorite treats and adjourned from the shop, aiming towards the subway. When Reiko scanned her fare card at the station gates, with a pang of sadness she was reminded of the time when she thought for sure that Souji was following behind her. When she realized that her attraction and dedication to him was based only on a spell placed on her, though, she perked up. Sakura's goofy face as she tried to get her own fare card scanned didn't hinder the perking up process, either.
Shibuya 109 was a giant glass edifice with a cylindrical part sticking out towards the street. This part had "Shibuya 109" written on it in pink neon letters, plus an ad showing a girl winking and the words "Spring Sale!" The girls saw the cylinder, standing like a queen in a field of smaller, less glamorous buildings, and immediately ran towards it, entering on floor 2B.
2B is the second basement floor, dominated by Sony Plaza, which is not a place where Sony video games are sold. Rather, it is an accessories store, selling things like cute notebooks, et cetera. There was a similar store nearby, Bumble, plus a clothes store called Navana, its sister store, Navana Wig, and another clothes store called Spiral Girl. Sony Plaza and Bumble were both having competitive sales, so the girls poked around in both of them and each bought new notebooks that they could use next term. Spiral Girl yielded a white tank top with delicate pink bows for Keiko, Sayaka got a pair of jeans at Navana, and all the girls took candid shots of themselves wearing outlandishly-colored wigs at Navana Wig, an activity that was endorsed and supported by the sweet little kogal working there.
Perhaps it is necessary to explain the phenomena of kogals. Kogals are high school girls who enjoy wearing a certain style of dress. When they wear their school uniforms, they make sure their socks are nice and baggy and maybe leave their shirt untucked if they can so it'll mostly cover their skirt. Kogals also tend to dye their hair either brown or blonde and tan, whether through the normal sitting in the sun route or through different routes that may or may not involve lounging in a tanning bed. Sometimes, they also wear very light-colored makeup, like pure white lipstick and eyeshadow. Kogals are very common at Shibuya 109 because one of the ways they prove themselves is to buy trendy clothing.
The group rode the elevator up to B1, where they tried on expensive shoes at Esperanza, R&E, and Mihato without buying anything, pretended to be cool California girls at Rock American Market, monkeyed around in Me Jane, and scoped the wares out at ACZA and Voeux before going up to floor 1. The clothing selection at Dizzy, combined with the ridiculous bargains available, made the girls quite literally dizzy. Aiko managed to find a pair of good sandals at Pool Side and insisted on wearing them for the rest of the shopping excursion, though they made her feet ache.
Suzumi got her nails done in a French manicure style at the Nail Craft on the second floor and would surreptitiously stare at her fancy new nails every so often while walking through the stores or corridors. Sakura bought a pink jacket and a pink shirt at Pinky Girls, a store she swore was after her own heart. The group blushed innocently at some of the sexier offerings at Peach John lingerie store before racing into Head Star to try on hats and take more cute pictures. Each girl also tried on a different fragrance at Branche, though Reiko was the only one to actually buy her fragrance because she gave the Love Punch back to Natsumi and wanted a similar fragrance. Natsumi bought a purple purse at Galet's. The group decided to skip the fourth and fifth floors, which were entirely women's wear, because they didn't really like the selection of stores there. However, on the sixth floor, there was a store called La Vie Rose, an accessories store with an overwhelmingly pink color theme that enthralled Sakura and caused her to empty her wallet there.
On the seventh floor, the girls looked at swimsuits in Peak & Pine and then decided to eat at Ma Maison. Sakura was, of course, broke from her spree at La Vie Rose, so she had to borrow money from Aiko so she could eat. The girls moved some chairs from adjoining tables so they could all sit together and steal bites from one another's plates, a scene that was witnessed by a kogal sitting alone at a nearby table, reading from the contents of a black binder. She smiled, her white-painted lips stretching, and leapt up from the table to walk over, wobbling slightly on her platform boots.
"Excuse me," she said very politely as she approached. "How old are you girls?"
"Well, we're all 14 except for Natsumi here," Sakura said, pointing to Natsumi. "She's just 13."
"Have you ladies ever considered modeling or singing?" the kogal asked, twirling her white-blonde hair around on her neatly manicured finger as she spoke. Some of the girls looked flattered, while others looked baffled.
"I don't have the face for modeling," Suzumi said sheepishly, examining her fingernails.
"I don't have the body," Sayaka said, shrugging.
"Nonsense! Don't put yourselves down, ladies. Come on. I'll take you down to my agency when you're done eating."
"Your agency? You're a model?" Sakura asked in awe.
"Mm-hmm," the kogal answered. "My name's Mitsuko Kitano." She bowed deeply. "It's a pleasure to meet you all." The girls bowed back.
"What do you guys think? Should we do this?" Keiko asked.
"Yes!" came the resounding answer. Keiko shrugged and sucked down the rest of her Coke in one giant gulp, which prompted the other girls to finish eating quickly. Once they were all finished eating, Mitsuko led them to the elevator and pressed the down button, which allowed the girls to look at the scene airbrushed onto her artificial fingernail. Her nails were all painted with elaborate cherry trees, pink with blooming flowers, and some petals breezing around the trees.
Mitsuko led the group down to the second basement and led them out of Shibuya 109 onto the street. The group then struggled to keep up with her as she made her way down a labyrinthine stretch of crowded streets and alleyways until they finally stopped in front of a burnished metal door in an alleyway, crowned by a sign that said "Minerva Talent Agency" in curly purple letters. Mitsuko threw open the door and held it so the group could venture inside first.
Minerva was a small space, decorated in the minimalist style commonly found in lofts, with an area sectioned off for dressing, makeup, and photo shooting. There was also an area of desks and computers staffed by a few bored yet beautiful people. The whole area was incredibly well-lit and the walls were decorated with pictures of beautiful girls who were touted as Minerva Girls.
"Ah, Mitsuko-chan, you got seven girls?" one of the beautiful people at the desk cried in jealousy.
"I did. Where's Minerva herself?" Mitsuko asked.
"She's in the back room." This prompted Mitsuko to nod, ask the group to take a seat on the comfortable leather couches, and race towards the back of the room, where there were three different doors. "So, where are you ladies from?" the beautiful woman queried.
"Azabu Juuban," the group answered in unison.
"Ah, Azabu! I heard Ayumi Hamasaki lives there." Aiko smiled. Ayumi Hamasaki was her role model. "How old are you all?"
"I'm 13, but the rest are 14," Natsumi answered.
"You know, you look just like Minako Aino," the woman declared, pointing to Natsumi, who just blushed and looked at her shoes.
"Ohhh, seven new girls!" came a deep, female voice from the back of the room as the woman who called herself Minerva came in. She was tall, with deep tan skin, brown eyes, and purple hair that fell just below her ears. "Hello, girls, I am Minerva." She bowed and the group returned her bow. "So, what do you girls think about modeling?"
"I don't think I can do it," Sayaka offered shyly.
"Me neither," Suzumi added.
"I don't think so, either," Aiko added with a shrug.
"Well, you never know until you try. I'll give each of you ten frames and if I like what I see, we'll talk contracts. Hm, how does that sound?" Minerva asked, smiling. "Mitsuko, please go get Junji, Kirari, and Irie." Mitsuko nodded and went to the other back room. "First, we'll find some clothing for you all. If we shouldn't have your size…" This comment made Reiko, who was still smarting over having to change shirt sizes, feel bad. "Then we can just use what you have on. I think those uniforms are rather cute, myself." Mitsuko returned a few moments later with a tall bald man, a short woman with curly blonde hair, and a tall woman with long black hair in tow.
"Here they are, Minerva-san," Mitsuko said with a smile.
"Thank you, Mitsuko," Minerva said to Mitsuko, smiling sweetly at her, which seemed to be Mitsuko's cue to leave. She told one of the desk ladies that she was going back to Shibuya 109 and left the building. "Mitsuko is so not my type," Minerva said cattily. "That kogal thing, I hate it so much! But that whole style is lucrative. I like pale girls better."
"I agree," said the blonde woman.
"Now let me introduce my partners in crime," Minerva began. "This is Junji. He is our talented photographer." The bald man smiled and bowed. "This is Kirari. She is a makeup expert." The blonde woman smiled and bowed. "And this is Irie. She's the clothes maven." Irie bowed, but expressed no smile. "Junji, I want ten frames from each of these girls, okay?" Junji nodded. "Kirari, work your magic." Kirari gave a thumbs-up. "Irie, if there's nothing in the closet for the girls, just let them wear their school uniforms." Irie nodded slightly. "Okay! I'll be in the back if you need me." Minerva turned on her heel and walked to the back.
"Okay," Irie said in a husky voice. "Let's go to the closet." The closet wasn't a real closet, but just racks and racks of clothes anchored in the dressing area. There were all sorts of clothes: short- and long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, halter tops, tube tops, belly-baring tops, long tops, dresses of all lengths and cuts, short shorts, modest shorts, Bermuda shorts, jeans, khakis, short skirts, mid-length skirts, long skirts, floor-sweeping skirts, and enough shoes to make a fashionista cry in joy. However, most of the clothes were in small sizes like 3, 5, and 7, in keeping with the sizes most models wore so they could fit into the samples created by designers.
"Wow," the girls said in awe.
"Now, let's try to find some suitable clothes for you," Irie declared.