Neku sights. As the automatic door closes behind him, he pulls out his phone and checks his messages for at least the sixth time. He is at the right place but he didn't find what he came for. Plus the list of stores Rhyme sent him ends there.
He sights again, thinking he will have to deal with two demons: Nagi and Beat.
Disappointed, he was about to go home but changes his mind. He is in Cat Street after all.
He stops in front of a closed store. Whenever he passes by, Neku always looks at what used to be the WildKat Café, hoping to see the one who was his guardian three years ago.
That is when he notices a red haired girl nervously making circles in front of a tall building. And her friend trying to calm her.
"Hi." Neku walks toward the two girls.
"Neku! Hi-" Shiki answers.
"Come on!" Eri suddenly yells, her phone in her hand. "Oh, hi Neku. FINALLY! Sorry, I'm busy right now."
The red haired girl starts talking to her phone, really pissed off.
Shiki explains to a puzzled Neku that they are supposed to enter a design contest but their fashion model for it hasn't arrived yet.
"They give you a theme and you have to make clothes following it." Shiki explains.
"But don't they provide models too?"
"Not this one. Anyone can enter. It's not an official contest that follows all the official rules. So, they don't get much financial support. You have to pay to enter but there's no price."
"Sounds like a contest for beginners", Neku comments, surprised that two rising stars of the design world would enter such event.
"Yeah but it's a good opportunity to make things you usually don't. It's challenging and you get to see surprising ideas. A lot of unusual designs and music that are now popular come from this kind of places."
It is similar to how CAT became so famous. His art was everywhere in Shibuya three years ago but he started in small places only known by tag fans.
Shiki notices Neku's curiosity and smiles, amused.
"Wanna come and watch?" she offers, pointing at the entrance of the building.
"Yeah, why not."
Since he's already here, may as well take a look. At least he wouldn't have come all the way for nothing.
Eri chooses this moment to shout out loud. Their model broke his leg – and his phone – on his way there.
And since the fashion show is right after the making of the clothes, the participants have to work directly with their model's measurements.
The duo lets out a deep sight. Of course they are disappointed. Eri even canceled her original plans for the day just to enter this contest.
Resigned, they decide to at least watch the show. It truly is a bad day for everyone.
As they walk in, Shiki asks Neku what he was doing in Cat Street.
He was in fact looking for tickets for a concert.
Nagi and Beat turned out to be big fans of a certain indie band called "Def Märch" that is starting to become well known.
When they heard of the band's new concert, the two, especially Nagi, began to talk about it to their friends. For days. Literally.
Especially after Fret said: "Hey, I've got tickets."
Their plan seems to have worked since all the crew decided to go together. Of course they asked Shiki but she is busy the same day and Eri isn't interested.
Everyone was looking for the concert… until Fret lost the tickets.
So now the teenagers are looking for places that still sell them.
"Rhyme sent me a list of stores but the tickets were already sold out." Neku explains.
At these words, Eri starts searching her bag and takes out two pieces of paper.
"Are you talking about these?" she asks, proudly showing them to Neku.
"What?!"
A mischievous smile appears on Eri's face. Neku immediately starts to feel that something bad for him is going to happen.
"Let's make a deal. I give you these tickets and in exchange, you enter the contest with us as our fashion model." Eri says, waving the tickets in front of him.
Neku's bad feeling grows stronger. He's about to decline when he hears a voice next to him.
"Oooh! Good idea Eri!" Shiki says.
"What good idea? I don't have the build of a top model! And I know absolutely nothing about how to do it! I'll just spoil your work...!" Neku replies.
"Don't worry about it. None of the models here are pros." Shiki reassures him. "Besides, it will be better than not entering at all."
"See? It's a pretty fair trade, don't you think?" Eri adds.
That's when Neku realizes. He's trapped. The bad feeling he got previously was the one of a prey captured by its predators. He had lost the moment Eri pulled out these tickets.
Instinctively, he looks at the door but Eri already stands in his way, blocking the exit. She now emits a dangerous aura telling him "Don't even think you can run away."
Beside him, he feels another aura. Shiki's is more polite and shy, just saying: "Excellent idea! Please?". But it's way more powerful. And judging by the person it comes from, Neku knows better than going on with the gentle first impression her aura gives.
"If you really don't want to, we won't force you though..." Shiki finally says after a moment, this time purely out of kindness.
She noticed Neku isn't really happy about this – not that he is trying to hide it though.
"I hope Beat and Nagi won't harass you too much for not going."
"Yeah, I can testify…" Eri adds, remembering how much they annoyed her when she said she wasn't interested.
At the mention of their friends, Neku makes a face. He forgot the most important thing: who he's supposed to go to the concert with.
If he doesn't get any ticket, Nagi and Beat are sure to harass him for days. Especially Nagi. Beat will just yell for some times. But Neku knows that the EleStra fan won't let that go.
Not that he cares much about what she thinks of him. But it would certainly be tiresome.
In comparison, walking on a stage in front of people sounds way better. Plus he won't have to spend money on tickets. On second thought, playing the fashion model for one time seems a good entry fee for a concert he's not even sure to like.
"Okay. I'll do it."
As soon as he says that, two pairs of shining eyes turn to him. For a moment Neku wonders if he took the right decision.
"Let's go fill the registration then!" Eri declares.
Even if he agreed, she's still making sure he's walking into the building.
They enter a room with a long stage. A man appears with a microphone and starts talking.
Neku looks around him. Shiki was right. Almost everyone appears to be around his size and corpulence, or even smaller.
Neku glances over his two friends.
One time, Shiki invited him to a fashion show. The 104 was organizing a special event so it was serious business this time.
Neku thought his two friends would be nervous. He quickly released how terribly wrong he was.
The girls looked like they were going to war. They were on a battlefield called a fashion show.
It was the first time Neku saw Shiki with such a murderous, bloodthirsty aura.
But right now, she's just watching the man speaking, no scary aura coming from her.
Shiki loves her work, Neku knows that. She and Eri love attempting official, big fashion shows as Gatto Nero's designers.
But they also probably enjoy making clothes solely for fun from time to time.
Neku takes a look at the 'torture room' they will be staying in until Eri and Shiki finish the clothes.. There is a big shelf full of fabrics of more colors than he can count. Between multiple desks stand two dummies, as if they are making sure no one tries to steal the sewing equipment.
Eri immediately stares at the colorful fabrics. She doesn't look very happy about the theme of the contest: "Everyday life".
On second thought, it is not that surprising. Gatto Nero clothes tend to be quite unusual after all. But this time they have to make something more common.
"Neku, I need to take your measurements." Shiki calls him.
She pulls out a measuring tape and starts to roll it up around him at different places.
He thought maintaining the different postures Shiki asks him to take would be tiresome but she works remarkably fast. Force of the habit, he guesses.
As fast as she is, Neku still shivers when she rolls the tape up around his waist. He's not ticklish. He suddenly remembers the time Shiki fixed his button when they were in the UG.
He should be making a face, thinking about this memory, because he noticed that when she briefly looked at his face, she slightly turned red and quickly looked away.
Although Shiki doesn't say a thing – none of them wants to talk about it again – Neku knows she's sorry.
Even if she still hates loose buttons as much as she did back then. Some things never changes.
"Phew! That was close!" Eri sighs, entering the room for the show.
"We're lucky we're in the last to go. Neku will have more time to get ready." Shiki adds.
The man with the microphone who gave the theme appears on the stage and thanks all the participants for their work and patience.
Finally the fashion show begins. Some designers chose an outfit for staying home, a school uniform, clothes to go on a walk, a uniform for work and so on.
Then their turn comes. The two girls hold their breath.
Since they had to work fast, they didn't have time to check how the complete outfit looks on Neku. And when the rules request one model for each participant, a lot of points are on how well the clothes accentuate the model's physique.
Neku finally appears. He starts walking, as straight as he can, a little tense.
Before he went to get changed, Shiki told him "Don't think about the contest. It doesn't matter if we don't win. So don't try to make us win. Walk as if you're going to see CAT's art, listening to music with your headphones on."
Then they joked about the headphones part. Eri didn't get why it was funny. Yet it seems these words help Neku relax now.
Eri turns to her friend, wanting to say something, but stops. The brunette is captivated.
Neku looks good in the clothes they made. Really good.
If Eri is excellent at imagining designs that show-off, she can't seem to create more ordinary outfits. Her friend, however, can easily pull out ideas for everyday clothes.
Shiki is the one who came up with the main design this time. She went for an outfit that would be comfortable to walk with across the streets, without everyone turning around. Eri simply added a little of her uncommon ideas, like moving the bottom left corner of the T-shirt on the thigh, while letting the right corner on the side.
The brunette got to design clothes for a close friend and the result fits him better than they would have imagined. No wonder Shiki is so happy, Eri thinks.
Some days later...
The two friends let out a relieved sight as they watch Shoka and Rindo running to Tower Records, phones in hands.
Shiki needed stuff for Shoka's birthday present. She had decided to make her a swallow plush. When Neku asked why not giving her a Mr. Mew plush, she replied "There can only be one Mr. Mew plush and it can only be mine!"
Through it may sounds selfish, Neku understands the reason.
Mr. Mew allowed her to meet many people she holds dear. It also became the only clue for him to recognize her after they won the Game, three years ago. There is no way she would allow anyone to own a copy of her precious stuffed black cat.
Once they had gotten everything Shiki needed, they hanged out at Hachiko while waiting for Shiki's train. That is when they met Rindo and Shoka, playing FanGO. Fortunately, the youngsters quickly set off to catch a monster.
"Oh! Before I forget. Here. This is for you." Shiki says, handing a bag to Neku.
She had it all the day. Neku gives her a confuse look but takes it anyway. He opens it.
"Huh?!"
Inside the bag are the clothes he wore at the small design contest Shiki and Eri entered. The brunette fixed some parts but it is well and truly the same.
"You can have them."
The girls have lost the contest. However, they seemed so happy about the outfit they made that he thought they were planning to sell it.
Despite that, Shiki is giving it to him. She wouldn't be allowed to do this before its official release.
So she has given up on selling these clothes simply for him?
"What about Eri?"
"She said I did almost all the work, so I should do what I want with it." Shiki replies with a smile. "Also, it's to thank you for the other day.
"Huh?! But it was a deal..."
"Between you and Eri. This is a gift from me."
Neku eyes widen. He shut out other people for so many years. Not so long ago – at least if he thinks only about the time he spent with his friends – he was so selfish that he has not even considered he would get such a precious gift.
It is the first time he receives a present out of pure generosity since it happened.
"O-of course if you don't like it, you can-"
"Thank you."
He closes the bag and holds it in his hands, staring into space, his head slightly leaning down.
Seeing a small, sad smile on his face, Shiki worries for a second that her gift has upset him.
"Thank you. I'll take good care of it." Neku says, not noticing her concerned face.
Shiki finally smiles back. She doesn't know why he reacts like this but she doesn't ask. One day, maybe he will tell her.
"Glad to hear it." She answers.
Of course he likes the design. He even thought he looked good in the outfit on the picture the girls showed him. But these clothes, they are not just some ordinary pieces of fabric you put on.
At first he didn't want to model and he can't say he would do it again without thinking twice.
Now he realizes: even so, he actually enjoyed it a little.
He took part in a fashion show, something he had never thought he would do in his life.
But most of all, he got to see more of Shiki's beloved work. He got to share a small fragment of her world.
These clothes are the tangible proof of the time they spent together.
What he thought as an entry fee turned into a precious gift.
Yay I finished it! So, as I wrote in the summary, this one-shot was made for day 1 "Entry fee/Fairy Tale" of NeShiki Week 2021.
Yes, there isn't much hugs and holding hands and blushing and cuteness.
"You have to be good friends before being lovers" is what I think.
So I like to write stories that "show a good friendship that can also be seen as romance", with romance not being portrayed by the usual ways.
I didn't want to write or draw the moment Shiki got taken as Neku's entry fee for his second Game because I know everyone will. I wanted to make something a little more uncommon and I wasn't inspired by the other theme of day 1.
So I used NeoTWEWY Another Day base plot as a base to find a reason for Neku having to model for Eri and Shiki.
The theme of the contest, "everyday life", was also an excuse for having Shiki make the design. Because, y'know, it's still technically a NeShiki fanfic.
And I think that almost all the Gatto Nero clothes we can buy in Neo have uncommon designs (and are asymmetric lol). So I made Eri good at designing these kind of clothes while having Shiki skilled to imagine more common clothes.
Also, the reason Neku wants to go to Def Märch concert is because he wants to know if the TWEWY band were really erased. Joshua didn't bring back the Conductor and the Game Masters he fought in TWEWY but Joshua being Joshua, you can never know with him.
Shiki can't go to the concert because she has a family trip this day. It's the first she's taken in a long time so she doesn't want to miss it. Family is still family.
Eri got the tickets from an acquaintance of hers.
Fret got his at a lottery. He wanted another price but luck definitely wasn't on his side. He kept the tickets with the idea to give them to someone else.
Beat simply got a music from the band in his recommendations on a website. Or he heard about it by a friend, I haven't decided yet.
Nagi discovered Def Märch by admiring a picture of Lord Tomonami on the back of a CD. They composed some OST for EleStra so she got curious.
Fret doesn't care much about who makes the OST but going to a concert with friends sounds good.
Same for Rhyme and Shiki.
Shoka listened a part of one of Def Märch music and got curious.
Rindo was hesitant but Fret told him "give it a shot. If you and Shoka both like it, you'll have one more thing in common".
Aaand that's all for today! I hope you liked this little one-shot.
If you see any grammar spelling, feel free to tell me!
Fun fact: as my fashion sense is below than zero, I had to actually draw the outfit Eri and Shiki made in case I decided to describe it. (that's also why I chose a simple theme for the fashion contest hehe)