Draco: Okay, I knew I was gonna do another one. I don't actually own a version with access to the second round of alts (Canada always misses out on the good stuff), so I'm working off artwork and renders.

Bravely Default and all related properties © Square Enix

New Clothes From Yulyana

"You have grown strong in such a short time, Agnès."

The battlefield that Yulyana had created faded around them as the team tried to catch their breath. "And you, Sage," Agnès managed to force out. "You're quite formidable for a man of your age." Her words spoke for all of them - Tiz was certain that Yulyana hadn't actually been trying.

The observation only caused Yulyana to chuckle. "Yes, well, nineteen hundred years is a rather long span," he admitted. "Now, I must ask - what shall we do about the memories of those you encountered in the ordeals I prepared?" As the team rose, the sage continued, "I can leave them with the memories of your meeting intact, or I can wipe them from their minds."

Tiz glanced at his friends for a moment, trading thoughtful gazes, before turning to face Yulyana. "I would ask that you leave them intact, then," he replied. "Even chance meetings over in a moment can provide a spark to keep a person going."

Agnès nodded. "I leave it to time to claim what memories it will," she agreed.

"That works for you, too?" Edea asked, turning to Ringabel.

"Fine by me," he confirmed.

"Very well, then," Yulyana mused. "It shall be as you wish." He tapped his staff to the ground lightly. "Now," he mused, "it's time we parted ways. I leave the fate of the world in your hands."

Agnès was shocked when she saw light begin to gather around the base of the elder's robes. "Sage-!"

Yulyana shook his head comfortingly. "Do not look so sad, child," he insisted. "I simply go to see a little meeting I've avoided overlong." His gaze fell to the floor as the light started to become brighter. "Truly... truly overlong."

He raised his staff above his head.

"Now, farewell!"

The light consumed his body in a brilliant flash of blinding light, prompting the team to look away.

When they could see again, all that remained in the sage's place was the familiar crystalline figure of an asterisk.

+x+x+x+

They agreed to stay the night at Yulyana Needleworks, hoping to regain some of the energy they had lost in the duel. As the sun began to set, Edea was preparing some food for the team when Ringabel (who had chosen to escape from the scent of her cooking in the clothing selections) stepped out with a collection of packages in his arms.

"Edea," he said hesitantly, "you're not terribly far into the recipe yet, are you?"

"Yeah, I kinda am," Edea mused, glancing over her shoulder. At the sight of the packages in his arms, she only turned back to the meal, growling, "And I'm not stopping for a fashion show."

Ringabel shook his head. "It's not," he mused, setting the packages down. "One of these was to be sent to you."

Edea spun around at that, looking at the packages. "What?"

"And one for me, one for Tiz, and one for Agnès," Ringabel added. "They're from the Sage."

Tiz (who had been watching Edea cook) and Agnès (who had been in the back room) now stepped towards the packages. "What are...?"

Ringabel picked up a note from on top of the packages. One of the boxes was of average size and earthen brown; another, much smaller one was bright white; the third, smaller still, was ocean blue; and the last was a deep black, roughly the size of the first.

"Here, this is from the master," the ex-amnesiac mused. "To Agnès, Tiz, Edea, and Ringabel. My meeting with you spurred something within my mind. Something that compelled me to craft these for you. Within each of these boxes is a new set of garments. The brown package is for Tiz, Agnès' is the white one, the blue one is for Ringabel, and the black one is Edea's. You need not feel compelled to wear them normally, nor forced even to try them on. However, I ask that if you are to sample these garments, that you each show them upon your person to the others - and that you only sample them if all of you are willing to do the same. From Conjurer Yulyana."

The team exchanged glanced with each other.

"I don't know," Edea mused warily. "How do we know for sure that he hasn't got something... Florem in here?"

Ringabel shook his head. "If he were going to give us garments like that," he mused, "I'm fairly certain he wouldn't have left first."

Agnès nodded. "Indeed," she agreed. "I trust the Sage."

Tiz angled his head. "Yeah," he admitted, "same here."

Edea shrugged. "Alright," she mused. "Ringabel, you got straws?"

+x+x+x+

Dimensional Officer

Tiz ended up going first, taking his package to the change room and closing the curtain behind him. Edea picked hers up and shook it gently, listening for anything... odd. She got no such result, and with a sigh, she sat the box back down and waited for Tiz to come out.

It didn't take long before he did, drawing the curtain aside and stepping out carefully.

Agnès set a hand upon her mouth. "Oh, my."

Tiz was dressed in smooth light-grey and dark-brown enforcers' wear. Slightly baggy leggings and sleeves (for ease of movement during a fight), solid, form-fitting gloves (to protect his knuckles if he needed to land a punch), sharp boots with large plates up the front of his ankle (to protect his feet if an opponent tried to fight dirty), a high collar, and a long, two-pronged cape that both seemed to say "I'm here on business."

Edea opened her mouth. "That," she mused, "is all sorts of awesome. You look like some sort of gang leader!"

"Gang leader?" Ringabel questioned. "I'd have to say it's more of a... military commander look. It's really quite a demanding appearance."

"Huh... maybe you're right," Edea mused. "Agnès, what do you think?"

Agnès swallowed heavily as Tiz turned to her. "It does seem rather... official," she agreed. "But it's... an otherworldly kind of official, I think."

Tiz smiled. "Thanks," he mused, rolling his shoulders. "I gotta say it's kind of stiff," he admitted, "but that could just be it being new."

Ringabel tapped the table he was leaning against with one finger, thinking. "It needs a little something," he mused. "Some kind of arm, to complete the look. How about..."

"I know!" Edea cheered, rushing into the change room behind him. It only took her a moment before she came back with what looked like a prop spear. "This one!"

Tiz accepted the spear, looking over it curiously. "He's got props back there?"

Edea nodded. "He's got everything back there," she stated.

A light chuckled passed through Agnès' lips as Tiz set the base of the spear against the ground and turned the other way, putting on an attempt at a stern expression. "A bit much, perhaps," she observed, "but... fitting."

+x+x+x+

Bravo Bunny

The wind vestal was up next. Her costume change seemed to take almost twice as long as Tiz's had before she asked through the curtain, "Um, is... is something burning out there?"

"What?" Edea asked. Then, when she realized her distraction; "My cooking!"

It took her almost three minutes to safely dispose of the wasted meal. Ringabel had a look of what was nearly relief when she came back in with an empty pan - save for what looked like burnt-on residue. The marshal's daughter dropped the pan into what appeared to be a washbin before sitting back down and calling, "You can come out now, Agnès."

"Yes, just a moment..."

Her nervous tone prompted Tiz to lower his gaze. I have a bad feeling about this...

The curtain was pushed to the side, and everyone looked towards Agnès.

Tiz's spear and glove hit the floor.

Ringabel slammed a hand into his mouth.

Edea slammed a hand into her mouth.

Agnès was wearing what looked like a one-piece bravo bikini. Tiz had thought the original was too revealing to be legal, but he was fairly certain this thing actually managed to cover less skin in the... necessary areas than Edea's did. There were also small white ribbons tied just above her elbows, and another pair tied around her thighs. On her feet were a pair of thigh-high black high-heels (they didn't look to be too high, but that was probably more for the condition of Agnès' feet than any design preferences), on her hands were a pair of long black opera gloves, and upon her helm were a pair of sharp bunny ears.

The vestal had her arms crossed over her chest as the group tried to find something to say without sounding offensive. A couple seconds passed before Tiz dropped his gaze to the floor, setting his presently bare hand over his forehead at an angle to respect Agnès' privacy. "I am so sorry."

"That old l-" Edea stopped herself. "No, I said I wasn't going to call him that anymore."

Ringabel pounded his fist against his chest like he was trying to clear a blockage. "Well... you won't catch your death of cold," he said, trying to find a positive side to the garment.

Hesitantly, Agnès pinched the fabric of her collar, keeping the other arm where it was. "I cannot actually feel this fabric between my fingers," she murmured. "I was worried it would tear while I put it on. It's too thin to provide any actual heat."

"I don't even know," Ringabel admitted.

Tiz groaned regretfully.

Edea sighed. "Were... were those ears in the package?"

Agnès nodded nervously, crossing her arms again.

"I'm sorry, Agnès," Edea admitted. "I know you're not gonna like it when I say this, but... it does look good on you. Even if it's not the kind of good that you'd approve of."

Here the vestal turned to Tiz, who still had his gaze on the floor. "Tiz?"

"...She's right," the Norende boy managed to force out. "It's not you, but... it looks good on you."

+x+x+x+

Wakoku Warrior

Agnès eventually decided to tough it out and wait through everyone else's costume changes in her pseudo-bravo outfit. Tiz picked up his prop spear and held it at his side, trying not to look at Agnès while Ringabel stepped in and changed. Edea turned to the washbin and started trying to scrape the burnt waste off her pan.

She'd hardly even grabbed the scraper when she heard the curtain slide, and Edea turned with the pan still in hand. "That was fFFFFFF-!"

Ringabel had a rose in his hand. Tiz had noticed it in a vase inside the change room. There was a bright blue scarf tied around his neck, made from some fabric that looked like the ocean at sunset when it caught the light. It was tied with two tails that trailed down past his waist - where the only other piece of clothing on his person was waiting - a thicker blue cloth thong resembling what one would wear to a sumo match. One of the tails of the scarf was hooked in his footwear - leather sandals that looked straight out of the Age of Myths - and a pair of bronze bracelets were clasped around his wrists.

Tiz impaled the prop spear in the rafter immediately above Ringabel's head before rushing out of the needleworks. Agnès turned in his direction - and away from Ringabel - to hear him speaking with the adventurer about "the biggest bottle of Bacchus' Wine you got!"

"-FFFFFFFFFFFFLYING UNITED COUNTRY OF KINGS WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Edea demanded, aiming the wet frying pan at Ringabel.

The ex-amnesiac managed to step away from the water droplets that were flying towards him, pulling the tail of his scarf out of the sandal it was caught in. "Er... a bold man?" he offered. "Perhaps too bold..."

"No kidding," Edea mused, turning back to the washbin and driving the pan into the water. "That looks like something the male models used to wear in art class. I wouldn't be caught dead with that in a battle scene."

"I thought you were in the Eternian military academy," Agnès mused, turning to face her with enough speed that her gaze couldn't capture Ringabel. "What reason would you have to attend an art class?"

"My mother encouraged me to try a few different things, instead of just being a soldier because my father was," Edea admitted. "Art class was the last one I tried. The second we got to live models, I said screw it and signed up for Military Academy."

It was then that Tiz stepped inside, pulled the spear out of the rafters, drove it into the floor in front of his seat, and then sat down so that the shaft of the spear obscured as much of Ringabel as possible. He had a liter bottle of Bacchus' Wine in one hand, and about seventeen Remedies in the other. Once he was seated, he took a long draught from the bottle, then swung it down and held out the Remedies to Agnès.

Agnès reached for the bottle instead.

+x+x+x+

Military Cadet-In

Ringabel, decided to make himself useful while Edea was changing, pulled the cuffs off his wrists and set them at the side of the washbin before grabbing the pan and scraper and trying to get the burnt waste off the pan. He did notice the bottle of Bacchus' Wine running low fairly quickly; the two of them seemed to be alternating between taking shots and applying Remedies to each other.

"You may want to slow down with that," he said to Agnès and Tiz. "Triggering a berserk state and counteracting it in rapid succession are supposed-"

"That's the idea," the two of them replied at once.

With a roll of his eyes, Ringabel turned away. Then again, he thought, still washing, it's not supposed to take any real effect until you hit thirty alternations. At the rate their going, they shouldn't get much more than four out of a bottle.

The curtains slid open, and the four of them turned to face Edea.

"Finally," Tiz mused observed, "Something that didn't come out of modern-day Florem."

Edea was wearing what resembled a school uniform in black and white. The footwear was a pair of thigh-high boots that vanished into the legs of the skirt, which had a pair of black 'wings' flowing out from its sides, and the sleeves were done up with criss-cross cords that looked like they belonged on hiking boots. The garment also had the frills of a performer outfit, and a schoolbag was dangling at Edea's side.

No sooner had everyone taken this in than Edea aimed her finger at the bottle in Tiz's hands and said, "I refuse to believe that you guys have had that little."

Ringabel gave the bottle a sideways glance, seeing it was now full. Noticing the empty bottle set on the ground behind Agnès, Ringabel only rolled his eyes and turned back to Edea, drying his hands on a nearby towel. "Schoolgirl uniform?" he mused, slipping his cuffs back on. "It fits you rather well. That wouldn't happen to be...?"

Edea nodded, doing a little spin to show off. "This design is right out of the Eternia," she confirmed. "Black is the military academy's colour."

Tiz raised an eyebrow, pointing at her around the bottle. "That doesn't seem a little bit strange to you?" he asked.

"Yulyana was on the Council of Six," Edea reminded him. "Considering his track record, I think he would know about the school uniforms."

"It does seem quite fitting," Agnès observed. "Did the bag come with the garment?"

"No," Edea admitted, "I found it in his props box."

Ringabel blinked. "He has a perfect-fitting school bag in his props?"

Edea nodded. "He has everything back there."

"Well," Ringabel mused, "I won't deny it looks brilliant on you. Does it provide much freedom of movement?"

"Yeah," Edea admitted.

"And is it comfortable?"

"Very."

Ringabel chuckled lightly. "Well, then I don't see any reason you shouldn't wear it."

Edea glanced at him. "What are you implying?" she demanded.

"Implying?" And then, when he realized exactly what that sounded like, "No, I didn't mean-"

The marshal's daughter stormed forward and snatched the quarter-full bottle out of Agnès' hand, draining the remainder in one go.

When she set it down, there was another bottle waiting for her.

Draco: Honestly, if I saw anyone in Ringabel's Wakoku Warrior outfit, I would need a drink. I don't happen to be able to enjoy alcohol, but I'm certain a twelve-pack of Coca-Cola in quick succession and a late-night sparring match with Edea would have similar effects.