A/N: Story so far: Once again, Yosuke Screwed Everything Up - leaving the girls to take their revenge, and Kanji to made an impassioned and ultimately ignored plea to Naoto.
In this not-particularly-short interlude: Naoto tries to make Teddie a girl, can't understand why she needs to make Kanji a man, and still doesn't know what to make of herself.
(Apologies for the slow updates...on the bright side, barring any unforeseen problems, updates *should* be weekly for the rest of the festival chapters.)
EDIT: Many thanks to Megaolix for his awesome idea regarding Naoto's dress (and apologies for forgetting this credit in the first upload)
October 30th, 2011
"Nao-chan! Wait!"
In stating that she would 'go borrow a make-up kit', Naoto had actually meant 'run off and hide until this horrible day is over'. It had been a snap decision and in retrospect an utterly childish one. Futile too, since Teddie had a turn of speed that rivaled Chie-senpai's.
Naoto, however, had the twin advantages of a sharp mind and sheer desperation. All she needed to do was shake Teddie off. He'd soon grow bored searching for her. Then he'd wander back to the group, the girls could dress him up in whatever they wished and she would be free to plan her escape from the ridiculous beauty contest later that day. Assuming she wanted to escape - or rather, whether escape would be appropriate. Seta-senpai had instructed her to 'integrate' herself into the team, as he had phrased it, and this was an injustice they all had to suffer. It would also be unwise to incur the faculty's displeasure so soon after joining Yasogami High.
Besides, Kanji had specifically requested that she-
Focus, Shirogane. Find a place to hide. Leave the ruminations till then.
The roof? No, no, Teddie would see her climbing the stairs. Far better to make her way outside and lose him in the schoolyard. With Teddie still yelling after her, Naoto burst through the doors to the practice building, rounded the corner to the right - and barely skidded to a halt in front of a large cardboard box. A cardboard box with legs and a female voice. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"
Standing on tiptoes and peering over the top of the box, Naoto could see the upper half of a face, framed by dark hair and wearing an annoyed expression. "I'm sorry, I-" she began - unfortunately, at the same moment Teddie dashed around the corner behind her and slammed into her back.
People had been doing that a lot lately. Far more often than Naoto liked - even if it had technically been her fault two times out of three.
"Nao-chan!" Teddie trilled, wrapping himself around her waist like an over-friendly python. "You waited!" His grip both kept her upright and prevented her from falling on top of the box, but Naoto still only managed an unhappy noise in response.
"Are you two gonna block the corridor all day?" The girl had placed the box on the floor and was now staring at Teddie, eyes narrowed. "Wait…aren't you that guy from Junes? The exchange student?"
Teddie beamed back at her. "I know you - you're Sensei's friend!" He paused in thought, Naoto taking the opportunity to wriggle out of his grasp. "Or one of them, anyway. He has tons. Everyone likes Souji-sensei."
"You know Souji too?"
Naoto, deciding she ought to be involved in the conversation, stuck out her hand. "Naoto Shirogane. Class 1-1."
The handshake was not returned. Instead, the girl studied Naoto for a moment, before her face flickered with recognition. "Oh yeah, I remember. The girl who was a boy. Or the boy who's a girl. Why're you-"
A voice called out from somewhere down the corridor. "Ozawa, are you getting those wigs or not?"
"It's fine if you don't! Really!" called a second - male and vaguely panic-stricken.
The girl rolled her eyes; Naoto refrained from pointing out that the voice wouldn't see it. "I've already got them. Stop complaining!" she snapped, then bent down to pick up the box at her feet.
With another remarkable turn of speed, Teddie darted in front of her and lifted the box into his arms. "Pretty girls shouldn't carry heavy objects! Allow me!"
"It's not actually heavy - but sure." Ozawa shrugged and gestured down the corridor behind Naoto. "Take it to the Home Ec. room, please."
Naoto hadn't paid the box much thought, being preoccupied with both the conversation and Teddie grabbing her. Looking closely now, it was full of synthetic-looking hair in various unnatural shades. "Why do you need the wigs?"
"Because two guys I know refuse to ever give up on a bet," Ozawa replied, shaking her head as she followed Teddie into the classroom, Naoto following her in turn.
Inside, perched next to each other on sewing stools in the center of the room, sat two unhappy-looking boys draped in elaborate, flowing dresses. Dresses which Naoto was positive she'd seen hanging on a clothes rail ready for use in the festival play. A blonde girl was standing next to the larger of the two, wielding a tube of lipstick in one hand and gripping his chin with the other. She seemed familiar, though Naoto couldn't quite place her.
"C'mon, Yumi, don't bring people to gawk at us!" the larger boy bellowed, trying to squirm out of the blonde's grip.
"So," asked Ozawa, "which of you two wants to be the redhead?"
Before either boy could answer, Teddie tossed the box on the nearest sewing table and bounded across the room. "Ooh, fellow contestants! Pursuing the dream of young men everywhere!"
The slimmer of the two boys cringed and muttered something under his breath that Naoto couldn't quite hear, but seemed to relate to everything in life being horrible enough already. It was difficult to tell under the thick layer of makeup and the mass of turquoise frills, but hadn't she seen him-
"Ichijo-senpai," Naoto said, as respectfully as she could manage, "that is not your costume."
"No crap. This makes that dumb Hamlet outfit look good," muttered Ichijo. He glanced at the boy to his right and let out a pained sigh. "Nagase, you're a idiot."
Naoto tried again. "The dresses are required for the play, Ichijo-senpai, you should return them to-"
"Gimme a break, man." Again Nagase tried to pull away from the blonde girl, wincing as she dug her perfectly manicured nails into his chin. "Who was the one bragging about what an awesome girl he'd make?"
"Shut up, I totally would and you know it." Ichijo stared at the fabric pooling around his legs and pulled a face. "It's this stupid dress."
"I'll take it if you like," Teddie offered, poking at the elaborate ruff around Ichijo's neck.
Naoto cleared her throat. "I am certain there is no need to use these dress-"
"Oh, like anyone cares!" Ozawa exclaimed. "The play's gonna suck."
The blonde girl made a vague sound of disdain. "You're just pissed that the drama club didn't get asked to join in."
"I told you, I'm not into that stuff anymore. The whole idea's just bad. I mean, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet?"
"Yeah." Ichijo sighed again. "Could've picked at least one play where everybody doesn't die at the end."
Naoto studied him closely; makeup and dress aside, she had heard other students claim Ichijo and herself shared a close resemblance. Back when she'd still been considered male, there had even been rumors that the two of them were long-lost brothers. Absurd in every sense. Same hair coloring, similar sharp features - but Ichijo was easily as tall as Seta-senpai even while slouching, while the idea of Naoto joining the basketball club soared past optimism and landed somewhere near delusion. He also looked better in a dress than she ever would.
She shook her head. They were wasting time. "My apologies, senpai, but Teddie and I must prepare for-"
"-beating you in the pageant!" Teddie leaned over the blonde girl and inspected the makeup bag at her side. "Can we borrow some of your equipment?"
"Wait, you're in the contest too?" Ozawa narrowed her eyes again. "That makes you our competition."
The blonde shrugged, swapping the lipstick for a black pencil and casually smacking Teddie's hand away from the bag. "Like Kou and Daisuke are gonna win anyway. But you're only getting the spare, whatever your name is." She glanced toward Ozawa. "Give it to him, he'll make a cute girl."
Any chance Naoto had of escaping from this task had vanished. Might as well seize the opportunity. "The loan would be appreciated. Of course we'll take good care of-"
"A beautiful woman like you needs no makeup, Yumi-chan!" Teddie insisted, then tipped a thumb toward Nagase and Ichijo. "Neither do these two, it wouldn't help."
"Hey! You tryin' to say something?" roared Nagase.
After a moment's pause, Ozawa gave a shrug. "I guess giving you the basics wouldn't hurt."
"Thank you, Yumi-chan!" On Naoto's embryonic Sparkle Quotient scale, Teddie's sudden grin ranked as a small shower of diamonds - and, as usual, the effect was instantaneous.
Cheeks flushed a furious red, Ozawa offered him a shy smile in return as she handed him the bag. "Oh… um, no problem. Good luck."
A ridiculous number of brushes, a bent pair of scissors, something that looked like a pipe cleaner dipped in motor oil and more shades of lipstick than had any right to exist. How did this constitute the basics?
"This is hopeless," Naoto muttered as she stared at the collection of objects scattered on the desk. "I apologize, Teddie. I'm going to be no help at all."
"That's okay! We're an unstoppable double team of sartorial savvy!" Teddie chirped, midway through applying lipstick to his eyelids. "Besides, the stuff I'm putting on myself looks great."
Her formal schooling might have been limited, but after a comprehensive self-education Naoto considered herself well-versed in many crucial areas of knowledge. Makeup, being utterly pointless, was not one of them. The little she'd picked up from observing Rise confirmed her suspicions that Teddie knew even less. "I believe the blue powder is eyeshadow, not hair glitter."
"I like blue," he said happily. "You always look so nice in it, Nao-chan."
Naoto glanced toward the door, fingers worrying the collar of her shirt. "I-I should retrieve one of the others. Rise-san would be better placed to assist you." Why had Chie-senpai ever suggested her involvement to begin with? She had little idea how to present herself as a girl, never mind making a boy - or bear - resemble one.
"Rise-chan's busy. Here, put some of this black pen on me."
Naoto took the black cylinder - or at least tolerated Teddie shoving it into her palm - and leaned down next to his chair. "Ah…this is eyeliner, correct?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. I tried doing research this morning, but the girls in the magazines under Yosuke's bed didn't have much makeup on and they weren't wearing nice dresses." He paused, tilting his head. "Actually, they weren't wearing anything. Oh, except for one, she had this bright red plastic-ow, don't stick the pen in my eye!"
"Pleasestoptalking," Naoto spluttered.
This earned her a pout in response, but Teddie dropped the topic nonetheless - and once Naoto's hand had steadied, she resumed tracing the pen along the rim of his left eyelid. The nib kept getting stuck in the lipstick. "Hopeless," she repeated through gritted teeth. "As if entering the pageant weren't bad enough."
Teddie patted her arm. "Don't worry, Nao-chan. You're gonna look bear-y pretty."
"That is not one of my concerns."
"Every girl wants to look pretty," he insisted, waving the lipstick tube at her for emphasis and almost knocking the pen in his eye again. "Every Teddie too. And Kanji-chan."
Naoto tried not to cringe.
Signing the boys up for the cross-dressing pageant had been Rise's idea, though ten full minutes of interrogation hadn't uncovered the reason behind it. Given the way she'd smirked and shrugged, Naoto wasn't certain one existed. Unfortunately, Chie-senpai had quickly jumped on board in the name of revenge, Yukiko-senpai had followed out of solidarity, and Naoto's protests had been feeble at best. Rocking the boat had seemed unwise when the girls had apparently claimed her as one of their own. It was kind of them to do so. Knowing that made it no easier to stomach - and no better an excuse for going along with their plan.
She swallowed. "Is Kanji-chan-I mean, Kanji-kun, is he…acquiescent to his participation in the pageant?"
Teddie gave her a cheerfully blank stare.
Right. Shorter words. "Kanji. Is-is he angry about being in the contest?"
"Nope. Kanji-chan hits things when he gets mad, so it's easy to tell."
Teddie's assertion was most likely correct. Naoto had gauged Kanji's temper well before their first meeting. Body language was simple to read, and the clench of his fists and the way he'd prowled the streets as she'd trailed him through the shopping district had spoken more than any of the stumbled sentences during their initial conversation. If he'd been truly angry about being entered into the pageant, wouldn't he have shown it on the roof?
…Except Kanji had changed in recent months. His manner of speaking remained the same but he carried himself in an entirely different manner. Almost with pride. Doubtless Seta-senpai had played a part in this transformation. The same threat now hung over Naoto; one of many reasons she felt ill-at-ease in Senpai's presence. She preferred not to think about the others. She preferred not to think about Kanji either, because what he'd said on the roof and later in the corridor had been completely-
"Hey, are you drawing on my face? I hope it's something nice!"
She blinked. The pen had slid down from Teddie's left eye to somewhere near his chin. "Ah. Sorry."
Teddie pointed to his left cheek. "Sensei says I'm a star, so you should draw that."
Mind still preoccupied, Naoto nodded obligingly and began outlining a lopsided star.
She should have gone to the school board. Found some loophole in the school charter allowing both her and Kanji to withdraw from the contest. It would have been so much simpler. Kanji would have no need to cross-dress and Naoto would have no need not to.
Except he'd seemed perfectly content to enter. More than that, he'd asked her outright to do the same - and after hours of diligently not thinking about it, Naoto still hadn't found a logical explanation.
"Thanks for helping me, Nao-chan. I know you didn't really want to, but I'm glad you are." A finger tapped against her nose, snapping her back to awareness. Teddie was smiling brightly - blue powder in his hair, red lipstick and eyeliner on his eyelids, and a shaky black line and star drawn on his left cheek. The reprimand Sukuna-Hikona buzzed at the walls of her skull was quite unrepeatable.
"I-" Naoto shook her head again, partly in disbelief. "What am I doing? I-I'm supposed to be helping you and instead I'm obsessing over-"
"Wow. What did you do, throw the whole kit at him?"
Naoto bolted upright and turned around. In the doorway of the music room stood the blonde girl from earlier; the one who'd been attacking Nagase with a tube of lipstick. She walked into the room, gaze flickering between Naoto and Teddie. "I've seen you before. You hang out with Souji, right?"
...Of course. This was the girl she'd seen in the corridor with Seta-senpai almost two weeks ago - the one who'd watched Naoto make a complete idiot of herself and then been unpleasant about it.
"Ah-um, we-" Naoto began, then realized she wasn't making real words and stuck out her hand instead. "Naoto Shirogane. Class 1-1. You insulted my shoes."
This handshake was no more successful than the last. The girl gave her an indifferent glance which quickly shifted to her feet. "Yeah, the Frankenstein boots. They really aren't doing anything for you, y'know."
Naoto opened her mouth to respond; specifically, to politely and firmly explain that her shoes were simultaneously perfectly adequate for school use and perfectly able to serve the purpose for which they intended. Unfortunately, her indignation had no time to cool into an actual sentence before the girl continued.
"I'm Ai Ebihara, but you probably know that already," she said, though her attention was now clearly focused on Teddie. "Thought I'd come watch you play dress-up with this little doll."
"I'm not a doll, I'm a bear. And we aren't playing dress-up. Teddie's entering the contest!"
"You already said that." As she peered closer, Ebihara's forehead creased into a delicate frown. "Is that lipstick on your eyelids?"
Teddie nodded proudly. "Yes."
She raised her eyebrows - possibly in admiration, possibly in disdain - then turned to Naoto. "So where's his outfit?"
"Outfit?"
"Yeah. Makeup comes after the clothes, everyone knows that." Apparently Naoto hadn't hid her blank stare as successfully as she'd hoped, because Ebihara gave her a tentative look of surprise. "…Except you, huh?"
Naoto shrugged helplessly.
Ebihara stared at her for several awkward seconds - then smiled in nearly the same manner Rise did when pushing a conversation back on-track, or at least onto whichever track she preferred. Come to think of it, Ebihara and Rise shared several similarities. Naoto hoped they'd never meet.
"Figures. Guys don't wear it, and you think you're one or like one or whatever you've got going on." Ebihara tipped her head. "Want some help?"
Half-leaping from his seat, Teddie punched a fist into the air. "Of course! New friends on Team Teddie guarantee victory!"
Relying on others didn't come naturally to Naoto and her first impulse was to refuse the offer of help. But in truth, Teddie would make an attractive girl. Wide eyes with long lashes, hair that simultaneously looked silken and fuzzy, the ability to sparkle at will... in capable hands, he might even win the contest. He deserved better than her, Naoto decided, choosing not to dwell on the fact that she'd just applied the word 'attractive' to someone who spent half their time as a red and blue bear. "We'd welcome the assistance. But what about Ichijo-senpai and Nagase-senpai?"
"I'd rather help Sparkles here. At least he has a chance of winning. Trust me, Kou's cute, but he doesn't make as good a girl as he says or as you'd think. And as for Daisuke…" The sentence trailed off into a shudder. "A miracle couldn't fix that."
"Well…thank you, Ebihara-senpai," Naoto said, with a slight bow and a tip of her cap. "This-it, um, isn't exactly my area of expertise."
"No kidding. But it should be, right?" Ebihara walked over to the desk, took the seat next to Teddie and began rifling through the equipment on the table. "I mean, you cross-dress."
"No I don't," Naoto shot back on instinct, quickly amending it to, "I-I mean, I, I suppose I do - but not as a girl!"
"Forget the girl part." Ebihara began wiping a cloth over Teddie's face, ignoring his squeaked protests. "I want the bigger picture. How'd you convince everyone you were a guy?"
Because I am, Naoto almost said. It was a ridiculous response. It was also completely instinctive. "I-I don't know."
"Yosuke said you definitely fooled Kanji-chan," Teddie pointed out, wincing slightly when Ebihara grabbed his left ear and scrubbed at his cheek. "Big time."
Naoto frowned. Hadn't she fooled everyone? Perhaps Kanji had just been more hurt when the truth came out, since they'd previously been…not friends, exactly, not in any normal sense of the word. But they'd talked. More than she had with anyone else in town, even if that wasn't saying much. The visits after his rescue had been a kind gesture, too - one that Naoto hadn't truly appreciated at the time but now almost missed.
(Sorry shouldhavesaidsorry deservedbetter)
…Irrelevant. Sukuna-Hikona knew nothing of the situation. If Naoto owed Kanji an apology, she owed one to the rest of the team and to every other person she'd encountered in the last four years. She'd had no choice but to lie, and it hadn't truly been deliberate; by the time she'd arrived in Inaba, the pretence hadn't felt like one in a very long time.
"Well?" Ebihara sounded irritated. "C'mon, there's got to be something."
"The details," Naoto said firmly, waving a hand toward Teddie. "He's attractive enough to make a reasonable girl, but victory may depend on the finer aspects." She shook her head. "But this is merely for a pageant, not a long-term endeavor."
"Doesn't matter. Just pick one thing he can do."
Naoto hesitated, studying Teddie carefully.
She simply needed to reverse the process. Have him emulate the flaws she'd worked so hard to hide. Speech wasn't the main concern in a beauty pageant, his shoulders were already narrow enough for them to appear rounded, and his mannerisms hardly qualified as masculine. Little about Teddie did. Since learning that he'd effectively grown his human form inside his suit, Naoto had suspected his choice of gender had been arbitrary.
"Movement," she decided. "Girls carry themselves lightly. You should shorten your steps. Keep your legs closer together."
"Sounds tricky." Teddie's brow furrowed. "What if I skip?"
Naoto paused. "…Good enough."
Ebihara had moved on from removing Teddie's makeup to brushing the eyeshadow out of his hair. "Cool. So, Sparkles, where's your dress?"
"Didn't bring one. I thought I could borrow a uniform." He grinned. "Maybe from a pretty girl."
"What, you figured someone would strip off for you?" Ebihara asked, eyebrows raised - then shook her head at Teddie's confused shrug. "Okay, so we need an outfit. Any ideas, Shirogane?"
"Ah. Um…well, do you have anything? There's no time to go to Junes, and-"
Ebihara made the same derisive sound as before. It was something close to a snort. "They only sell crap anyway - and I don't have anything that would fit him. Too many curves," she added with a smirk toward Naoto. "Guess you wouldn't have that problem."
Immensely grateful that Rise hadn't broadcast her measurements to the world and equally proud that she continued to hide them successfully, Naoto shook her head.
"He's taller than you,'" Ebihara continued, eyes narrowed, "but you're both kinda skinny…got anything he could borrow?"
Naoto blinked. "Girls' clothing?"
"Oh. Yeah, maybe not."
'Maybe not' ought to be amended to 'never in a million years'. Save for one occasion, Naoto hadn't worn a dress or skirt since she was six, a record she had no intention of breaking. Every item of clothing she owned had been designed for a boy. Of course, the shirts always needed tailoring first and the trousers were too long, but that didn't change the fact that-
Wait. There was one other option. A horrible one, if anyone found out - but she owed Teddie what limited assistance she could provide.
Naoto swallowed hard. "I-I…there's…a dress. My grandmother."
Ebihara frowned. "Your grandmother's dress?"
"No. She sent me a-a dress. Dresses. One every year since I turned ten." Her grandmother had forwarded this year's model to Inaba as a belated birthday gift, despite Naoto's desperate pleas that Grampa withhold her new address. "Th-the most recent is at my apartment."
"Really? Wow," Ebihara said, a little disbelievingly. "Do you ever wear it?"
Naoto stared at her.
"Okay, that's a no. But what does it look like?"
Picturing it was difficult. She'd thrown it in the bedroom closet immediately after opening the parcel. "Blue. There are…frills. And an apron." From what she recalled, the dress really didn't look like anything Yukiko or Chie or even Rise usually wore outside of school, and the lattermost had a clear penchant for ridiculous outfits. Naoto had never tried it on and never would. She wasn't entirely certain why she'd kept it.
Ebihara winced. "Well, I guess we can go for the retro vote," she said, then looked down at Teddie, one hand resting lightly on his shoulder. "What do you think, Sparkles?"
Teddie let out a happy sigh. "It's like a dream. Wearing Nao-chan's dress, with frills."
"It is not my dress!" Naoto hissed. "And you will tell nobody of this!"
"Not even Sensei?"
"Especially not him!" The thought was too horrible to contemplate. She owed both her life and her place on the team to Seta-senpai, who valued her abilities despite the disadvantages of her gender. He'd even offered to help her with that ridiculous Phantom Thief letter, idle diversion though it was. Above all, he respected her. Naoto wanted him to keep doing this more than she knew how to say. The image of her in a blue dress and apron? Disastrous. "Absolutely not him," she repeated under her breath.
"Oh, he wouldn't mind." Ebihara shrugged. "Souji's a nice guy. Which is normally a bad thing, but he totally makes it work."
Naoto nodded emphatically. "He does."
Several moments of silence followed. When she looked up, Ebihara was watching her with an expression she couldn't decode. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Ebihara replied, a little too quickly. "Just keep seeing you round here with…what's his name. Big guy, always scowls."
"Kanji Tatsumi?"
"Yeah. You hang out with him. So, you know."
Naoto didn't. Her dealings with Kanji were a separate matter. There had been moments of...awkwardness, perhaps, mostly on his part, but she assumed that was due to her earlier ill-judged behavior. Naoto was hesitant to say for certain, the criteria being so unclear - but at this point, he and Rise might be the closest she'd ever come to having friends.
Seta-senpai was different. Any awkwardness in that association was entirely her own fault. She had too much to prove.
Ebihara glanced at the clock on the music-room wall. "We've got two hours before the pageant starts. Think you can fetch the dress in time?"
Naoto nodded. The buses in Inaba were usually punctual, and if she ran the rest of the way it would take only an hour to make it there and back.
"Okay, get going. I'll finish cleaning him up, maybe start with the basics." She turned back to Teddie and tugged at a stray lock of his hair. "Do you want a wig? I kinda like it like this."
He tipped up his chin. "Teddie prefers the natural look."
Mumbling something approaching a goodbye, Naoto walked toward the door. She was almost in the corridor when Ebihara called after her.
"Hey, Shirogane. You're in the girls' pageant." She gave a slight smile. "Want help with that too?"
(Mustwantsomething? Noreason noreason askherwhy)
"But-wh-why would you want to assist me?" Naoto stammered. "We don't know each other."
Ebihara shrugged. "I'm good at this stuff. I've had a lot of practice." The smile shifted to a smirk. "Besides, you're hopeless. I'd be a total bitch not to offer, and I'm sorta trying to get past that."
It was a kind gesture, Naoto reminded herself, feeling thoroughly lost.
She bit her lip. "I, I don't want to be in the pageant at all. If-if I must, Rise Kujikawa has offered to help. But…thank you, Ebihara-senpai. F-for the offer."
Teddie smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. It was inexplicably reassuring. "That's okay, Nao-chan. Now Ai-chan's full focus will be on Teddie, ensuring his greatest triumph!"
She nodded. "Absolutely, Teddie. I'll return shortly with your outfit." Naoto turned and walked briskly out of the music-room - only making it a few strides before her cell buzzed inside her pocket. When she fished it out, Rise's name was on-screen.
She flipped the phone open. "Rise-san?"
"Naoto-kun! Where are you?"
"Um…the practice building. Should I be-"
"Great! I need a platinum blonde wig."
Naoto paused, recalling a simpler time when her phone calls centered around police reports and dead bodies. "I assume this is for the pageant."
"Yep. I totally forgot about Kanji-kun's hair, can you believe it?" There was a loud curse somewhere in the background, and Rise tsked. "He's being a big jerk about it too. One of Senpai's friends dropped by and said there's a box of wigs in the Home Ec room, she got them from drama club or something, I dunno - but I need a platinum blonde one, something that looks like-you know Marilyn Monroe, right? Everyone does! I love her movies, Yosuke-senpai downloaded some of the dubs for me, I'll give you the DVD sometime. Get something that'll make Kanji-kun look like her, okay? Thanks, Naoto-kun!"
With that, Rise hung up. Sighing, Naoto snapped her phone shut and hoped the girl would remember to breathe.