Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 13: Zephri Town's Fashion Show! Minerva's Reluctance! Jade, The Regional Fashion Expert! Jungle-Themed Dresses! Lucy's Surprise!
Lucy's POV
When Minerva and I came back to Mauve Town on the day after helping Shiozaki with that treasure hunt, we both wore plain purple clothing from our closets while entering the high-end fashion store that Phoebe frequently visited. Phoebe thankfully wasn't here right now, which meant that Minerva and I could finally buy some new clothes without any drama occurring. Since we could buy some new clothes after converting most of that money from the treasure chest, my eyes were focused on two purple dresses that were in the display window.
One of those dresses was lilac purple while some parts of it had glimmering sparkles, and this dress would go well with an eggplant purple miniskirt. I proceeded to go over to the dark purple rack of skirts, seeing that they were all made with high-end fabrics, and I took one of the eggplant purple skirts off of the rack. After getting that skirt, I removed the lilac purple dress from the mannequin and I softly smiled while my eyes caught sight of some mulberry purple shoes. The mulberry purple shoes had the design of mulberry purple grass patches being on the fronts of them, which was interesting.
Although, my next interesting fashion choice involved some plum purple earrings that were shaped like round ghosts as the ghostly designs on these earrings made the ghosts have cute smiles. I also cutely smiled at the thought of how I would be looking very fashionable in my new outfit, but I soon had a slight frown on my face from thinking that I needed to wear a plum purple shirt underneath my dress if I wanted to also wear a decently-sized mauve purple bra with mauve purple underwear to match.
After a few seconds, I soon saw someone throw a plum purple T-shirt over the fitting room's door while they muttered some words about the shirt being too big for them to wear it. I picked up that shirt, before placing it up against the plain purple short dress that I bought in Magnolia this morning, and the shirt seemed to fit me. This was also a fitting time to try on this shirt, as the fitting room on the left was vacant, but the sight of a mauve purple bra being tossed over the door for it to gently land near my feet certainly caught my attention.
Upon emerging from the fitting room, Mistress Violetta told me with an apologetic look on her face, "Oh, my. I'm so sorry for not realizing that you were also in the store right now."
I replied with a kind facial expression, before I began to look much more stern, "It's okay, Mistress Violetta. Although, Minerva-sama and I have something to report about yesterday's job. It went somewhat well for us, but Phoebe Hauntra and her teammates stole most of the treasures after following us to the Wind Temple. They weren't even part of our team, but they defeated Skylenia and acted so entitled to most of the treasures."
The news about what had happened on the previous job caused Mistress Violetta to respond with a disappointed look on her face, "Well, I'm honestly not surprised. Phoebe's always been like that, and she spent yesterday evening bragging to other women in the guild about how she found the treasures while Minerva begged to be safe from Skylenia."
Minerva responded with an aggravated look appearing on her face, as she picked out a plum purple dress, "I never begged Phoebe to save me from anyone yesterday, and she committed acts of theft by stealing most of those treasures that belonged to us!"
Minerva's words only made Mistress Violetta sigh in an annoyed manner, as she presumably thought that her dark guild would never experience any mages being so petty. She probably felt upset that Minerva and I had been too injured and tired to report back to the Seductive Witch guild on the previous day, since we had both been busy with trying to recover from that exhausting adventure. Even though I had been cured of my poison by Koyanagi, Koyanagi didn't heal my energy to its fullest level.
If Minerva and I had been energized, then we would've gone into the Seductive Witch guild and attempted to dispel some of the claims that Phoebe had been bragging about. She was probably even taking credit for solving all of those puzzles that seemingly left many treasure hunters feeling perplexed for several years, and the sheer fact that she was an S-Class mage meant that Phoebe could even act like we didn't get through any obstacles without her assistance. If she was going to act like her presence had been so important on that mission, then I hoped that she would be happy about being irrelevant to today's mission.
Today's mission would involve Minerva and I going back to Zephri Town, but we wouldn't be going there for more treasure. In fact, the only type of treasure that we could claim today was a trophy in a fashion show and that probably wouldn't put Minerva in a better mood about fashion competitions. I would just want Minerva to play fairly, no matter what the other contestants would do, and I would make sure to at least give a worse performance than whatever Minerva did for her to attain a higher score from the judges.
"I hope you're ready to beat me in Zephri Town's fashion show, Minerva-sama." I told my girlfriend with a confident smile on my face, feeling happy at the thought of giving Minerva a good accomplishment.
That only caused Minerva to tell me with a stern frown of disgust appearing on her face, "If you're going to give me a meager victory out of pity like Phoebe did, then I'll kick your ass."
I replied to her with a scared look appearing on my face, embarrassed at my previous statement, "Please don't kick my ass, Minerva-sama! I... I actually believe you can win!"
As I closed my eyes for a moment and rubbed the back of my head, I got to hear Minerva sigh in a somewhat annoyed manner. She seemed very miffed at the fact that I didn't want her to refuse to participate in this single fashion show, and I honestly wouldn't ask her to participate in another fashion competition ever again if the idea of playing fair truly resulted in failure. In fact, Minerva could expect me to join her in having another cold shower in Seductive Witch if she failed. If she didn't fail and I ended up losing, then I would probably just shower alone.
Showering alone was what I had done yesterday, even though I had taken home some treasure. I also ended up taking home the thought of how I couldn't do my best to protect Minerva, since she was usually the person who did most of the work to save me from being harmed, and I honestly felt that I would protect Minerva from the feeling of failure by allowing her to perform better than me. However, putting her between feelings of failure and feelings of pity was probably something that I shouldn't have done in this romantic relationship.
Minerva shared that same opinion in the moment where she walked up to me, causing me to lightly open my eyes as she sternly glared at me. Minerva started to have the feeling of viciousness enter her emerald green eyes, which also displayed dominance, and I submissively looked into her eyes as they informed me that I owed her for wanting us to fairly participate in a fashion show. Minerva probably hoped that looking fashionable would help her win, and she aggressively walked away to go find more clothes as I timidly entered the fitting room to try on my new outfit.
Two hours later, in Zephri Town... (Minerva's POV)
Lucy's new outfit looked very cute, and some women did look at her when we arrived back in the town of Zephri. This town that had been near Sky Cave was now having several winds blow through it while the aromas of plants were carried on the wind, but some of those aromas were bitter. The bitter aromas were being sent into some jade green winds, which entered some of the plants that were being created by some of the female mages in the Skyward Fauna guild, and I folded my arms in an annoyed manner from how they all seemed so excited for their town's fashion show.
Some girls who ran past me were wearing elegant dresses in different hues of green while other women ran out of the town's fashion store, which was on a street that had been adjacent to the Skyward Fauna guild. Speaking of that particular guild, my eyes took notice of spells pertaining to Wind Magic and Plant Magic being fired into the sky. The jade green spell of Wind Magic ended up bursting to create some large jade green fireworks in the sky while the pale green leaves that went into the air also exploded, resulting in more fireworks occurring.
The mages of the Skyward Fauna were certainly thrilled to be having this fashion show in the town of Zephri, but seeing several of the women in this town wear elegant sundresses or elegant coats that were in different shades of green caused me to experience the feeling of nervousness start to flow throughout my body. Even though I wore an elegant plum purple dress with its back straps in a lattice pattern while my high-heeled shoes were a mix of mulberry purple and eggplant purple, could I really win against any of these girls in a fair competition?
I walked past that fashion store with Lucy, allowing us both to see that some of the green-haired girls were even wearing fern green elegant skirts with neon green blouses that looked like high-end clothing, and one neon green sign in the dark green display window informed me that the fashion store was having a sale today. This sale allowed the fashionable girls to buy many clothes at half-price, along with buying shoes that went well with their bows and roses that were in their hair. My own hair was tied back in a bun while I had a mauve rose in my hair, but I still sighed in an insecure manner.
Upon seeing the feelings of insecurity that were building up in my eyes, Lucy told me with an encouraging smile on my face, "Don't worry, Minerva-sama. You have a chance at winning this fashion competition."
That prompted me to respond with a frown of anxiety forming on my face, "I also have a chance at losing, Lucy."
"You obviously do have a chance at losing, if a gaudy color such as purple is what you chose for one round of the competition." Another woman's voice stated to me in a rude tone, before giggling in a somewhat arrogant manner.
The woman who spoke badly about my fashion choices had jungle green hair, her long hair being tied back into two mid-length ponytails that reached down to her back. This woman's hair went well with her sea green eyes, which complimented her mint green mini dress that went well with her hair's jade-green bows. The jade green bows were shaped like sharp-edged leaves, and the leaf-shaped earrings that she wore were pear green. This girl's shoes were also pear green, but they had shiny jungle green straps.
The fact that her fashion choices were somewhat interesting and stylish at the same time only caused me to sternly frown at this woman without even giving her a response, and I proceeded to just walk away from her with a look of defeat appearing on my face. The women in Zephri had a passion for fashion, even to where they could mix different shades of green with their shoes having hybrids of green hues, and they weren't even as fashionable as women from Aroma Flair. If I couldn't beat these losers, then I would just be a loser.
Although, walking away and being scared before the competition even started did make me feel like a loser. My shoulders started to shudder with feelings of anxiety, causing that girl to teasingly laugh at me in a rude manner, and she had the audacity to build up her magical power. She unleashed a mint green tornado after placing both of her hands together, but the tornado ended up detonating to create a heavy amount of winds that blew past me. I chose to not flinch, not minding that the winds made my hair's bun be undone for my hair to be long again. I didn't even mind one of my hairs falling to the ground in this moment, as I looked stoic against someone who only attempted to intimidate me.
"Wow, the girl who cried so much after getting humiliated in the Grand Magic Games isn't actually a huge coward." The woman stated to me with a rude smirk on her face, as she folded her arms in an arrogant manner.
Lucy responded for me with an offended look on her face, "Don't ever call Minerva-sama a coward, you rude witch! In fact, Minerva-sama recently fought against three women who used Darkness Magic and they had to heal themselves after she aggressively beat them mercilessly! Minerva-sama doesn't even feel pain in her body after tough fights, so she'll beat down rookies such as you!"
That last insult from Lucy caused the woman to ask with a smug smile on her face, before explaining herself in a rude manner, "Rookie? I'll have you know that I'm Jade Kusagreen, a woman who has won five fashion competitions in this region of Fiore where Wind Magic is a specialty."
Jade's comment caused me to reply with a frown of maturity, "You've won five fashion shows, but you're still not the best contestant in the entire kingdom."
My response to Jade caused her to look at me in a miffed manner, and she simply waited for a somewhat younger woman with neon green hair to walk out of the fashion store. That woman had neon green hair that fell down to her waist, along with having emerald green eyes, and that woman wore a dark green high-end sundress that matched the dark green shopping bags in her hands. As she handed some of the bags to Jade, I lightly rolled my eyes at how some of the arrogant winners of fashion shows thought they were so great for having assistants.
Then again, was I really in a position to complain? Lucy had been my younger assistant before we had gotten in a relationship, but the key difference was that Lucy would never pull out a bottle of jade green eye shadow to apply it to my eyes in public like how this girl did for Jade. She was likely doubling as Jade's personal stylish, but I wouldn't put it past Jade to make her assistant also compete in the fashion show for them to boost their own chances of winning. After all, winning that fashion show's trophy did come with prize money and fame.
Even if I were to earn that prize money and become more famous, I wouldn't allow the fame to take me down a path of being extremely arrogant. Arrogance was one reason for why I lost against Phoebe in a fair fight when we first had a conflict in Seductive Witch, and I just didn't want to be a loser anymore. The strong desire to not be a loser and thoughts of Jiemma's anger caused me to narrow my eyes in a stern manner as I looked at Lucy, and I tightly kept her close to me as I decided to aggressively run to the Skyward Fauna guild. Shiozaki would probably be there, along with Koyanagi, but I hoped that they wouldn't mind that I would be more mature today and not put up with any semblance of disrespect.
20 minutes later, in the Skyward Fauna guild... (Koyanagi's POV)
Seeing Minerva and Lucy being back in the Skyward Fauna guild with serious looks on their faces made me have a somewhat curious look on my face, since they were probably going to sign up for Zephri Town's fashion show. The jade green sign-up sheet was located on the round table that was closest to the stage, and I proceeded to sign my name on one of the last slots that had been available. That caused Minerva and Lucy to both walk up to the table, and Minerva took the dark green pen out of my hand for her to sign up for the fashion show.
After Minerva signed her name on the sheet, she gently handed the pen to Lucy for her to also put her name on the sheet. Lucy glanced at the sheet, before scoffing at the first name that had been on the list. I glanced at that name, seeing that it belonged to that mage named Jade, and I sighed in a calm manner from realizing that Jade must have not been in Zephri Town yesterday for her to find out that these two women were the people who helped Shiozaki actually find the legendary treasure. Jade would've probably been able to find it, if she prioritized finding treasure over acquiring more fame as a fashion model.
In fact, I looked up from the table for a moment to see Jade going into the back room that was behind the dark green curtains that had been set up for this stage to look very nice. Even though our guild's stage didn't have a runway like the other building where the other fashion show would be held, we still had a back room for some of the women to wear fashionable outfits. Although, our town's competition had a slight twist in the rules because of how the first round required all participants to wear the same kind of attire that pertained to the theme of the fashion show.
The theme of the fashion show was going to be announced by Shiozaki, who wore a celestial green party dress with dark green lace at the bottom while she held a jungle green envelope in her hands. She gently opened up the envelope, before her eyes twinkled with the feeling of happiness in this moment where she gleefully smiled. Shiozaki may have been the announcer, but she would hand that job over to me in the minutes of time where she would also be participating in the fashion show. Although, I calmly smiled at how Shiozaki and I could probably win without having any advantages over the other contestants.
"According to our panel of judges, the first round of Zephri Town's fashion show shall have our contestants wear... jungle-themed attire!" Shiozaki stated with a confident smile on her face, before giggling happily.
Minerva asked aloud with a shocked facial expression, presumably unfamiliar with that attire, "Jungle-themed?!"
Shiozaki announced to everyone with a somewhat calm smile on her face, "Ranging from tropical dresses to grassy gowns or dresses made from jungle green leaves, the jungle theme seems great for this first round! Wind blows through the jade jungles of Fiore, anyway!"
That caused me to add with a polite smile on my face, seeing Lucy look calm while Minerva was nervous, "We have clothes for first-round themes in the back room, so hurry up and change into your outfits! Ladies, you have thirty minutes."
Despite giving people a reasonable duration of time, several of the girls who signed up for the fashion show proceeded to run towards the stage. They hastily went up the stair steps, before going into the back room, and I proceeded to follow them. I currently wore my elegant and dark green dress from yesterday, thinking that I was the most elegant woman in this room while I probably wouldn't lose to anyone. That also included how I didn't want to lose against Minerva, who currently had a frown of insecurity on her face.
Minerva anxiously walked towards the stage with a nervous look on her face, and I walked beside her while Lucy looked just as nervous. Were they not expecting certain themes to not be part of a fashion show where some of these girls aspired to be as stylish as the women in Bloom Town? I personally looked up to Haruka Kazemido from Aroma Flair, since she always seemed to be such a cool woman who displayed so much calmness that accompanied her powerful magic, and she had even been in some issues of Sorcerer Magazine before the Grand Magic Games occurred.
Seeing her appear in those issues of Sorcerer Magazine had inspired me to dress more elegantly, since I really wanted to be at her level of talent and fame at some point in the future. However, winning seven fashion shows in Zephri Town seemed like a cheap way to make myself more famous and I would just have to compete in different fashion shows within this region of Fiore. Of course, winning against proclaimed regional winners such as Jade would require tremendous amounts of training. Although, I wasn't as bold as Minerva right now.
"Wow, you must not have wanted to wear an elegant cheetah print dress or a tiger print bikini if you're so intent on not being affiliated with Sabertooth." I calmly told Minerva, having remembered that she was famous as a Sabertooth mage.
That caused Minerva to tell me with an annoyed look on her face, "I don't need to make the winds roar like a Sabertooth tiger, or make the flowers explode under my viciousness! Sabertooth doesn't define me, even if you and Jade think I've lost all my aggression and ferocity!"
"Well, I'd say you were aggressive yesterday in that harsh fight." I responded to Minerva in a mundane tone, looking stoic as I didn't want to make her be upset.
Minerva seemed to not like thinking about Sabertooth, but I wouldn't push on that issue any further. Pushing on that issue would probably be Lucy's job, since she was Minerva's partner, and Lucy also looked somewhat more confident than Minerva as she was walking towards the back room. Lucy seemed like she had some expertise in jungle-themed clothing, even if she just wore a tiger print bikini on a beach, and she probably thought that her chances of winning would be very high. I had heard that she earned second place in Cyan Town's fashion contest, so Lucy probably wanted to get first place with a fierce amount of determination in her mind.
I also felt very determined to win, having a friendly smile on my face as I proceeded to look at Shiozaki. If Shiozaki got to see me earn first place, then she would probably want to go on more treasure-hunting adventures with a winner such as myself. Additionally, proving that my fashion sense was the greatest in this particular fashion show would probably motivate Shiozaki to dress just as elegantly as me. Shiozaki wasn't the most elegant person in Skyward Fauna, but she certainly could be more refined and patient if she listened to me more often.
Hopefully, Shiozaki would listen to me when I gave her some suggestions on what to wear for possibly impressing the judges in each round. Two of the judges would be the townspeople from Zephri while the guild mistress of Aroma Flair would be the third judge, and I smiled with feelings of admiration on my face at how one of the most prominent women in the fashion world would see me on stage. As I started to go into the back room of this particular stage and giggled happily, Minerva groaned in annoyance as she entered this room.
Five minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
I truly did feel annoyed at how Koyanagi and the other participants seemed so happy about participating in this fashion show, especially since they had several advantages. I had no experience with wearing jungle-themed clothing, as I had never even wore a jungle green tropical dress. Honestly, I thought that tropical dresses with flowers on them were too girly and cute for me to wear them. I wouldn't mind if Lucy wore a dress like that, since she was the cute one in our relationship while I had been a more sultry and refined woman.
Perceiving myself as a sexy and mature woman caused me to smile in a proud manner, and I looked at a fern green rack that had several dresses on it. I walked over to those dresses, before smiling with confidence in my eyes from seeing a jade green dress. The dress was a form-fitting evening dress with the design of pale green daisies, almost like these were daisies from a tropical island's meadow, and I proceeded to take off my plum purple dress. Letting my plum purple dress fall to floor had left me in mauve purple lingerie, my mauve purple bra being large as I also wore huge mauve purple underwear.
My hands touched my soft underwear in a delicate manner, causing my face to blush in a cerise shade of pink at how I felt very self-conscious. The other women who were taking off their clothes seemed so confident right now, some of them even being naked as they proceeded to put on their dresses, and I currently found myself being among women who were very experienced and excited to participate in the fashion show. They probably didn't have to tell themselves every day that they had gorgeous bodies, along with probably never wanting someone to tell them on a daily basis that they were very pretty.
I always wanted someone such as Lucy or Reira to validate my beauty, since my losses against beautiful women in fashion shows did deal an impactful blow to my ego. There were competitions similar to this one where I couldn't advance past the very first round, due to some of the themes pertinent to fashion being incapable of aligning with my own fashion choices. I personally felt desperate enough to pick out this jade green dress, but the moments that I took the dress off of the rack was the moment where a certain woman used her large ass to shove me against the rack.
As I fell down and felt the dress go out of my hands, Jade told me with a rude smirk on her face, "Thank you so much for the dress, loser."
That prompted me to sternly tell Jade with an aggressive facial expression, "Give me back that dress, you bitch."
"You're calling me a bitch and getting catty, you unfashionable loser? Weren't you being so mature earlier?" Jade asked me in a taunting manner, having a mocking smirk on her face before she giggled and walked away.
As I walked after Jade in this moment where she ran away from me at a fast pace, I soon hard the sounds of other girls throwing my plum purple dress to the side as they took green dresses off of that rack. If I couldn't find a decent dress in the next fifteen minutes, wouldn't I be disqualified? Getting disqualified from participating in the first round of the fashion show felt worse than getting a low score in the first round, so I went to the back of the room where there were some unwanted clothes and I elicited a soft sigh.
Since I felt like these other girls were trying to rile me up and really push my patience to its limits, I felt there was only one option left for me to defeat all of them in the fashion show. They may not have perceived some of the remaining clothes to be fashionable, but I felt that I had enough flexibility to make something stylish out of some clothes that seemed subpar. I closed my eyes and sighed while taking off my bra and panties, being naked and blushing as I walked over to a dark green rack that underwear and green bras on it.
I picked out some large underwear that was jungle green with the design of tiger stripes on its forest green lace trim, before choosing to wear a parakeet green bra that had dark green tiger stripes on the front of it. The bra and the underwear were a bit tight for my huge breasts and thick thighs, but I proceeded to walk over to a light green rack that was on the other side of this room. On this rack, there was a moss green skirt that caught my attention because of how it appeared to be made from a deep shade of moss green fabric that looked just like moss. I proceeded to put on that short skirt, before taking a pale green off of the rack. As I put on this kimono that appeared to have been made from leaves, Lucy approached me with a kind smile on her face.
"You look so beautiful, Minerva-sama." Lucy told me with happiness in her eyes, blushing at my appearance as the kimono slightly covered my bra and underwear.
Upon seeing Lucy wear a neon green party dress with jungle green flat shoes and have flower-shaped light green bracelets on her wrists, I responded with a pleasant smile on my face, "You look almost as beautiful as me, Lucy."
Lucy proceeded to tell me with a sweet smile on her face, "If you want to look more beautiful, then please take my accessory. I don't need it, Minerva-sama."
Lucy gently held one of my hands while she guided me over a jade green table that had been near the entrance door, and the various drawers that were attached to this table contained different accessories. The highest drawer of the rectangular table contained brooches, prompting Lucy to take out a jungle green brooch, and she proceeded to open up my kimono. Lucy gently placed it against my bra, the brooch's juniper green stem poking through the bra for it to brush against my nipple. That caused me to let out a soft groan, before blushing light pink at Lucy as she also blushed light pink.
Lucy continued to blush as she opened one of the three drawers in the middle section of the table's compartments, and she pulled out a thin jungle green scrunchy. Even though I thought that scrunchy would look good in Lucy's hair, she gently stroked my hair for a moment and tied some of it back. She tied my hair back into a long ponytail, and Lucy opened up an adjacent drawer that contained some brushes that already had makeup on them. Even though some women had used these brushes, I closed my eyes and allowed Lucy to put matcha green eye shadow on my eyelids.
After that small moment, I simply tightened up my kimono right before slowly opening my eyes. Upon seeing my eyes be complimented by the eye shadow while I walked towards Lucy with no shoes on, Lucy's face blushed rose pink at how I was like a kimono dancer who was trying to look beautiful and refined in a hot jungle. Making a green energy wave touch my body certainly made my face also blush pink, since I felt that energy wave to be hot like a tropical island's intense sunlight, and I smiled at Lucy in a somewhat seductive manner. I exhaled a hot breath against her forehead instead of giving her a kiss for good luck, and I gently put my feet into some tight sea green flat shoes as we both felt ready for the fashion show's first round.
20 minutes later, in the fashion show's building... (Lucy's POV)
The first round of the fashion show would take place in a neon green rectangular building with two statues of wind tornadoes being on top of it, and the interior of this building was interesting. All of the girls took notice of how the lobby had parakeet green carpeting with basil green walls, but we all climbed up the plain green stairs that were on the left side of this room. The stairs led to an upper floor, and we all went through the doorway to see that the fashion show would take place in this large room that had forest green walls with jungle green carpeting.
We all took notice of the jungle green chairs, which were already occupied by some people who would be viewing this fashion show, and all of the women walked near the dark green wooden railing that separated us from the audience. We all walked to a back room, before passing through that room to reach some mint green stairs that led us down to the celestial green stage. This rectangular stage had pear green curtains obscuring us from the judges right now, but a slit in the curtains allowed me to slightly see that Corinne Chocolatti was going to be a judge again.
I had previously seen her at Cyan Town's fashion show, and she had been somewhat of a harsh judge towards most of the girls in that competition. She even despised Sienna for drenching her outfit with water, which was an accident that essentially ruined Corinne's fashion and beauty to where she disqualified Minerva's strongest competitor, and Corinne was currently rolling her eyes as the two other judges seemed to be having a conversation. They all soon raised their right hands in a gentle manner, before signaling for the curtains to be parted.
When the curtains no longer obscured the stage, Shiozaki walked down the celestial green runway with a happy smile on her face. She chose to wear a jungle green party dress while her fern green high-heeled shoes complimented it, and Shiozaki proceeded to take a dark green microphone from a member of the fashion show's staff that stood near the runway. She gently tapped the top of the microphone, causing it to emit a strident sound that made us all cover our ears, but hastily tapping it again made that sound desist.
"Welcome to Skyward Fauna's fashion show in Zephri Town, everyone! I, Shiozaki, will be the announcer and a competitor! Don't waste any time in telling me how beautiful I am, though!" Shiozaki announced to the crowd in an energetic manner, before happily giggling at her last sentence.
That prompted the judge who had pale green hair to express in a pleased manner, "Ladies, we're all very happy that you look so gorgeous for this fashion show!"
The adjacent judge who had long and parakeet green hair added with a confident smile on her face, "In this first round, we hope you'll all show off your fashion and magic that pertinent to the Jungle theme of fashion! I'm so excited!"
Corinne Chocolatti told Shiozaki with an annoyed look on her face, as one hand gently touched her walnut brown fur coat that was part of high-end fashion, "Just get on with it, Shiozaki! As usual, we need to quickly weed out the unfashionable women and move on!"
Shiozaki nodded in agreement while the photographers took pictures of her, and she proceeded to walk back down the runway. Shiozaki came back to join the rest of us, and it seemed like there were at least thirty-two women in this competition. Thinning that number down to where only one winner would remain caused me to softly gulp with a bit of nervousness, since I hoped that Minerva and I wouldn't be ousted after our performances in the first round. The first round quickly began, evident by the spotlights suddenly hitting the end of the runway as some music was played through a Music Lacrima Crystal.
The music that gave off the atmosphere of being in a prestigious fashion show caused one girl with dark green hair to walk down the runway while she wore a light green blouse with a jungle green skirt that almost looked like a bath towel, and she created a jungle green tornado in her left hand right before that hand slashed at the air. That caused her tornado to become harp blades of jungle green wind, only for them to explode in jungle green puffs of smoke. That spell may have looked impressive, but that girl lacked control over her magic.
The judges also thought that girl didn't control her magic very well, since they gave her a total score of 6 points. On a scale of 1 to 30 points, that was not very good. That score caused the girl to run off the stage while crying hysterically, and that immediately led into the next girl's performance. She used her Plant Magic to turn the end of the runway into jungle green grass, which led to several jungle green daisies blooming. She exhaled air on to them, making the flowers grow much larger. Even though that was impressive, Corinne loudly sighed in an annoyed manner.
"Seeing cute flowers growing in a jungle? Were you planning to make them grow near a created oasis, too?" Corinne rudely asked the contestant, before holding up a scorecard to give four points to the girl.
The judge who had parakeet green hair added with a somewhat compassionate smile on her face, "If you had created something similar to a little oasis of jungle green dew, then I would give you more than four points."
The other judge agreed with her, also giving that girl a score of four points out of 30 for her overall score to be 12. Anyone who got that score would only move on to the next round by the skin of their teeth, in my opinion, and I started to look somewhat anxious as more girls walked down the runway. A girl with forest green and wavy hair ended up creating an oasis by making her forest green Plant Magic build on the jungle green grass that had already been created, but following that up by making her forest green flowers spring up into the air only seemed interesting enough for her to get nine points.
The contestant who performed after her also ended up getting nine points, since she fired a jungle green orb of Plant Magic from her hands for it to soon detonate above the jungle green flowers. Even though the jungle green blast was quite large, its sparkles that were left behind only ended up producing one jungle green daisy. That was probably better than the next contestant, who made a forest green flower sprout on the grass for a few moments before it wilted in the moment where she anxiously reacted to Corinne scoffing in boredom.
Corinne and the other judges ended up giving only three points to that performance, along with the next three performances where spells of Wind Magic or Plant Magic seemed very mundane. The dullness of some performances made me frown in a worried manner, since it seemed like several girls were obsessed with adhering to the Jungle theme of this round to where they couldn't really bring themselves to display the full potential of their magic. I would certainly display the potential of my magic, but Jade from earlier confidently went down the runway before my performance was allowed to occur.
(Minerva's POV)
Seeing Jade walk down the runway caused me to sternly frown, and I wondered if she was going to be as mediocre as the other girls who previously performed in front of the judges. When Jade got in front of the judges, she raised her hands high above her head and she aggressively unleashed a powerful spell of Wind Magic. Jade proceeded to fire a spiraling burst of mint green winds up at the ceiling, and the winds started to have mint green daisies emerge from them without the stems. The mint green daisies started to become jade green, evident by Jade putting more magical power into the spell while the aura engulfing her body became jade green.
The jade green aura that was around her body ended up springing upward to go through the winds in an aggressive manner, before it came down with much more speed and power to strike the grass that had been created by other contestants. The grass ended up becoming jade green, before alternating to be jungle green every other minute, and several large daisies that were jungle green and jade green started to sprout up from the grass. Jade glanced at those daisies, before clenching her fists, and all of the flowers in her performance ended up exploding to make sparkles in different shades of green.
The sparkles ended up forming the shape of a large daisy behind Jade while she made the jungle green sparkles stay on her dress, cleverly making her magic also fall in line with the jungle-themed round of this contest, and I wondered if Corinne would reward Jade with a low score. Upon seeing the scorecards that were picked up by Corinne and the other judges, my eyes widened in shock from seeing them each give Jade ten points. She now had a perfect score of 30, meaning that she would be moving on to the next round while having a high chance of winning this competition.
If Jade had such a high chance of winning and ended up being victorious, then she would probably brag about her newest victory while being around me. She would probably just want to rile me up, and I resisted the urge to aggressively clench my fists. I didn't want to feel angered enough to where I'd overexert my magical power, and I proceeded to walk down the runway with elegance and confidence. I walked in a very poised manner while Jade walked back up the other side of the runway with an arrogant smirk on her face, and she swiftly put her mouth close to my ear.
"Good luck, you pathetic loser." Jade told me in a ridiculing tone of voice, before giggling evilly.
That prompted me to softly whisper in an aggravated manner, "I'm not a loser."
Jade briefly responded in a rude manner, as I felt her hand faintly touch my waist, "You'll lose when your chances of winning get undone."
I ignored Jade's comment, and I wanted the judges to perceive me as a mature women while I walked down the runway. I walked all the way to the end of the runway, and I built up a high amount of magical power to create jungle green energy waves on my hands. I aimed them down at the grass, causing it to permanently become jungle green, and I created two more energy waves that were in a deep hue of jungle green. I aimed these energy waves at the judges, and they ended up bursting for jungle green roses without stems to float in midair.
I grabbed some of the roses, before my cheeks blushed pink as the roses and their petals fell down on to the grass. The grass was soon in the shadow of gigantic tropical green energy waves that I created in midair while raising my arms high above my head, and thrusting my palms up against the waves with magic infused into them was when the tropical green energy waves ended up bursting to create several tropical green beams with rose-shaped spearheads. They crashed down into the grass, before spinning outward in the form of tropical green blasts that left behind roses in that specific hue of green. The rose-shaped spearheads even smelled like sweet and green tropical fruits, the aroma being alluring.
As I sighed happily and smiled confidently, the winds from my spells suddenly strengthened a mint green aura that had touched my kimono. The aura ended up having enough strength to burst against my kimono, damaging me as the winds even untied it, and the winds sliced through the kimono to wear I took it off. Pieces of my dress floated down to be below the runway, and I ended up stepping back into the oasis of goop that had now become tropical green from the winds. I knelt down while sinking into it, before getting up as my tiger-themed bra and underwear became dirtied. My performance seemed like it had been utterly ruined, tears welling up in my eyes while my hair's ponytail was very loosened as I thought I would be disqualified, and my body trembled as my hand gently touched a tropical green rose. As I felt my throat constrict in this moment where I fearfully cried and felt like a terrified failure, my anxious eyes looked at Corinne.
Corinne stood up to tell me with a surprised look on her face, her eyes seeming to show amazement, "Wow, a powerful queen of the jungle... actually being one of the most terrified and girly women when she descends deep into the wilds. What a fantastic display of ferocious power being unable to conceal your feelings of absolute fear!"
The nice judge who was next to her stated with a pleased look on her face, "Not only did you rip off your kimono like a savage woman, but you're still trying to display that you're standing tall as you're truly afraid! Wow!"
The third judge commented with a cute smile appearing on her face, "Darling, you cry such genuine tears of being an innocent little girl who fears the jungle after you attacked the stage like a powerful beast! Looking refined in your kimono like a dominant tigress, only to tear it off and reveal that you're the insecure and weakest one when you're in the deepest parts of the jungle... Wow, I'm so moved by your performance!"
The tears continued to fall from my eyes as I truly felt so insecure, and I realized that the pink blush of embarrassment on my face was being perceived as a blush of purity with innocence mixed in. I certainly wouldn't feel pure enough to forgive Jade for seemingly sabotaging me by destroying my outfit, and I even placed both of my hands in front of my pussy as my blush became deep pink. Upon seeing me blush and look so timid during their moments of deliberating, the judges gave me looks of sympathy as if I had been too pure for an impure fashion show.
Placing one hand over my bra in a protective manner prompted all of the judges to pick up their plain green scorecards, and seeing each card give me a score of ten point caused feelings of surprise to enter my eyes. After that performance, I received a perfect score of 30 points to be evenly matched with Jade? Jade herself looked utterly baffled as I turned around, and Lucy gave me an incredibly happy smile as the girls respectfully clapped for me. Even though people were applauding me for my performance, I elegantly walked back down the runway while I hoped that my trail of muck from the oasis wouldn't interfere with Lucy's performance.
(Lucy's POV)
After Minerva walked back down the runway and went backstage, I went down the runway with a confident smile appearing on my face. I felt very pleased at the fact that Minerva pushed herself so hard to give such an amazing performance to all of the audience members, and Minerva certainly displayed that she had the potential to fairly win a fashion show. Since Minerva could possibly win by playing fair, I could possibly end up getting second place in this fashion show by playing fair. Although, the path towards getting second place would require me to give a great performance in this first round.
I proceeded to activate a new spell called Dark Smog Rain, and this spell made two amethyst purple flames appear in my hands. I threw them both up into the air, before building up a high amount of magical power for an amethyst purple aura to heavily engulf my body. The aura propelled itself up to reach the flames, greatly increasing their levels of magical power to where they grew quite large, and my flames ended up bursting to make star-shaped rings of fire occur in midair! The star-shaped rings made a high amount of flames descend from them, and each flame accumulated power and speed on its descent.
All of the flames ended up striking the green grass, resulting in amethyst purple explosions while the fire ended up bursting upward, and I smiled in a devious manner as if I was a dark mage who wanted to set a jungle on fire. On that note of creating fire, I envisioned a new spell that was known as Flaming Amethyst Burst. My eyes became amethyst purple while I shot out an amethyst purple flame from my left hand, and I held that flame out for it to be near a twister of fire. That caused the flame to become a larger twister of fire that was deeply amethyst purple, before I inserted it into the other twister.
That twister became deep amethyst purple, before growing to a tremendous size and shooting out small flames. The deep amethyst purple flames all landed on the grass, before violently exploding in a tremendous bursts of deep amethyst purple fire, and I moved my hands around in a psychic manner to make the flames form stars in midair. Now that were several stars around me in this performance where a jungle was seemingly set ablaze, I politely bowed to the judges as I cutely giggled? Would they share my happiness about this performance?
The judge with pale green hair told me with a pleased smile on her face, "Well, that was interesting. You proved that you're the dark witch who asserts dominance by setting the jungle on fire.
The woman who had long and parakeet green hair added with a nice facial expression, as she giggled, "Wow, the stars floating over the burning jungle. The heavens and the earth being illuminated, even in a jungle of darkness. That was a good display of creativity."
Corinne surprisingly told me in a rude manner, "Well, putting that specific flame into the twister was like proof of the tiniest snake having the most dangerous bite out of all the dangers in the jungle. Although, using different shades of dark magic to express your strength and anger is a bit commonplace and the temperature boredly reminds me of temperatures heightening to extreme levels in a jungle."
The judges wasted no time with grabbing the scorecards that would each give me nine points, meaning that my good performance wasn't as great as what Minerva or Jade had done. Despite not being as good as them, I happily walked back down the runway. The moment where I walked down to the middle of the runway was when Jade's assistant proceeded to walk down the runway, and she wore a neon green dress that had jungle green tiger stripes on it. She seemed just as happy as me about competing, but what would she do?
Jade's assistant placed her open palms right beside each other while her hands were close to my amethyst purple flames, and she ended up making jungle green leaves spring up from the burning grass. The grass became covered in my flames, only for the fire to become jungle green. The jungle green fire proceeded to lunge towards the judges while each flame grew stronger from the small breezes of wind that floated around the end of the runway, and each jungle green flame grew larger before producing more flames beside it.
They all moved through the air in a zigzag pattern, almost like they were snakes in the jungle. Although, the sight of the serpent-like flames exploding to create jungle green sparkles that formed the image of several snakes in midair did look somewhat beautiful. Despite the fact that her performance symbolized being able to use fire to her advantage in the jungle, Jade's assistant seemed to be letting her legs tremble with nervousness as the judges looked unimpressed. Corinne certainly looked displeased, rolling her eyes in an annoyed manner.
"Wow, snakes in the jungle and plants burning. I've never seen something so pathetic, until now." Corinne stated with a miffed look on her face, her eyes displaying boredom.
The woman with pale green hair added in a concerned manner, "It wasn't a massively terrible performance, but it felt so... risk-avoidant."
The judge with parakeet green hair stated with a nice smile on her face, "If you learn to take risks, then your magic won't seem so stiff."
The judges wasted no time with holding up the scorecards that each gave five points to Jade's assistant, allowing her to get a score of 15 points. That still put her in the bottom half of the scoreboard, however, and she was soon followed by Koyanagi. Koyanagi wore an elegant dress that was jungle green while she fired two spheres of dark green wind from her hands, and the orbs of wind moved around in circles as they took in the soft winds that were near the jungle green fire. The orbs ended up going high into the air, before colliding with each other to create a twister of dark green sparkles that resembled winds.
Koyanagi's performance caused her to earn a score of 18 points from the judges, but Koyanagi's elegant and poised way of walking down the runway was juxtaposed with Shiozaki impatiently running down the runway. Shiozaki proceeded to unleash a powerful spell of her Wind Magic by making a celestial green tornado appear around her body, and she was carried up high with several adjacent flames. Shiozaki ended up falling back down into the tornado while the flames that came back down changed to be celestial green, and Shiozaki closed her eyes.
She ended up catching all of those flames in her hands by sheer luck while the tornado disappeared, and the flames soon fizzled out. Shiozaki smiled in an embarrassed manner, but Corinne felt impressed enough to give her seven points. The other judges each gave her seven points, increasing Shiozaki's score to 21 points. Even though Shiozaki smiled happily, Corinne motioned for her to come down to the judges table while starting to look impatient. Shiozaki quickly went down there to speak with Corinne in soft whispers, but I did get to see Corinne hold up two fingers for a few seconds before Shiozaki nodded in agreement.
Ten minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
After finding the backstage room and seeing this fashion show's schedule that informed me about the next round being a swimsuit competition, I quickly changed into a jungle green lacy bikini and I proceeded to cover my head and my body with two neon green towels. After tightening my towels and using energy waves to douse myself with hot water to look like I just finished taking a hot shower, I walked back on to the stage to stand next to Lucy. She slightly moved closer to me, her cheeks blushing fuchsia pink in this moment while my cheeks also blushed fuchsia pink.
As my face felt much warmer from blushing, my body soon felt more warmth as I held one of Lucy's hands. Being able to hold hands with my cute little girlfriend in this moment caused me to feel more relaxed, and I started to feel slightly more comfortable in this fashion show with Lucy around. She may have pushed me into participating, but Lucy didn't even scold me for planning ahead. She could see that I was mostly bare, prepared to move on to what was seemingly going to be the final round. However, Shiozaki approaching us with a fern green envelope in her hands made me start to smile with waning confidence.
"Ladies, you all tried your best! However, all your efforts may go to waste because the top eight contestants shall move on to the next round!" Shiozaki announced with an excited look on her face while reading the card in the envelope, presumably seeming so confident because of her own score.
That caused Lucy and I to both reply in a shocked manner, as we looked worried, "What?!"
Shiozaki responded with some joy in her voice, looking pleased, "Since Corinne felt that this was like having a double-elimination, the stakes are high! If you advance to round two, your score from the first round is doubled! Speaking of scores, the second round will feature a spontaneous bonus round for one lucky contestant to earn an extra score that gets doubled!"
Upon hearing about these new twists in the fashion show, I sighed in an annoyed manner while looking nervous. Even though Jade and I had gotten perfect scores of 30, what if eight other girls had also obtained perfect scores for their recent scores to overshadow our earlier performances? Even though Jade certainly deserved to be ousted, I didn't want to be eliminated in the first round. That would certainly make me feel like a loser, especially after I had tried so hard in that round and had to deal with my kimono being destroyed.
As I thought that my chances of winning were also going to be obliterated, the lights in the room all suddenly turned off. The only brightness that I could see came from Shiozaki's dress, and she walked down the runway to stand next to Koyanagi. I hadn't seen either of their performances, but they probably had those two judges feeling biased enough into giving them high scores. Based on that assumption, I narrowed my eyes in a stern manner as I realized that Shiozaki and Koyanagi couldn't be underestimated.
Shiozaki was certainly a tough competitor, which was made more evident by the fact that the first spotlight shined down on her to signify that she made it to group of the final eight participants. The next participant ended up being Koyanagi, who smiled in a confident manner with assurance in her eyes. She didn't even seem nervous, and she blew two kisses to the audience as she fashionably posed underneath the spotlight. The third spotlight ended up shining down on Jade, and I gasped in an awestruck manner.
Jade was moving on to the next round while my chances of remaining in this competition felt like they were shrinking at a rapid pace, and I stared down at the floor as my eyes started to become filled with the feeling of sadness. I felt more sadness flow through my body from hearing Jade's assistant start to happily cheer as the sound of another spotlight turning on also occurred, and I began to doubt that a chance for me to win this competition had ever been possible. Even though Lucy thought that there was a possibility, I humbly sighed.
"Minerva-sama!" Lucy told me in a concerned manner, as I closed my eyes in a frustrated manner.
I thought to myself in a doubtful manner, frowning as I ready to walk away, "Lucy, just go on without me. I'll cheer for you, if you reach the next round."
Lucy suddenly told me with the feeling of joy in her voice, "Minerva-sama, you've reached the next round!"
As I heard another spotlight come on in the same moment where another spotlight came on, I raised my head and turned to face Lucy. Opening my eyes to see that she was under a spotlight caused me to softly smile at her in a proud manner, but I soon elicited a gasp of amazement from realizing that my body was also being illuminated by one of the spotlights. I advanced to the next round with Lucy, even though I lacked the perpetual confidence that was necessary for a winner, and I continued to humbly smile.
Two other girls seemed to smile in a humble manner while their presences were highlighted by the spotlights, and every person who had advanced to the next round had been chosen. Now that I had made it to the next round, I got to stay on the stage while many of the other girls walked off the stage in a disappointed manner. Some of them even tearfully cried at how they hadn't been picked, along with other girls claiming that they would decide to wear eyeshadow and jungle green dresses next time.
I currently wore my jungle green swimsuit while getting to see that the end of the runway was being covered in a parakeet green aura, which emerged from the hands of the judge who had been sitting in the middle chair of the three judges, and making the end of the runway be parakeet green was followed by the other local judge firing a pale green tornado from her mouth for it to aggressively slam down on the end of the runway. The winds of this attack proceeded to go down into the hole, giving off the impression of a pool being filled with water.
One staff member even walked by a dark green bucket of water while the water itself looked forest green, but seeing that water get poured into the crater for it to get elevated by absorbing the somewhat weaker winds caused me to shudder in a somewhat disgusted manner. This may have not been the highest-quality fashion show, but the people of Zephri could've at least made each round of their fashion show look good. Although, the idea of looking good and being in harmony with the atmosphere was what Jade and some other girls had on their minds as we all went to the backstage dressing room.
In the backstage dressing room... (Jade's POV)
Even though the other remaining contestants were entering this backstage dressing room to find swimsuits that were provided by the high-end fashion store, Midorisa and I were able to keep ourselves from wasting time. Some of the outfits that my assistant purchased earlier were swimsuits, along with lingerie and evening gowns. Of course, wearing jungle green lingerie would give me the best chances at winning while I would be able to get more points than all of these losers who were around me.
In fact, some of them seemed like they only got here by sheer luck. Minerva's mouthy little assistant seemed like she had certainly been lucky, and I would've blatantly ridiculed her performance if I had been one of the judges. My lips started to form a scheming smirk from thinking that I could still mess with the other competitors, but how could I sabotage them in an interesting way while not directly being at fault? If I wanted someone to sabotage the other competitors without any blame being directed at me, then I would need to just find the perfect way to do it.
My method for sabotaging the other competitors proceeded to walk through the door, since a female staff member with dark green hair walked into the backstage dressing room with a moss green plate of light green cupcakes. Those cupcakes even had a cute pale green card on the plate, which meant that they were sent from an adoring fan, but I started to look shocked at how the staff member delivered to plate of cupcakes to Minerva. Out of all the contestants, she was getting gifts and had fans in the audience?
I may have had several fans in the audience, but they were rarely motivated enough to give me any gifts! Although, Minerva's cupcakes could also be perceived as a gift that was given to her entirely out of pity. Anybody would pity a woman who had no chance of winning this fashion competition, even if she did get a perfect score in the first round. Minerva probably wanted to keep getting perfect scores, since she proceeded to put that plate of cupcakes on a plain green wooden table that was near me and Midorisa.
Midorisa asked Minerva with a curious look on hr face, "Are you dieting or something?"
"I'm just not hungry, so everybody else can eat them." Minerva responded with a somewhat kind smile on her face, before turning around to face Lucy.
That prompted me to reply in a persuasive manner, as my lips formed a frown of disinterest, "We actually don't want them, so they're all yours. If you want to let them get stale, then that's your choice."
Minerva simply ignored my great advice while she walked away with Lucy, and I slowly walked over to the plate of cupcakes. They all looked very appetizing, since the cupcakes had neon green icing on them while they were also topped with mint green powder. These small cupcakes could probably make girls be relieved of their hunger, but my eyes started to have a scheming look in them as my ears heard the soft sound of Minerva's stomach growling. She was probably wanting to make these cupcakes be her reward that would be eaten after losing the competition, but I smirked evilly as I thought about her downfall.
Minerva's downfall would be the result of my Wind Magic shifting the flow of this competition against her, and I created two small tornadoes of mint green wind in my hands. I sent more magical power into them, making the winds become much more dense, but I lessened the density of the winds right before making them strike the cupcakes. The winds would regain their density in a few minutes, but they wouldn't make the cupcakes implode. Instead, the energy would burst and fill up whoever ate them.
Minerva was about to come back down that aisle leading to the nearby table, and this moment where she and Lucy were around racks with swimsuits in different shades of green prompted me to build up more magical power for the purpose of making a somewhat large mint green twister. It purposely blew air against some of the racks, but I added more Wind Magic to it for the spell to become much more dense. I quickly proceeded to make the winds be much softer, allowing them to all just go down into the cupcakes.
Upon noticing that the cupcakes were giving off a much stronger aroma now, I casually stated aloud, "Wow, those cupcakes smell delicious! They even taste so delicious, too! I could literally eat them all right now!"
That prompted Minerva to respond to me with an aggravated look on her face, as she ran back to the plate in a somewhat urgent manner, "At least save one for me, you rude little bitch!"
"You weren't hungry, but now you at least want one?" I asked with a smug smile on my face, viewing Minerva as a blatant liar in this moment.
Lucy told me with a stern facial expression as she stood next to Minerva, "If Minerva-sama is going to eat one of those cupcakes, then I'll also eat one of them!"
Lucy and Minerva both took cupcakes off of the plates at the same exact moment, before loudly eating them. Minerva seemed to enjoy the sweetness of the cupcake much more, since she happily grinned, and the moment where she swallowed it was followed by my magic bursting within her body. Minerva proceeded to gain some weight as she felt the urge to eat more cupcakes, and each small cupcake that she ate ended up giving her tremendous amounts of weight. Minerva's weight gain even led to her towel falling off, as every part of her body swelled up.
She proceeded to have a fuchsia pink blush on her face while eating the cupcakes with Lucy beside her, both of them starting to look like they gained hundreds of extra pounds of weight, and Minerva perspired as her swimsuit tightened. She tried to grab it, only for her arms to feel so restrained by all the weight that they gained, and I quietly laughed at how Minerva now had several belly rolls that complimented her extremely chubby face. Minerva breathed heavily while Lucy also let out heavy breaths, and Lucy seemed to have massive breasts that were barely contained by her swimsuit.
She looked at Minerva while profusely perspiring, both of them gaining so much weight to where they even walked towards the dressing room's doorway at a sluggish pace, and Minerva turning around to accidentally knock down the table with her extremely fat and giant ass caused me to laugh evilly. Minerva looked as if she had gained thousands of pounds, which was actually evident from hearing my magic continue to burst in her stomach, and Lucy's hands weakly tied Minerva's hair back into a ponytail as Minerva struggled to get through the door. Lucy ended up pushing against Minerva's ass to get her through the door, before they both loudly stumbled to the stage, and I smiled in a pleased manner at how I practically poisoned their food.
Five minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
Were those cupcakes filled with some kind of Poison Magic? I personally felt that poison was the only reason why I suddenly gained at least 700 pounds of weight, and I sweated profusely as I kept inching my way towards the stage. When I got behind the curtain, the audience members seemed a bit startled by the loudness of my footsteps. It had been hard for me to bend over right now, as my extremely large breasts and my huge stomach obscured my feet, and I couldn't easily maintain my balance with this heavier body.
I had been just as heavy as Lucy, who was now heavily breathing as we stood next to each other, and our stomachs loudly growled for everyone to hear our desire for hunger. Even after eating all those cupcakes, I felt so famished and I could hardly concentrate on winning the fashion show. Jade and the others fully had their attention on the fashion show, since Shiozaki went out from behind the curtain to motion for the next round to begin, and I closed my eyes from seeing the curtains start to separate.
The curtains could no longer hide the fact that I gained a tremendous amount of weight, even to where my hands touched what appeared to be my five double chins that were above my neck's rolls of fat. The fact that I was so overweight right now caused me to bite my lower lip in an angered manner, thinking that I was going to lose this competition because of my own carelessness. I suddenly felt careless enough to stumble on to the runway, my cheeks blushing hot pink as I felt feverish. I proceeded to activate my Territory Magic to make purple energy waves be in my hands, and I winced in pain as I made my hands touch my stomach's sweaty rolls of fat.
My magic ended up working, but stepping forward without moving my hands caused me to clumsily take several steps down the runway. I ended up walking down to the pool of water, only to get stuck after I tried putting my body down into it. My body was still very overweight, and I had been so fat to where it seemed like the pressure of my weight would soon break this pool. I closed my eyes from hearing it start to feel pressured underneath all of my weight, but my own magic from earlier started to compress my body while water loudly splashed in this moment where I submerged to be under the water.
I heard Shiozaki announce in a shocked manner, "Wow, folks! Minerva just sank into the water, even though she was stuck before! It's like gravity pushed down on her, but she only has three minutes to get back up!"
Shiozaki added in a startled manner, "Oh... Oh, my! More water is filling the pool, and it's overflowing now!"
Upon making light blue energy waves be on my hands for me to make them have the properties of hot water, I calmly stated after swimming back up to the surface and feeling my weight flow through my body, "Ahhhhhh... That felt like sinking down into Zephri's new hot spring."
I proceeded to elicit another sultry moan while placing my body up against the edge of the pool, and I put my hands under my chin. I soon blushed rose pink from feeling myself be back to having one chin while my ass and breasts felt larger, and I deepened the blush on my face as the judges saw the shyness in my eyes. I even shyly rose up from the pool, feeling my swimsuit readjust to my normal weight, and my hands instinctively moved to be in front of my bikini bottom as I continued to blush.
I blushed at how this experience of being humiliated and trying to bounce back from that humiliation felt embarrassing, and I felt so vulnerable with the spotlights on me. I gently squirmed around for a few moments, my eyes displaying some timidness as I looked up at the judges. Were the judges going to give me extremely low scores for stumbling during my performance, or would I be shown some mercy? I hoped that the judges would have merciful looks on their faces, but seeing Corinne look bored didn't make me feel very optimistic.
Corinne ended up holding up a scorecard that would give me five points, followed by the other judges also giving me five points, and that made my total score be 75 points. That prompted me to walk back down the runway with a look of defeat on my face, feeling like I had no chance of winning. Since I felt that I truly lost my chance to win, I walked back to Lucy right before walking past her to just go backstage. I honestly humiliated myself enough today, and I didn't need to deal with the embarrassing sight of getting third or fourth place while Jade would be the winner.
"You should go home and work off all that weight, sweetie." Jade rudely whispered to me in a smug manner, causing me to tightly clench my fists.
That prompted me to reply in a soft whisper, sounding aggravated as I tried not to cry, "Just leave me the hell alone, you bitch."
I just wanted to be left alone right now, and this experience felt like I had taken another fall from grace. Being so close to treasure, only for Phoebe to steal it from me. Being in a fashion show, only for someone to sabotage my chances of winning after I felt like I had some momentum. Now that my momentum had ended, I elicited a loud sigh of depression and walked towards the backstage dressing room with my hair obscuring my eyes. I wanted to hide the sadness that was in my eyes, and I felt so inferior.
My feelings of inferiority grew as I turned back around to see Jade go down the runway, and the fact that she walked down the runway in such a confident manner without stumbling led to me running to the backstage area. Being out of the spotlight in fashion shows was where I honestly deserved to be, whether I truly believed that or not. I kept trying to be confident, but having myself in the spotlight in any situation just led to me ultimately being a failure. I felt like I failed at two consecutive missions, and my losing streak would probably never end.
Although, I guess I just had to accept that I was a loser. Ever since I got beaten down by Phoebe in Seductive Witch, I had been feeling like I needed to know my place in Fiore. Right now, I was nothing more than the weak woman who tried to outshine Jade in a situation where she was bound to win. If Jade wanted to brag about her eventual gold trophy or even rip up a dress that I wanted to take home, then I would just have to submissively let her disrespect me. Jade would probably even want to sit on my face, similar to what Annette did to Lucy, and I really felt that my opponents would always win.
Concurrently... (Jade's POV)
I certainly felt that I would win this competition, especially with that loser named Minerva getting such a low score. Even if she miraculously got to participate in the bonus round, her score would still be lower than mine. After all, she was lower than me by being someone who lost more than she had ever won. After I would inevitably be declared the winner of this competition, I would just smugly walk past Minerva while holding the golden trophy. After all, the judges would have to hand the gold trophy to me after seeing my Wind Magic.
I proceeded to shoot out a gigantic mint green tornado from my hand while the winds that emerged from it started to form the shapes of daisies in midair, and the daisies themselves became smaller tornadoes that changed to be jade green. This spell was called Jade Green Meadow, but my flowers that were made from jade green winds thrusted against the air. They ended up bursting instantly to create jade green sparkles, which fell down into the pool, and the sparkles immediately reformed themselves to be jade green daisies.
The tornado went down on to the daisies, before bursting to create several mint green daisies that floated out towards everyone in the audience. Many of the spectators happily giggled from seeing my jade green daisies become bursts of sparkles as they touched them, and I even blew a kiss while building up a strong amount of Wind Magic in my mouth. I ended up exhaling a massive amount of wind that was shaped giant mint green daisy, which became jade green, and the massive daisy floated towards the judges before I moved my hands to rotate the winds for my spell to now look like a daisy from an aerial view.
Upon seeing all of my handiwork, I politely bowed to the judges while having a confident smile on my face. My victory felt assured, nothing being able to impede me from obtaining the winner's trophy, I proceeded to arrogantly smirk at the judges. In fact, the judges would be right to just give the bonus round to me right now. Corinne had her right hand on a scorecard with one point, causing me to wonder if she hated my performance, but she used her left hand to hold up the scorecard that awarded me ten points while the other judges also awarded me with ten points.
"Thank you so much! It's only natural that you'd view me as the winner of Zephri Town's fashion show!" I stated with a happy smile on my face, before blowing kisses to the crowd.
Corinne responded with a slight frown on her face, as she waved to me, "I hope you don't mind viewing yourself as someone who should be off of the runway."
That prompted me to walk back down the runway, and I got to see that girl named Lucy activate a spell that made an amethyst purple aura of Darkness Magic engulf her body. The spell also made an amethyst purple sphere surround her body, but activating a spell was what caused Lucy to make her performance occur directly after mine. She proceeded to walk down the runway with the sphere fading away to reveal that she was back to her normal weight, but we were all suddenly weighed down by gravity!
What was happening right now? Lucy was acting like this was an actual fight instead of a fashion competition, and she strangely jumped up high into the air right before shooting out an amethyst purple fireball from her mouth. That fireball was followed by Lucy creating a much smaller amethyst purple fireball in her right hand, but she built up more magical power. She soon made magical power flow up through her stomach, before spitting out five extremely large orchid purple flames on to her right hand.
They merged together with the amethyst purple fireball, resulting in an inferno rising up from that small fireball, and Lucy threw that attack up at the larger fireball. The two attacks ended up colliding, resulting in several purple explosions where fireballs came down from the sky, and Lucy floated down to be in front of the pool. Was she planning to make all of the fire fall into the pool? That would be such a cliched move to make in this round, so I simply rolled my eyes in an amused and pitying manner. In fact, I'd pity Lucy more if she burnt down this entire building and expected to win.
"Gravity of my flames, I call upon thee! Add more pressure to my fire!" Lucy shouted with a confident look on her face, as she slowly moved her hands around in a psychic manner.
As Lucy's flames rained down from the air, they all quickly reached the pool. However, they landed around it an amethyst purple clusters of gravity started to push down against them. That caused all of Lucy's flames that were amethyst purple and orchid purple to violently roar with fire going upwards, and she even let her flames give off tremendous amounts of heat. The gravity was making hot heat push down into the flames, only for that heat to enhance their levels of power, and the level of heat was increasing.
Lucy proceeded to exhale an orchid purple aura from her mouth, only for the aura to deeply become orchid purple, and it made her fire grow much larger. The intensity of her heat even made everyone hear the water in the pool start bubbling, indicating that the heat from Lucy's spell was intense enough to boil all of that water, and the steam itself became light purple. Lucy blew all of that steam up into the air, primarily making it touch the stage lights, and she effectively dimmed the runway for only herself and her flames to be the only source of light in this moment.
Their brightness was soon gone from Lucy dispelling her flames, however, and the audience was silent. That display of flames around the pool may have been spooky and interesting, but Lucy's magic wasn't even green. She was like a dumb girl who showed up to a green-themed party in a purple dress, and standing out so much in a fashion show wasn't really going to make her earn a high score. In fact, the end of that performance where she darkened the runway for her flames to shine wasn't probably going to make people scream in excitement if they wanted to scream with feelings of being terrified.
Five minutes later... (Lucy's POV)
The silence in the fashion show's room had been followed by several audience members cheering with happiness and excitement in their voices, and some of them even stood up to give me a standing ovation. The fact that they praised my performance caused me to softly smile, and I honestly felt like I needed to be very humble after realizing that Jade's perfect score prevented me from obtaining first place in this fashion show. Despite not being able to actually obtain first place, I felt surprised at seeing the scorecard that Corinne grabbed.
Corinne held up the scorecard that indicated I would get ten points, which caused the other two judges to also give me ten points, and my doubled score from the previous round now had thirty additional points for my overall score to be 84 points. Receiving such a high score caused me to happily giggle, before I politely bowed, and I walked back down the runway. Going back to stand alongside the other girls caused me to continue being humble, as I got to see Jade attempt to smirk in an arrogant manner as if I truly didn't seem like a contender for the gold trophy.
Speaking of contenders for the gold trophy, Shiozaki walked down the runway with a confident smile on her face and she made her Wind Magic form seven celestial green small tornadoes in midair. Shiozaki simply moved them around in a graceful manner while the mint green tornadoes never collided with each other, and she jumped up into the air. Shiozaki's feet softly landed on each tornado, and each projectile immediately detonated for her to bounce around in the air. Bouncing through the air and landing near the water, only resulted in the judges giving her 21 points, however.
That score wasn't very low, but Shiozaki's performance caused Corinne to roll her eyes in an annoyed manner as the green scorecard under her right hand was quickly swapped out for a sunglow gold scorecard. That quickly caught my attention, followed by the sight of Corinne motioning for Shiozaki to come down from the runway. Shiozaki obeyed the judge's instructions, and Corinne showed her the sunglow gold card that would represent someone receiving one point from one judge in the bonus round. However, Corinne interpreted that number in a different way.
"According to the most fashionable guild master in Fiore, she wants to see the first performer of this round display their skills in the bonus round!" Shiozaki announced with a delighted smile on her face, after taking a dark green microphone out of a staff member's hand.
That caused me to whisper with a surprised facial expression, "Minerva-sama?!"
Minerva wasn't immediately here to walk down the runway, prompting me to run backstage and see if she would even participate. I applied some magic to my feet, before hastily running backstage to find Minerva. I quickly had a smile of happiness on my face from finding Minerva, seeing her standing near a basil green rack of clothes, but Minerva had a depressed look on her face. Did Minerva feel upset about how we had been sabotaged earlier? Even if we had been sabotaged, that wouldn't ultimately stop Minerva from winning.
Minerva gave me a look of resignation, almost like she was surrendering herself to the idea that losing was inevitable. If losing in this fashion show was inevitable, then how were Minerva and I in a position where we were so close to obtaining two of the top three spots in this competition? We didn't come this far just to end up being losers, and I narrowed my eyes in a stern manner as I refused to let Minerva wallow here in self-pity. Minerva never wanted me to feel sorry for myself like a weakling, and I certainly wouldn't let Minerva feel like a weakling.
In fact, Minerva definitely wasn't weak when she tried to take on someone as such as strong as Phoebe Hauntra. If Minerva could fight Phoebe, then she could totally take down someone as cocky as Jade. In fact, Jade's magic was weaker than Phoebe's and I honestly felt that I could unleash a few powerful spells to put Jade in her place. However, this fashion show and its circumstances meant that Minerva was the person who had the last opportunity to take down her newest rival. Minerva would take her down, and I firmly believed that she would win.
"Minerva-sama, you only lose if you don't try to win. Give it your best shot, and I know that you can beat Jade!" I stated to Minerva with a fierce look appearing on my face, not wanting to hear Minerva give me any words of refusal.
Minerva replied to me with a saddened frown on her face, "Lucy, you shouldn't have even pushed pushed for me to be here. I'm inferior to Jade, and-"
"If you're so inferior to her, then I really must be superior to you right now! Put on a basil green skirt with a jungle green bra, Minerva-sama! That's all you'll need, since you're so inferior! You should wear tropical green flowers in your hair and finally look pretty, too!" I responded to Minerva with an irked look on my face, only to see her eyes start to be narrowed in an offended manner.
Minerva told me in an aggressive and cold whisper, looking stern as she grabbed me to pin me against the nearest wall, "Learn your place, and never try to dominate over me. Step out of line like this again, and I'll kick your ass."
That prompted me to whisper in an admiring manner while sweetly smiling in this moment where my cheeks blushed light pink, "I love it when you dominate me, Minerva-sama."
Minerva simply patted my head in a gentle manner, before she started shoving me away from the basil green rack. Minerva quickly picked out a basil green miniskirt from that rack, along with a jungle green bra, and some flowers that had been on the floor were going to be placed in her hair. She also started eyeing some jade green shoes that Jade ironically ignored while the shoes had shiny juniper green leaves on them, and Minerva ran over to some makeup brushes that were next to next to a dark green makeup kit on the basil green table. She interestingly decided to mix some shades of green together, before applying that eyeshadow to her eyelids.
That particular green eyeshadow went well with her emerald green eyes, and Minerva sultrily smiled as she took off all of her clothes. She started to put on her new outfit, prompting me to run back to the main room with a happy smile on my face. I felt very happy that Minerva wasn't intending to give up, and I felt that Minerva wouldn't want me to give up if we had been in a situation where our current circumstances were swapped. I hadn't given up on her, just like how Minerva wouldn't give up on me, and I felt ready to cheer for Minerva.
Cheering for Minerva would give her more encouragement, and she would also probably enjoy being cheered on by the audience. After all, everyone loved her first performance and she even surprised everyone by suddenly losing so much weight after falling into the pool. Minerva's weight loss interestingly made me realize that her breasts and her ass started to look larger when I had been close to her, along with her thighs and body looking much more muscular. If Minerva lost weight and gained more muscles, then she literally got stronger from this experience.
Five minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
I decided to demonstrate my new surges of strength by running out on to the runway, before happily jumping into the air. I went very high into the air while creating jungle green energy waves in my hands, and I made the energy waves have the properties of instantly exploding. The jungle green explosions occurred around me while I created some tropical green energy waves on my hands, and these energy waves absorbed the explosions. They expelled all of that energy in the moment that the tropical green energy waves ended up bursting, and the explosive energy made several green leaf-shaped projectiles appear around me.
That prompted me to make some forest green energy waves appear on my hands, and I made these energy waves grow to a tremendous size. They soon became royal green, before I fired them down at the end of the runway. That caused a swirling tower of forest green winds to start blowing upward to where the wind even made some of my skirt's leaves come off, but I created emerald green energy waves in my hands. I threw them at some clusters of leaves, before teleporting in midair, and I closed my eyes as the leaves ended up being surrounded by bursts of emerald green paint.
The paint started to coat my arms and legs, causing me to sigh happily as my cheeks blushed fuchsia pink. I continued to blush while creating moss green energy waves that were large, and I threw them down at the pool. They ended up softly landing in the water, almost like they had been soft feathers, and I proceeded to dive down into the water. I ended up diving down at high speeds, before teleporting myself to be a very short distance away from the water, and I sighed blissfully as Lucy's flames from earlier made this pool feel like the hottest bath of my life.
Although, would it really be a bath if it made me seem dirtier? I rose up from the water with my skin and hair looking smoother while they were both now moss green, and I made a jade green energy wave be on my right hand. I put it up against my lips for a moment, before the energy wave created jade green lipstick that was applied to my lips, and I had a confident look on my face as I ended my performance by gently moving my hips around as if I had been hula dancing. The feeling of my massive breasts and my huge ass bouncing caused my cheeks to blush rose pink, and the moment where my bra seemed to come undone was followed by me softly biting my lower lip.
"Well, you started out with being elegant and ended the performance by showing how primal you truly are." Corinne stated to me with a somewhat impressed look on her face, causing me to think that my performance wasn't bad.
The judge in the middle of the trio stated with a nice smile on her face, "I really liked that you didn't go for the cliched choice of making a big splash, and you chose to just bathe in the pool like you were embracing the jungle's hot and tropical climate."
"I really love that we got to see your wild side, instead of seeing you try to always be elegant. To me, your performance is like seeing a warrior bravely fight without wearing much armor." The judge on the left end of the panel calmly stated to me while smiling, before sweetly giggling.
That judge joined the other two judges in holding up scorecards that each had the number six on them, which meant that I would receive 18 points. Having eighteen more points added to my score meant that my overall score was now 93 points, which meant that I had officially made my score be higher than Jade's score of 90 points. Although, my score of 18 points ended up being doubled because of how this was a bonus round and each judge pulled out a second scorecard that gave me six points.
My final score was 111 points, meaning that I officially won the tournament. The bonus round was now over, evident by the stage lights getting back to normal, but the competition also seemed to reach its end because of how it was literally impossible for any of the other girls to earn more points than me. Despite earning the most points, I simply stood in front of the pool's moss green water with a surprised look of disbelief on my face. I fairly won Zephri Town's fashion show? I ended up being the winner of this contest?
The thought that I was the winner had been confirmed by Shiozaki running down to talk with Corinne again, since Corinne had all of the point totals on a fern green sheet of paper. Corinne proceeded to give me a slightly respectful smile, acknowledging that I was the winner, and that acknowledgement was only furthered by some emerald green fireworks appearing near the ceiling. That was followed by a staff member bringing over a mint green trophy that was quite large while it had a jade green tornado, a neon green tornado, and a basil green tornado forming a triangle around it.
"Wow, that trophy looks beautiful! It looks just as beautiful as Minerva, who is our winner of Zephri Town's fashion show!" Shiozaki announced to the crowd with an excited look on her face, seeming so thrilled.
That prompted Lucy to tell me in a joyful manner, as she ran down the runway to hug me from behind, "Minerva-sama, you won! You ended up being the winner! I knew you could win!"
That caused me to reply with a soft smile on my face, after taking a deep breath, "Wow, I'm the winner."
I proceeded to gently stretch out my hands, which prompted the green-haired staff member to place the trophy in my hands. As I held the trophy, the photographers proceeded to take photos of me smiling. I smiled in a humble manner, feeling like I had merely been dreaming for a situation such as this to even exist. The fact that I won Zephri Town's fashion show felt extremely surreal, and I proceeded to just take a few steps back. Lucy also stepped back while holding me, not wanting me to fall backwards.
I certainly felt that I wasn't falling back to be a loser in a fair competition, and I just felt so overcome with my own emotions to where I had to process this victory. By being victorious, this meant that I wasn't a failure. Since I won instead of failing to win, I wasn't a loser. Happiness started to fill my eyes as I thought about the fact that I wasn't perceived as a weak loser right now, and I started to smile in a very proud manner. I felt very proud that I managed to win, and I ended up believing that I could win because of Lucy's encouragement.
Lucy ended the hug for a moment, and I turned around to face her with a proud smile on my face. My smile soon changed into one that seemed more appreciative, and I really appreciated Lucy for always having so much confidence in my abilities. If she hadn't been believing in me, then I probably would've just lost the bonus round while performing with fear in my mind. That feeling of fear started to disappear, before being replaced with confidence, and I confidently faced the judges as they soon saw the massive and jade green bag of jewels that would be awarded to me.
Seven hours later, in Mauve Town... (Lucy's POV)
Minerva had given me an average-sized portion of her massive amount of jewels, which would be added to the small bag of jewels that was awarded to me for obtaining third place in the fashion show. Getting third place may not have allowed me to earn a trophy, but the opportunity to see Jade be upset over earning second place certainly caused me to have a happy smile on my face. I currently smiled in a delighted manner at how I was now on Mauve Town's street that had the high-end fashion store, and I went into the store with the feeling of joy in my eyes.
My feelings of joy increased from seeing some grape purple underwear on a heather purple rack, and I liked the sight of the heather purple underwear being right next to the grape purple underwear. The thought of seeing Minerva wearing the lacy and heather purple underwear caused my cheeks to blush rose pink, since her pair of underwear looked just as elegant as mine, but I went over to another rack for the purpose of getting Minerva a deep plum purple bra while mine would be in a lighter shade of plum purple.
My fashion sense pertaining to the color purple had been becoming much more refined from being around Minerva, and I felt that she could show off her giant and golden trophy while wearing a royal purple dress that had some amethyst purple roses around the waist. That dress was currently in the display window, since that section of this store was now featuring new dresses that were recently delivered to this store. One dress that I could buy for myself would have to be the lilac dress that was right next to the royal purple dress, and seeing the lilac purple dress become sangria purple when it was moved away from the sunset's light caused my eyes to twinkle with joy.
I giggled happily while taking notice of a midnight purple sash made from roses being around the waist of the dress, and I took both dresses away from the display window. Some midnight purple high-heeled shoes would go well with my dress, and some eggplant purple shoes would greatly compliment Minerva's dress. Going over to the shoe rack allowed me to see that there were several new shoes on sale, including the specific shoes that I wanted to buy for Minerva and myself, but the moment that my hand was about to touch the eggplant purple high-heeled shoes was when a certain purple-haired woman hastily took them for herself.
"Well, it looks like Minerva's little lapdog grew a spine and started shopping for herself." Phoebe Hauntra told me with a snobbish look on her face, before giggling in a rude manner.
That caused me to retort with a miffed facial expression, as I took notice of Phoebe's lilac purple khaki pants going well with her midnight purple blouse that looked as elegant as her rose purple shoes, "Well, it looks like someone hasn't started learning how to have better fashion sense."
Phoebe began to have a smug smile appear on her face, before maliciously whispering with arrogance in her eyes, "At least I didn't have such a huge desire to kiss Aoikina's ass, unlike some people. You must've enjoyed getting it on with the girls of Aroma Flair, sweetie."
"What are you talking about?" I sternly asked with an offended facial expression, as Phoebe moved the shoes out of my reach when my hand tried reaching for them.
Phoebe proceeded to pull out the newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine from the left back pocket of her khaki pants, before handing it to me, and I opened it up to see that there were several of the photos from that day. My eyes widened in shock from seeing one of the photos display me passionately kissing Aoikina's huge ass, which was followed by the genuine picture of when I rested my head against her ass, and the first picture did display me gently caressing Aoikina's ass. I may have only been participating as an assistant on that day, but turning some pages caused me to see some more images that featured me as a weak girl with a scared facial expression.
I did genuinely look scared in one photo where Aoikina crawled forward for her to directly be on top of me while I laid down on the ground, but her seductive expression and my face blushing from nervousness only occurred after our first time getting out of the water. She had confidence in her eyes and a manipulative smile on her face in the next photo where she relaxed in the hot spring, but Aoikina's face blushed in arousal as my face was above the water for her breasts to be right in front of me. I may have had a pleading look on my blushing face in that photo, but I was told to play the role of the scared girl who needed to be rescued by the mermaid.
Even though I performed well in that photo shoot, I turned a few pages in this new edition of Sorcerer Magazine to see that Annette was featured in more photos. This time, she wore a dark brown crop top with chocolate brown yoga pants that showed off her huge ass while her hair was styled back in a long ponytail. Annette bent over while smirking arrogantly as she opened a tawny brown treasure chest, which was full of chocolates and purses. The woman who held one purse in her hand and stood right behind Annette's ass had been burnt and badly bruised, her gingerbread brown hair strikingly resembling my hairstyle from yesterday as she wore a tattered walnut brown dress. The woman had a frown of defeat on her face, and the advertisement's headline talked about Annette's sweet bit of inspiration
"How could Annette even be inspired by yesterday's events, if they hadn't even been published yet?" I asked aloud, as I turned the page and looked astounded at the sight of Annette pointing at her ass as she looked seductive in the image of eating some high-quality chocolate.
That caused Phoebe to viciously respond with a gleeful grin on her face, "Take a guess, loser! My team's accomplishment of finding all that treasure reached Aroma Flair, and I just gave Annette Rosia some details about you disrespecting me! She made her company quickly put that ad together, since you needed some humiliation! Apparently, you were begging to be Annette's little dog on a beach!"
Phoebe added with a scheming smirk on her face, as I aggressively turned a page to see Annette ordering the woman to get her knees and proudly smirking right before she put a smaller treasure chest in front of her like a doggy dish, "Annette can decide what photos from Aroma Flair's women reach Sorcerer Magazine, but this new little campaign serves as one of many threats to let you know that I'm capable of ruining your life if you ever forget who you and that bitch Minerva bow down to."
My own desire to not be submissive to anyone other than Minerva caused me to sternly respond, "Minerva-sama and I won't bow down to you or Annette! In fact, maybe Annette will see me tomorrow when I'm wearing my eggplant purple shoes! Maybe she'll enjoy literally having her ass be kicked!"
Upon hearing that last sentence, Phoebe told me with a pitying facial expression while she swapped out the earlier shoes for a pair that had behind them, "If you're going to try and kick her ass soon, then I'll pity you by adding yours and Minerva's clothes to my expenses! You'll both look great in them during your funerals."
Phoebe proceeded to take the entire pile of clothes from me, before going up to the cash register with a snobbish smile appearing on her face. She probably loved all the attention that I currently gave her, since Minerva was getting attention and praise right now in the Seductive Witch guild for being the winner of Zephri Town's fashion show, and Phoebe probably felt that she couldn't upstage Minerva in this moment or destroy her confidence. Therefore, it had been a low blow from Phoebe when she messed with my self-confidence and calm attitude.
I tried my best to remain calm in this moment where Phoebe was practically threatening me into not taking high-paying jobs pertinent to obtaining treasure, unless she would be able to get most of it for her team. That kind of threat was completely unfair, since Phoebe's team was much stronger to where they could easily obtain as much treasure as they desired! Were they desiring tremendous amounts of treasure in Fiore? Even if they desired to have several treasure chests, Minerva and I were no real threat to Phoebe's team!
Phoebe calmly paid for the clothes while not even elaborating on that threat about ruining my life, and I picked up the eggplant purple shoes that she almost refused to let me have. These shoes were probably the only thing that I would buy with my own money today, but I would be glad to go back to the Seductive Witch guild soon to tell Minerva that Annette was definitely now wanting to attack me through advertisements that made me look so submissive to her. There was a green-haired girl who I hadn't been associated with in this magazine, but skipping the beginning of this magazine probably prevented me from having another enemy be in my life today.
How was Chapter 13? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Minerva and Lucy entered Zephri Town's fashion show, and Minerva ended up going from a reluctant contestant to being the winner! Minerva is very thankful for Lucy's encouragement, and attaining victory in a fashion show may even make Minerva be in Sorcerer Magazine! Although, it seems like Minerva will need to comfort Lucy when she finds out that Phoebe used her newest instance of fame and attention in Sorcerer Magazine to convince Annette that Lucy needed to be humiliated. Now, this will not bring the Lucy/Erza/Annette love triangle back. That plot line is over, and this post-arc chapter is meant to highlight the three-way conflict that will be part of the next major arc. By the way, this is the third and final part of the post-Cerulean Cosmos Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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