Suzume tucks herself in the dark leather passenger seat of the car and watches the world roll by the tinted windows. Her hair is loose for once, save her bangs that have been braided to the side courtesy of her mother. A shiny pin with a little wasp on it clips the braid behind her left ear. The rest of her dark hair falls to her shoulders, around her light yellow peasant shirt.
You don't have to be practical all the time, Suzy. Chiasa had told her with a fond, but exasperated, shake of her head. A little vanity won't hurt anyone.
Suzume watches the high buildings roll by, slowly falling into lower businesses and residencies until they've slipped between two different car dealerships. Most of her class is at the mall today, doing shopping for their summer camping trip. And while Suzume needs a new water bottle and maybe a good swim suit, she needs this sooner.
Rio practically bounces in the driver's seat, her painted nails tapping restlessly on the steering wheel.. Her white hair is braided tightly back out of her face and her red eyes glow with excitement behind her new driving glasses.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" she says with a grin that shows far too many teeth.
Suzume looks away from the blurry streets outside her window to look at her sister-in-law. Fun isn't the word Suzume would use for clothes shopping. Interesting in this case, maybe?
Rio is always a vision, as ethereal as a cloud come to take human form with her pale hair, a crown of horns and her big, lovely eyes. Suzume privately thinks she looks like a bone goddess.
"I don't see why you think so," Suzume grimaces. "Fittings are so weird."
"It's going to be fun because it's the two of us doing it before I drop you off to meet your weird tweet friends. And just the two of us barely ever do anything. You spend more time with my brother than you spend with me. It's sad, Suzy-Q."
"That's… Okay." Not even close but whatever. Tweet friends? Did Rio think that everyone online was from Twitter?
God old people are weird.
"I'm so glad you came to me for this," she goes on, turning them into what looks like a largely deserted strip mall. A few neon lights glow and in a small outbuilding that's mostly made of brick she can see mannequins lining the windows. The sign above the door says, simply, 'Tailor'.
Rio pulls them to a stop in front of the white washed building. One of the mannequins in the window displays a dress that even Suzume can tell was designed by the same person who did Rio's wedding dress all those years ago. So this is definitely someone that Rio knows and trusts, and someone that she's worked with before on more important things than Suzume going to a silly dress up gala on an island.
"Although, I do have to ask, why do you want a bullet proof dress for the I Expo?" Rio asks once they're stopped in the parking lot. They're one of the only cars sitting in the lot. Others crouch in front of a nail salon and the movie theater, and she can see a gaggle of teenagers trying to do kick flips off of a fountain between an emaciated Macey's wannabe and a burger bar of all things.
"Because my class is cursed and I'm very sure something is going to go horribly wrong with so many of us there."
Rio pauses, tilts her head, then shrugs.
"True enough. Out we get, Suzume."
Suzume obeys and climbs out of the car. Her sneakers scuff the ground and the back of her poor legs peel on the leather of the car where her short overalls don't go down far enough to protect them. It's starting to get hot, they're in the early days of summer now.
Rio swings a surprisingly strong arm around her shoulders and guides the younger girl in the shop. It's easy to forget that Rio, for all her kindness and sweet nature, was raised to be Yakuza.
Beyond the hard concrete is a wide room that displays mannequins in dresses and suites of all kinds. The walls are lined with framed posters of models in high fashion or bolts of patterned fabric in all different colors and types. In a big glass case watches, bracelets, and necklaces are displayed to pair with the clothes.
She can see two measuring rooms cut off from the main room by currently opened curtains, each one with a lifted platform for someone to stand on. Circular couches are set up outside each one, along with full length mirrors.
A tall man with red, oddly yarn looking hair appears in a doorway, his teeth bared in a glasgow grin. He looks like a doll from a nightmare.
Suzume doesn't so much as blink at his odd appearance. It's no different from any other odd looking person in the world, and really who is she to judge?
No one, that's who.
"Rio!" he greets with a brilliant smile and an odd accent. "And you must be Suzume, hello there kiddo. I'm Lolo."
Suzume looks up at Lolo, taking in his yarn hair and his button like eyes. This man was way too enthusiastic.
"Nice to meet you?"
"And its absolutely wonderful to meet you too! Rio, the darling, told me what you're looking for. Why don't we take a look at some of my designs and we can find something for you. I have such wonderful designs for a girl like you."
"A girl like me?" Her eyes narrow automatically, but Lolo waves at her excitedly.
"Petite! Designing for small girls requires a different silhouette than if I was designing for someone tall, or a person with a lot of curves to emphasize. People with unique quirks also require unique clothes. Tails, or wings for instance will need room to breathe and move."
Suzume watches Lolo go off on a delighted tangent about different designs and styles. It's rare that she meets someone with such an overwhelming passion. It's kind of nice. She knows, at least, that she'll be in good hands for this man.
He's definitely affiliated with the hessaikai, but she doesn't mind as long as he gets her what she needs for this Expo. She doesn't remember everything, but she remembers that there's definitely going to be trouble brewing when they get there. Maybe she should invest in a plastic knife?
Suzume follows Lolo to one of the fitting rooms. He spins off into the bowels of the shop and reemerges a few minutes later with an arm full of dressed in plastic bags.
"Here, try this one on," he orders, shoving one into her arms. "Do you need help? I'm sure Rio would be glad to, or I have a lady assistant around here somewhere.."
"No, I'm fine," she promises, taking the first dress from him.
He and Rio step out. Outside the dressing rooms are the couches for accomplices to sit on and judge whoever comes out.
Suzume grimaces and strips herself down to change into the dress.
When she'd asked Rio if she knew a place she could get a bullet proof dress for her trip she had been sure that the answer would be yes, but she hadn't expected this of all things.
She hadn't expected to play dress up.
She thought there would be some kind of. Of off the rack bulletproof clothes store that the Yakuza ran.
She didn't sign up for a trip to a tailor!
But here she was.
So she pulled on the first dress, a full length plum colored one with a big ribbon that cuts across her stomach and ties on the side. It falls like a waterfall around her legs and settles at her ankles.
Suzume steps out to Rio gasping and clapping her hands together.
"You look amazing!" She cries. Suzume can feel heat crawling onto her cheeks
"Okay. But I'm not wearing this one. I can't move enough in it," she gestures to the full skirt.
"You're planning on getting in a scrap in my clothes?" Lolo's brows furrow.
"I'm not planning on it," Suzume defends. "These things just happen to me!"
She's about 90% sure that her classmates are getting ambushed at the mall right now while she's getting stuffed into dresses and fancy things.
"Yeah. My class is cursed and I'm going to be going with them so. Bullet proof clothes I can fight in."
Lolo sighs.
"Oh dear."
Suzume shuts herself back in the dressing room with a swish of the curtain and changes into the next dress. It's too short, and the skirt barely lets her move. The sleeves are angled, and the whole thing is an off orange.
She shows it to them all the same. Rio, of course, thinks it's lovely.
Suzume thinks it makes her look like a dorito. Her shoulders are too broad, her hips are too thin.
The third dress is more like a toga than anything else. The fourth reminds her of a sari. That one is her favorite, but again she can barely move in it in terms of fighting.
"This is feeling hopeless," she calls. The fifth one isn't even a full dress at all.
Suzume comes out in it.
"The whole point is that I don't get shot. Why is there a big gap between the shirt thing and the skirt?"
"Oh I love that one!" Rio snaps a picture of her, despite Suzume's protests.
Lolo looks her over.
"It does look good on you. Mulberry is a good color for you, and the gold lace really completes it. I have jewelry that would go wonderfully with it!"
"That doesn't answer my question," Suzume points to the bare patch of skin. "I can get shot here."
"Oh, there are kevlar slips and spanx to cover that," he waves his hand flippantly. Suzume gapes at him. "And look, the skirt drops back so your legs are free to run or do… whatever it is you want it to do. The chest piece is reinforced."
It also covered more of her torso than anything else had so far. It covered her shoulders and did not expose much of her neck.
Miraculously, it didn't make her look broad either. She'd never be waifish and thin, or curvy like Yaomomo, but the dress made her look… pretty?
So far it was her favorite, and she'd gone through all the ones that Lolo had pulled.
And, she really did like the mulberry color of it.
She could get black gloves and low black boots to go with it, and then she could look fancy even while being ready for a fight or a climb or literally anything.
Suzume takes a breath.
"Okay. If you have something to cover the weird gap, I think I like this one the best."
"Beautiful!" Lolo bounces to his feet and claps his hands together. His yarn hair bounces. "Let's get your measurements, and we can find something to pair with it. Maybe a hair stick with a knife in it?"
Suzume's eyes spark.
"Now you're talking. Do you have a garot I could wear on my wrist?"
"Oh I like the way you think," Lolo beams at her. "My boyfriend makes the most darling reinforced jewelry. Let's get you all kitted out, my girl. "
Who is Suzume to refuse?
Lolo ushers her up on the pedestal and whips out a measuring tape. Suzume lets him lift her arms and slip the tape around her shoulders, chest, belly, hips, and shoulders, then measure her height as well.
After that she gets a few texts on her phone from her friends at the mall, but most of her attention is on the jewelry that Rio holds up to check against her neck and hair. A couple of necklaces, and hair pins with knives just as promised.
By the time they leave Lolo promises to have everything ready by the time she goes to I Island. She doesn't need to worry about security either, because kevlar doesn't show up on metal detectors, and hair ornaments aren't that odd to have either. Especially for young women going to parties.
Suzume loads back in the car with Rio, feeling tired already.
Rio reaches over and squeezes her small, calloused hand.
"You're going to have fun on your trip, I just know it. And in the meantime, I'll drive you to see your friends. Text your mother every hour, and keep-"
"My snapchat location on, I know Rio," Suzume says with a long suffering sigh.
Rio huffs at her.
"Fine. Be like that. But you know if Eri was going to meet some strange older men she met on the internet you wouldn't even let her do it alone."
"Eri hasn't spent the last ten years learning how to break people's jaws," Suzume says dryly. "I'll be fine, and if I'm not I'll scream until everyone knows that I'm not and why."
Rio still looks discomforted by the idea, but she settles back in the drivers seat and turns them out of the half abandoned strip mall, and to the big park in the city. It's open, with plenty of places to escape too and plenty of people to witness anything shady going on between a bunch of teenagers meeting up.
Well.
She's pretty sure Dusty is a teenager?
If he's not, he sure fucking acts like one.
She knows that both of them are older than she is, but for the life of her she can't remember exactly how much older.
In the end it doesn't really matter, she figures. Whatever it is, it's only a few years, and even if it was longer, intergenerational friendships are important, and nothing new to her. Most of her best friends are at least ten years older than she is, and they've known her since she was just a tetchy little girl with a mouth and an attitude.
The problem with being friends with people older than you, is that it sometimes leads to power imbalances and people taking advantage of the younger party and their naivety, she thinks to herself. She looks at Rio. Her sister in law, yes, but Suzume does genuinely enjoy being around the older woman. And no one's ever done that to me. And no one ever will because I have enough life experience to put myself on equal footing with any adult.
Which was a nice way for her to think of herself. It was better than thinking that she was too jaded to be easily manipulated.
(It might have been arrogance that spoke, but manipulation required a certain measure of trust, and Suzume had so little trust in so few people. Was she cocky, or sure? Was it the truth, or a pretty lie like the shining ring in a bulls nose, easy to grasp and lead the animal around with?)
Rio turns them along the winding roads of the city and draws into a circular drop off area. From here she can see a fountain, and nearer is a play ground.
To the west is a statue of a dancing couple with wings. At the base she can see a figure in a black hoodie, and another one in layered clothes that can't hide the green scales on his face or his lavender hair.
"Be careful," Rio says again.
"I'm always careful," Suzume informs her.
She closes the door and walks away from her sister in law, towards the two young villains.