Sin walked up to Rai with a smile on her face. She’d just forced the tailor to let her buy the dress, and stored it in her rings.

Something Sin never really thought about was how clothes never seemed to crease up when stored in spatial storage. Maybe there’s a way to change clothes by using spatial magic... that could be pretty useful...

“Yo.” Rai said as he got Sin’s attention. “You seem pretty lost in your thoughts. You good?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, sorry. I got the dress though! It only cost me 2 platinum pieces too!”

Rai’s face instantly paled.

“T-t-t-t-... TWO?! TWO P-P-P-P-PLATINUM PIECES?!” He shouted.

Everyone sat at the tables around them jumped, then looked at Rai. He froze up at the attention, and waited for it to go away.

Sin covered her mouth as she couldn’t help herself from giggling.

“Yeah, 2 platinum pieces for a dress that’s this good is pretty worth, I’d say.”

“Huh... Mhmm. Yeah. Sure. If you say so.” Rai said while his eyes kept fluttering.

“Rai? Are... you alright?”

“... No. Not really. 2 platinum pieces is a lot.”

“Yeah... relatively it is. Didn’t you get paid a bunch from Rodrick earlier in the week though?”

“I did... but I didn’t realise that clothes could cost so much...”

“Weeeeeeelllll... about that... I forced the tailor to let me buy it for that much.”

Rai stared at Sin with a blank face.

“You what? Come again? Lemme hear that one more time.”

“I mean, it’s a work of art! The dress is so beautiful, and I love it so much, so I just paid what I thought it was worth!”

“... I seem to have fallen for a psycho.” Rai whispered under his breath.

Sin pouted at him. “I heard that. No cuddles for you tonight.”

“Wuh... fuck!”

*Pfft*

“I’m only kidding. I want those cuddles just as much as you do! Actually... probably more...” Sin said with a blush.

Rai wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “Whew. That’s good. I dunno how I would’ve survived without my Sin cuddles. You’re just so soft and comfy, y’know?”

“Mhmm mhmm... compliment me more!” Sin said as she wagged her non-existent tail.

“I’ll happily do so if we can find something for me now.”

“Ah... Right. Yeah, let’s do that first.”

Rai paid for his hot chocolate and honeynut cookie, which only cost a few silver pieces. Then the two of them started perusing through the shops on this side of the square. Funnily enough, the clothes on this side seemed to mostly be designed for women. Sin had a great time window shopping, even though she hadn’t bought anything else.

After a while of looking through the stalls and stores on this side of the square, Rai and Sin turned invisible and tiptoed past the centre. They looked at the entrance archway, and saw the same white-haired man stood beside another butch looking man. Both men leaned against the archway. The white-haired man kept his eyes peeled as he watched the people moving across his line of sight.

Since Sin had managed to mask both of their presences with the use of her Domain, they had nothing to worry about.

She released the spell once they’d made it out of the man’s line of sight.

“He’s definitely waiting for us to leave.” Rai said.

“Yeah... well, we can deal with that after. For now, let’s find you something nice!”

Zenith’s twin suns were slowly setting. Rai and Sin had about an hour or two before it was night time.

Neither of them knew how the ports operated, or what time they stayed open until. They only knew what Kallad had told them, that the ports were open until the morning. Either way, they could make a fun night out of simply being with each other all dressed up, so they were fine with whatever the outcome would be.

On this side of the square, there were suits that fit larger frames, and different types of fancy dress pieces.

A lot of the outfit pieces that were marketed towards males were much more modular than the pieces that were marketed towards females.

Rai didn’t quite know exactly what he should be looking for here.

“Hmm...” Sin hummed.

“What’s up?” Rai asked her.

“Well... I have no idea what would work for you. There’s a bunch of suits, shirts, trousers, and other smaller bits and bobs in the smarter looking shops... but that’s about it. I just can’t imagine you wearing any of that stuff...”

“Maybe we should go and just try some stuff on, and see what works?”

Sin nodded. “Yeah, maybe something will click.”

They decided to work clockwise. The both of them entered a number of shops together, and ended up running into some of the students from their Academy. Rai and Sin didn’t realise how famous they were amongst the student body, since they focused on themselves more than anything else. Still, it was nice to be recognised and complimented for their unique techniques. It gave the two of them a bit of a boost to their egos.

Each of the shops specialised in different things. The first shop had a number of full-body suit sets, which all looked rather expensive and unnecessarily extravagant. Rai was a simple man, he didn’t like clothes that were too exquisite. If there was a simple suit set that fit him well, then he was likely to buy that.

But the first shop didn’t have anything that stood out to him, so they moved on.

The second shop had loose shirts that were meant to be tucked in under a pair of trousers to grant them the baggy aesthetic that they were made for.

Rai didn’t like that either. It felt like those clothes were trying too hard to be hot.

For a while, they sifted through the shops that lined the edges of the square, but there wasn’t much there either.

Rai decided to go through the small alleyways that circled from one edge of the square to another. Smaller shops lined these thin streets, and they seemed to be far more varied than what was in the square itself.

Here, Rai found a shop that stood out to him very much.

Sin noticed it as well.

The shop was full of oriental clothes for both men and women.

Rai went in and started looking around.

“Hey.” A deep voice said as the door rang open.

“Hey.” Rai replied. He looked at the source of the deep voice.

It came from a large dark-skinned elven man. He looked severely out of place to Sin, but Rai didn’t think anything of it. He figured that this man must be the owner.

“Are you the owner of this place?”

“Yeah. You here to buy somethin’?”

“Ideally. I’m looking for a nice set of clothes that’s form fitting, but will also give me the flexibility to fight. Nothing fancy, just something simple that looks good.”

The big man looked Rai up and down a few times. He walked around the counter and sized Rai up properly.

“Hmm. Alright. Gimme a sec.” The man said.

Rai wasn’t opposed to having the owner find something that would fit him specifically. It saved him a bunch of time, so he was appreciative about the owner’s initiative.

The shop owner ducked under the top end of the door and went into the backroom.

After a few minutes of ruffling sounds in the back, and sounds of boxes being shuffled and clothes muddled, the owner said something.

“Right. Found it.”

The man came out of the backroom. He carried a folded, simple looking outfit in his hands.

“This should fit you. Give it a try.” He said.

He handed the clothes to Rai and led him to the changing room. Though, this action was almost entirely unnecessary, considering the size of the shop made it abundantly clear exactly where the changing room was.

Rai tried on the clothes.

To his surprise, he quite liked them.

The knot-like buttons are different to normal shirt buttons, and it’s really breathable even though it’s form fitting! I love the blue accents going down the side. The little blue floral elements on the ends of the sleeves are also really nice! These trousers are simple, but fit well and are comfortable too. I think this’ll do... but...

Rai poked his head out of the changing room door. “What’s this outfit called? I’ve never seen clothes of this type before” His ponytailed hair dangled down, prompting Sin to prod it, just to watch it dangle. She was so preoccupied with his hair that Sin didn’t even look at Rai’s suit.

“It’s a tang suit. That one’s made for fighting, so it’s stretchy. It won’t rip from anything that’s not a sharp object or spell.”

Rai tested it out by stretching the material as much as he could.

No matter how much he stretched it, there were no rips.

“Woah... awesome!” He whispered to himself.

Rai was about to head back into the changing room to change back into his other clothes. But something was stopping the door from closing.

Sin held the door open. “C-... can I see?” She asked with a blush.

Rai shook his head. “Nope! It’s a surprise!”

“Oh... alright then...”

Rai shut the door and changed back into his other clothes.

He brought out the tang suit with him as he went to the counter. Rai did his best to keep the suit hidden from Sin, who kept trying to peek at it.

“How much will it be for the set?”

“40 gold pieces.”

A sharp pain hit Rai’s heart. 40 GOLD PIECES?! Why are clothes so expensive?!?!

Rai pulled out a platinum piece from his seals with a flash of lightning.

“You g-got change?”

The man pulled out 60 gold pieces from a box under the counter, and sold Rai the tang suit.

“Th-thanks!” Rai said.

He stored the tang suit in his seals with another flash of lightning, alongside the 60 gold pieces.

Phew. At least it’s done now. The suit’s really nice, so I’m not really THAT upset at how expensive it was. Okay maybe just a little upset.

Rai let out a sigh.

Sin grinned at him as they left the shop.

“Back to the Secret first?” She asked.

Rai nodded. Then a look of realisation made its way onto his face.

“Ah wait... how are we gonna get past that guy?”

Sin stared blankly at him.

“... Invisibility, duh.” She said.

“Oh... right. Forgot about that.”