So where was Waa? That girl must've been all around the convention space at this point. Surely there was a stopping point for her. It's that Kouji and the others had no clue on where that would be.
"So, did any of you guys bother to remember where she'd be going?" He asked them in a futile attempt to gather information.
"When she left me behind." Anastasia was the only one to have anything that could help. "It was a while ago, but she wanted to make sure not to miss all the limited sales here." Given that they were supposed to be limited, surely she'd pick up everything she wanted by now. However, there was a shining beacon for Kouji.
"Hmm?" He scanned around the stands to see if any of them had signs of exclusive items. Luckily for him, there was one that had an odd way of handling their releases. They had certain pieces that would be available at certain times. Perhaps to give them more exposure to get people to return to the stand. Either way, they had a new issue about to come out. So he figured this would be their best chance to catch the girl.
The group went towards the stand, which was actually pretty empty at this point. It would seem that the strategy of releasing your stuff at certain intervals was unsuccessful. Or it was more that they were still trying to establish themselves in the manga world. Custoemrs weren't the only thing lacking either. When they came up to it, there didn't seem to be anyone running it.
"I guess they must be taking a bathroom break." Kouji commented, but he couldn't be further from the truth. Suddenly, a person jumped up from underneath the stand, revealing himself with a grand gesture. This shock led Kouji to trip backwards on top of Himwari, who was standing behind him.
Fortunately, his fall was broken thanks to her squishy breasts. However, that was minor compared to her reaction to this.
"Get off of me!" She yelled out as she pushed him aside. "I hope you enjoyed that because that's never going to happen again." Himawari crossed her arms to cover her chest from how flustered she was getting.
"Sheesh, it's not like I tried to do that." He retorted. This might've blown into a larger argument, if it wasn't for who it was that was running this stand.
"Kouji? Wait, what are you all doing here?"
"Moku?" They were all surprised in unison.
"What are you doing…" Kouji was about to ask the obvious question. Then he realized that maybe it might not be all that crazy given his friend's love for the arts. "Anyway, I guess it's funny to run into you here right now."
"You could say that again." Moku responded. "But, where's Waa? Out of all you guys, I thought she was into this the most."
"We got separated." That wasn't a true statement, but Kouji didn't want to explain what exactly was going on. "We were hoping that she'd be at one of these stands, but we found you instead."
"So where is she then?" Himawari wasn't too glad to be spending time with Moku. Not that she hated him, but that his presence made her feel like something wasn't going to go well for her.
"Perhaps… She's nearly covered with all the things she bought." Said Yuma.
"So you are saying to seek out those that are carrying too many things?"
"No…" She replied. "I'm saying that we've already seen her." Yuma pointed out to the one person in this entire place that had gotten way too much for their means. Specifically the one person who was a ball of merchandising with legs of a young girl's. This ball was moving it's way unsteadily as the small girl carrying it all struggled to not drop anything.
"Ugh." she whined to herself. "Why couldn't I be born with a bigger body."
"Waa, is that you?" Kouji walked up in front of her, catching one of the small figurines falling.
"Eh? Kouji?" She couldn't see him because of all the stuff in her arms. The only reason the girl hadn't run into anyone is because people knew to stay out of her way. "Finally, someone to help me hold my things." Waa dumped off over half of the things she picked up throughout the day.
"What the?" He had to act hastily to not drop anything. "I'm not your luggage boy here." Kouji complained to her how unfair this situation was.
"You can't expect me to carry all this until we get back to the hotel." She responded. Now that all her purchases were no longer blocking her view, Waa could see that he wasn't alone. "Oh, you guys are all here too."
"Hey, I'm here too." Moku waved to try and get her attention. "You want to buy my art?"
"You're really trying to take advantage of being friends to sell some stupid copy?" Himwari glared at him.
"Wasn't on my list." Waa was used to this ordeal before, so she had meticulously planned out her trip this time to avoid going overboard. "But, I guess I can support someone I actually know." She wasn't one to be short on cash even with all that planning. So she decided that it couldn't hurt.
"So now that everyone's here, what should we do now?" Kouji asked now that his self prescribed mission was over. "It looks like you've everything you wanted."
"Maybe we should get my things back to our room first." Her arms were getting tired. These things combined were about half her weight.
"Oh, then we should all get something to eat for dinner." Moku offered. "I'll be shutting up shop in a little bit, so maybe we could meet at the train station. There's a place I think could be a lot of fun to hang out at."
"Sounds good to cap off the day." Teru chimed in. "I could do with another meal." She spoke while rubbing her belly.
"It hasn't been that long since we ate." Himawari remarked. "But I suppose we'll be ready by the time we get there."
"I know I'm hungry." Waa skipped both breakfast and lunch in anticipation for this convention. "Let's drop by the hotel to get ready, then we'll meet him at the station."
And so, that's what they did. Kouji and the girls returned back to their room carrying the copious amount of merchandise Waa bought. Even though she didn't want to go crazy on buying up everything, yet she still ended up picking up a ton of stuff.
"Are you even going to read all this?" Himawari asked in a condescending manner as she was tasked with all the doujins that girl bought.
"I've already read some of the digital versions, so yes." Having a physical version was superior for her. If anything were to happen with the artists, then she'd be able to preserve her favorites.
It took a while to get everything up to their room. It took even longer to get these things ordered so they wouldn't get wrinkles. Waa was a bit of a stickler on that, as she supervised everyone's work.
Once that was taken care of, they were finally able to make their arranged meeting with Moku at the station. When they reunited, everyone entered the train to the destination. It wasn't supposed to be a long trip, but that didn't stop Waa from putting on some headphones to blast music into her ears.
"Honestly, do you detest us so much to spend this time ignoring us?" Himawari scolded her behavior.
"Geez, get off my back." Waa dismissed her. "You're not my mom, so don't worry about it. And don't take it personal either, I just want a break."
"It's fine." Kouji provided some mediation. "The trip's only going to last about ten minutes. Surely it's no big deal." He might've taken some issue if she would do it at the dinner table. However, that's something that Waa had never done to them.
Their train ride went on without a hitch. It felt like no time past at all while they chatted about before coming to their stop.
"All right guys, we're getting off here." Moku said, grabbing their attention. He lead them off the train, but as they got onto the station's platform. Kouji noticed that something, or someone, was missing.
"Where's Waa?" He asked. As the boy scanned among the group, he noted the short girl's presence was lacking. When he turned around to check, Kouji saw that she was still sitting at her spot, eyes closed while listening to her music. It appeared that she did not notice them leaving without her, nor did she realize that the train had come to a stop.
The boy sighed as he hopped back onto the train. He grabbed her arm to get her attention. "Maybe you should've taken Himawari's advice. Come on, we're at our stop." She stood up to follow, and he was about to turn and leave.
Unfortunately, as he turned, Kouji was in time to see the doors closing and the train beginning its departure.
"Uh oh." Little time passed as they saw their group of friends get smaller and smaller as the distance between them grew.