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Chapter 135: Promise? (3)
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"This floor only has the hoodies that you're currently wearing, why are you here anyway?" Neji said to Ryuko while walking towards the elevator.
Ryukyu was wearing a green hoodie and jeans, and because of her hair, she looked like a gloomy hikikomori.
"Well, pardon me for only wearing hoodies," said Ryuko while stepping inside the elevator behind Neji. "Where are we going?"
Neji pressed a floor number in the elevator and answered, "To where we can find clothes for women."
Ryuko silently thought over his words. Did she not look womanly wearing this…?
She felt a bit… bitter hearing that.
Was this why he never approached her even though he slept with Rumi in a single meeting after meeting?
While she wailed on her mind, the elevator had already reached the 69th floor as the door parted with a clink.
"We're here," said Neji and walked out before stepping to the side to let Ryuko pass through.
"Hmmm," Ryuko looked around. "I thought you were bringing me to a floor filled with swimsuits and undergarments. Hmm, this doesn't look so bad."
Around her were normal clothes, hanging from either shelves or mannequins.
When Ryuko was looking around, her focus somewhere else, a few employees immediately noticed Neji and were about to run at him, but with a gesture, he told them to stop, pointing at Ryukyu with a wink.
The employees looked shocked, their thoughts being 'Wait, doesn't he already have a girlfriend?'. But they weren't brave enough to say anything and simply bowed and backed off.
"Hm?" Ryuko turned to Neji, tilting her head. "Did you say something?"
"Nope, not at all." Neji shook his head. "Anyway, let me pick a dress for you."
Ryuko bobbed her head and followed Neji as he walked to a shelf. He squinted at the clothes carefully, touching and feeling them with his hands before he took out a khaki dress.
"Try this out," Neji said, reaching his hand out. "You don't mind, right? This isn't a revealing one."
Ryuko accepted the wool coat and observed it for a while.
"Hm… Well, this doesn't look bad. Okay, let me try it on."
Neji smiled and pointed it at the changing room, where she walked in and came out 3 minutes later.
"How do I look?" With a small blush, Ryukyu put one of her arms on her waist and looked at Neji.
She wore a khaki long coat made of wool, spread over her chest but hugging her waist tightly, it reached just above her knees, below which her smooth thighs peeked out.
Neji smiled at her. "Elegant like a lady. Those saggy clothes don't do you justice, Ryukyu."
"Mhm…" Ryukyu smiled softly at that, rubbing the back of her arm.
'He certainly has a way with his words…'
"Alright then, I like it too," Ryuko observed her body in a mirror. "Then I will take it. You have good fashion sense, Neji."
Neji shrugged his shoulders. "Blame my mother."
Ryuko giggled softly at that and Neji laughed too.
He then picked another cloth, and Ryukyu tried it too. It was a short wool coat that she wore over a black t-shirt coupled with a short wool skirt of the same khaki colour.
Next…
Ryukyu kept trying on clothes chosen by Neji, but while he kept his promise of not making her wear any revealing clothes, he did stretch the limits of his promise by making her wear tight clothes.
[Some reference pictures~]
At last, she accepted one of his more uncomfortable suggestions. It wasn't that revealing, but still enough to make her feel embarrassed.
"Um, I don't think this is okay…" Ryukyu rubbed one of her arms with the other and avoided eye contact. "It feels empty on my shoulder blade… Almost as if I am naked."
Ryuko wore a soft black Bardot dress. Because of the shoulderless cloth, her breasts were visible from above and because the cloth hugged her waist tightly, her hourglass figure was also apparent.
"Naked? Pfft. Look at you now, so gorgeous." Neji whistled and leaned over her shoulder to look at her reflection in the mirror. "See? These are the clothes that suit a lady such as you."
"...Mhm." Ryukyu smiled. "Really?"
She felt his breath fall on her naked shoulders, feeling his hand slowly sliding by her waist as he stared at her eyes in the mirror.
"Do you think I am lying?" Neji's hand softly squeezed her waist as she blushed. "A lady should show off her beauty, not hide it under baggy clothes."
Ryukyu's breath grew hotter as she slowly turned her head to the right where Neji's face was resting on her shoulder.
Their eyes met and Neji immediately blushed and stepped back. "A-ah, s-sorry, I got too close in your comfort zone." He avoided eye contact and looked at the ceiling, rubbing his neck. "Um… don't tell Nejire about this, please?"
Ryuko returned to her senses and blinked before covering her mouth and giggling. 'So he has a cute side to him too…'
It's unbelievable to think this same guy "seduced" Rumi… But she doubted this reaction was an act, and if it really was, she should quit as a Hero.
Shaking her head, still laughing, she waved her hand. "I won't, no worries. Anyway, I think I have seen enough clothes. Let me wear a bit… covering one from the ones we bought, and then buy me some perfumes."
"Oh… sure." Neji coughed and nodded.
Then they started walking to look for a more covering cloth as Ryukoasked, "You must be popular with girls with all this fashion sense and cosmetic knowledge, hm?"
"Hm, well I guess~ But I don't like to talk to girls that much, except for my family and girlfriend, so these skills are useless. Oh, and Rumi too. We opened up quite a bit when she tried to keep me calm after I failed to save Todoroki."
That caused Ryuko to freeze for a moment, but it wasn't only because she was worried about his mental health.
She quickly wiped the shock away from her face, and asked, "That's right, Neji, are you doing okay these days? I heard from Momo that you're fine, but… are you really?"
Then the conversation started but Ryuko's mind was honestly somewhere else….
'...Could it be that Neji fell for Rumi when she tried to comfort him after the Hosu incident? Maybe Rumi mistook his next approaches as 'seduction' and therefore after a massive series of misunderstandings they did that unspeakable thing?'
Everything seemed to click in her mind, as if a mystery that was already solved before was now coming out with a new, more acceptable outcome.
As Neji explained his experience with Ida, from the corner of her eyes Ryukyu watched his innocent face with a guilty gaze.
'Gosh… And here I was blaming him and Rumi…'
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After buying a perfume chosen by Neji, which she liked a lot, she reluctantly followed him to a barber's shop.
"Listen~ I like my hair a lot, I don't want to change it." said Ryuko, but despite her words, she still followed him though with a troubled expression.
She just didn't want to decline his persistent offer after he helped her so much today, more so after she started to see him in a new light again.
"No, listen to me." Neji said, walking beside her and softly pulling her by her hand. "This barber does my hair, and you know how my hair is? It's actual silver, so any normal barber will quit their job instead of accepting me as a customer. But this girl has a quirk [Hair Manipulation], which lets her manipulate any hair that doesn't belong to her. She can even grow or shorten people's hair without any pain or side effects."
Ryukyu scratched her chin, softly blushing at his hand pulling her as she took in his words.
'Fine… if I don't like the new cut, the barber can turn my hair back to normal.'
She decided and followed Neji for a minute longer before they finally entered a Salon. When they did, they found the salon empty except for a short brown haired girl sitting on a chair and polishing her nails.
"Hi." Neji said, which attracted the girl's attention as she raised her head with a frown that melted at the sign of Neji.
She immediately hid her enthusiasm seeing another person beside Neji, an older woman.
"Oh, it's my boy Neji~ You bought a girl this time, hm?" The girl put her nail polish away and walked over before she squinted at Ryuko's face. "Mhm, you look familiar- wait…" Her eyes went wide. "It's you, Pro Hero Ryukyu!! Do you remember me? You saved my life once, back when I was young, drowning in the sea!"
"Uh…"
Ryukyu smiled kindly as she tried to recognise the girl… to no avail.
"Of course, I do! How can I forget?" she didn't stop smiling.
…
After the loud greeting, Neji told the girl about Ryukyu's case and she nodded attentively, saying she'll take care of it.
Currently, she was doing exactly that, doing the finishing touch with a scissor on the grown blonde hair that she grew out with her quirk.
"You know, I always wanted to get my hands on your head ever since that day." the barber spoke while attentively cutting the hair. "But you never came~ Look at you now, so gorgeous."
The girl slowly took the scissor away and leaned over on Ryuko's shoulders, grinning. "What do you think?"
Ryuko, on one hand, simply stared at her reflection with wide golden eyes.
"Sheesh!" It was Neji who joined the conversation. "See? You look like a human now, isn't this amazing?"
Ryukyu softly coughed, shaking her head. "Well, I guess this is better than before. Long hair, braided behind in a ponytail and two strands of hair falling over my chest." she smiled, looking at her face. "Not bad."
"My pleasure!" the barber cheered, throwing her hands in the air as Neji sighed in relief.
After thanking her, Ryukyu and Neji made their way to their last stop that wasn't planned. A coffee shop.
After ordering coffee, Ryukyu asked in a curious tone. "You talked about the gloomy stuff until now, why don't you say anything about the good stuff? What's up in your school these days?"
Neji, sipping his cup, hummed and thought of his words. "Well, things have been fun in school. We had Hero Basic training on the first day of our class and there I did this and that and won…"
He kept speaking, looking like an innocent and curious boy, while Ryukyu rested her chin on her hand and stared at him with a smile.
[Image Here]
"...Hm?" Neji tilted his head. "Is anything wrong?"
"No." Ryukyu softly shook his head. "I was just wondering, since you said you aren't that busy these days because there's no practical stuff happening in school… how about you help me buy something next Sunday too?"
Neji scratched the back of his head. "Well, it's okay I guess. I can manage time on a weekday too if it's you…"
Ryuko kept smiling before closing her eyes and giggling while a confused Neji stared at her.
"Alright," she stood up. "Then till we meet again, Neji. It's kinda late for me since my schedule is packed, so I will be going."
Neji nodded at her, "I understand, be careful on your way."
Waving his hand he watched as she smiled and giggled again before she slowly took her leave.
Immediately as she left, Neji relaxed his posture and leaned back on the chair.
'I will say… 45 percent?' Neji thought. 'Yeah, that's the amount of progress I have with her right now.'
He just had to act and play with his words, because if what Rumi told him was right, Ryukyu was right now cleared up of the 'misunderstanding'.
With a small chuckle, he ordered a cup of cold coffee.
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Author's Note: *pulls out knife* Where are the power stones for the cute reference pictures?