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Spring was over, and it was the starting days of summer. It was a really nice Sunday, with the trees covered in lush green leaves, and with not a single cloud covering the blue sky.

“Why is it so hot…”

Kou let out a complaint just mere steps away from the car.

“I actually think it’s a pretty cool day… I guess it makes sense since you’ve been at the hospital for so long”
“This is also part of rehabilitation, so if you feel too weak just tell us, alright?”
“Mhm, alright…”
“Let’s just try to get inside the mall for now. Here, take my hand.”
“Thank you, Subaru…”

Subaru held his hand out, which Kou held onto and they went to the shade inside the building. Instantly the weariness weighing on her whole body vanished.

“Huh… Somehow I feel better already?”
“Well, Kou… As I mentioned before, your skin is a bit different now, so you’ll probably have a rougher time under the sun compared to before.”

Sora explained with ambiguous terms in case other people were listening, reminding Kou that she was now part of a different species.

“So always remember to use the anti-UV sunscreen I gave you yesterday, and take a parasol with you if you’re going outside on a sunny day. Got it?”
“Okayyy…”

Kou could only grumble, realizing that even without all of the vampire traits, simply being an albino was already quite restrictive on her daily life.

“Does mom also struggle like this?”
“Yes, sunlight actually has an even stronger negative effect on her…though she’s also used to it, and she uses a spell to ward it off too.”
“What? I want that too.”
“Hahah, I’m sure she’ll teach you in due time.”

Sora chuckled a bit as he patted Kou’s head. Meanwhile Hijiri seemed to notice something and raised her voice.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t see Mrs. Amari around, she couldn’t come?”
“Oh, yeah. She was really frustrated because she wanted to come, but she’s drowning in work.”

Kou grimaced a bit as she thought back to the night before, when Amari visited the hospital room, and when she heard that Kou was going shopping with Sora and the twins, she got so annoyed about not being able to go as well that she would have started stamping around and kicking things if she was not in a hospital.

“Hmm… There is scheduled maintenance on the Theia II world simulator’s mainframe today, and she’s the only one with the credentials for that…”
“Was that the ultra high performance quantum computer in charge of running the AI controlling the procedural quests and NPCs of Destiny Unchain Online?”

Subaru asked that, curious about it, but Kou instantly feared that one of her father’s bad habits was about to manifest itself.

“Yes, that’s what it ended up becoming. In reality we were just trying to create a high level artificial intelligence system with nonvolatile memory through the conglomeration of small scale photon processors based on the microtubules within human brain cells that would…”
“Dad, stop, if you start explaining everything with so many specific terms we won’t be able to understand a single word!”
“Ah…whoops. I always think I should fix that bad habit of mine, but then I just do it again…”

Sora scratched his head awkwardly after his daughter scolded him, while she just sighed in disappointment.

“…I’m glad though.”
“…Eh?”

Hijiri had been listening silently until then, so Kou was a bit confused as to what she was talking about.

“It sounds like you’ve made up with your mom, I mean.”
“I…guess, yeah, I guess we made up.”

At some point, all the ill feelings Kou had always harbored against Amari had faded away. Realizing she had essentially made up with her mom, Kou’s footsteps became lighter, looking much more comfortable than before.

They were all in a shopping center called POL. It was a large mall located in the outskirts of their city. It consisted of a large parking lot, and three buildings that were five stories tall, interconnected with aerial passageways. But even though it was a Sunday, the place was not too crowded.

That was because of the rise of home delivery drones, which could make shopping more convenient, and decreased the number of people who actually visited stores.

At least there were still some people who preferred looking and touching items first before buying them, people who went to eat at the food court, and gamers who liked playing on the retro arcade machines there.

The third floor of the eastern POL building was the women’s clothes area. Two girls were there, garnering many curious stares from those there.

“Don’t you think this one is really cute?”

Hijiri was pointing at a blue and white dress, displayed amongst many cute outfits.

“…Wouldn’t it look a bit childish though?”
“I think it would fit you really well the way you look now though?”
“…Then I could say the same about you.”
“Ah, should we get matching outfits then?”
“Bhfffff?!”

Hijiri suggested that with a mischievous glance and voice, which made Kou’s face turn beet red in an instant. Everyone else around the store just watched the two girls with warmhearted smiles.

“You know…I was actually freaking out when I first realized my son had turned into a girl, but I think it’s fair to say it’s not really bad either.”
“…Yup.”

Sora smiled pleasantly as he watched the two girls sticking together as they looked through clothes, and Subaru gave a halfhearted reply while looking away awkwardly. Their current location, the women’s clothes area, was the reason why Subaru was acting that way.

There were only cute girly clothes wherever he turned, and as he was still a high school student, it made him wish he could leave as soon as possible. But his eyes had already lost all hope, since he knew from past experience that shopping for clothes always took ages with girls.

Leaving Subaru and his plight aside though…

“Come on, try it on, try it on!”
“O-Okay…”

Urged by Hijiri’s excited voice, Kou nervously reached out and pressed a button next to the price tag. Then her clothes began sparkling in the AR space displayed by her NLD, before transforming into the dress in front of her.

It looked almost like a transformation scene in a magical girl anime, and when it was done and Kou could see herself in new clothes, she let out a surprised gasp.

There was a mirror nearby showing her how she looked, resembling an angel with fair skin and a blue and white dress. It was no different from how she looked in-game.

This is…me…

In a daze, she tried reaching forward into the mirror…

“…Kou?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll share it with you right now.”

Quickly snapping back to reality thanks to Hijiri’s voice, Kou began operating her NLD.

«Do you want to share your AR space with this group?»

A prompt popped up in front of her eyes, and she pressed the YES button. That way Hijiri, Sora, and Subaru would also be able to see Kou in the dress she was trying out.

“Incredible… You look so cute!”
“I’m not sure how to feel about it… Isn’t it a bit too light?”

While Hijiri’s compliment made her feel a bit embarrassed, she held the hem of the skirt and made it wave slightly, then turned her body around, all the while looking at her own reflection.

The dress was extremely thin, making it translucent and creating an outline around her body. When she turned around the hem would also lift around her calves, briefly showing her white thighs that were not covered by her black knee high socks.

In blunt terms, it felt unreliable. Kou could only shudder realizing that other girls would often wear things like that without any concern. But…

“Summer is about to start, so it’ll be fine, don’t worry!”
“Hmm…I can see how it would be nice to wear this at the beach or some summer resort.”

While it was mainly a stereotype, somehow that dress reminded Kou of a girl in a white dress at the beach or the countryside. But because of that resemblance, it also made sense to wear it for the summer. She would only need a straw hat to complete the look.

“Mhm mhm, and you look so cute I could mistake you for a fairy! Let’s get it!”
“O-Okay…if you insist so much…”

A part of Kou felt like she did look good with that dress, and since Hijiri would not back down, she ended up agreeing to that.

“Okay, we also need to search for some casual and indoor outfits!”
“Ah, wait, Hijiri, wait!”

Hijiri looked like she was having a great time dragging Kou’s hand all around the store. And somehow Kou was not as annoyed as she thought she would be…

“They look…blissful, somehow…”
“Hahahah, I know, right?”

Subaru muttered that so the two girls could not hear, and Sora agreed wholeheartedly.

“Won’t it get too expensive though? The white dress earlier alone looked like it’d cost a lot…”
“Don’t worry, I’ve saved quite a lot. Ah, hello there, I’ll pay for anything those two girls try on, alright? Here’s my card.”

Sora spoke to a nearby employee and handed her a black plastic card, something very rarely seen in this day and age, and which seemed to shock the employee for a moment. Watching all of that reminded Subaru of something.

Oh yeah… Kou’s family is actually filthy rich…

Afterword:

The Mitsuki family is usually very frugal with their expenses.