Can't Fear A New World [Kath]

"What do you think?" As she lapped on a popsicle, Jazz quirked an eyebrow and glanced at her tamer. She was, for once, wearing her holosuit. Her pigtails moved around as she stretched her yellow blouse a little to let the air circulate. It was particularly hot today.

"I can't find its exact location, but it's certainly around here. The tracker says so." The Spaniard let out a sigh, her eyes studying the houses and stores in the area.

"Whatever we're doing, can we nonoroku do it already!?" Arianna protested, stomping a foot into the hot pavement. "It's too hot out here!" The Kazemon noted. Once again, she was wearing her 'holosuit', which basically consisted of a Kazemon without her visor and human clothes (in this case, jeans and a white tank top). The hot weather had brought Arinna to tie up her long, purple hair.

"Let's go." Katherine nodded and led the way.

After short and uneventful scouting of the area, the three girls entered the last store in the street. "Mark of Style" seemed to be an apparel shop, something Katherine was definitely not expecting to find in Cat Street. Just after entering, the Spaniard explored her surroundings, trying to basically grasp how the place looked, overall. She slowly walked towards the counter taking a look around, although she got distracted by some of the items being offered.

After exploring for a while, however, Arianna went straight to her destination and waved at the girl casually yawning at the counter. "Hello!~" She greeted her enthusiastically, while Jazz joined her tamer at browsing through the clothes. "I hadn't seen this shop around here before." She noted, taking her arms behind her back and looking around as she did. "Is it new?" The purple-haired girl punctuated that with a tilt of her head, right before smiling innocently.

"I don't even know what I'd come looking for in here... you seem to offer plenty of things!" She added. "Not all of them look like clothes I've seen around before. These are nonoroku innovative." A nod accompanied these words, as she looked at the pile of folded clothes next to Meryl. As someone who did not know how different cultures and ways of dressing worked in this world, Arianna could only wonder what was the reason behind this. Then, she offered a little spin and turned around for the girl to see her. "What do you think could look good on me?"

With little discretion, and even while she spoke to this clerk, the purple-haired girl kept letting her eyes trail around her surroundings as if she was looking for something.

As soon as she was greeted by the clerk, Arianna reciprocated her salutation with a smile. “I’m doing great! It’s too hot outside though… How are you?” She asked back. “T-Trinidad and Toba…go…” The Kazemon in disguise muttered while taking a hand to her chin. “I have no idea where that is!” She admitted with an apologetic expression. “I think the store is looking great, though!”

Although significantly distracted by the huge variety Mask of Style had to offer in terms of clothes and garnets, Katherine managed to finally make way to the counter, arriving right when Meryl inquired about Arianna’s favorite word.

“It isn’t.” The Spaniard noted by giggling. “Nonoroku is just a word she likes to use. Sometimes she uses it to reinforce a concept, sometimes she uses it as a verb… it doesn’t really mean anything.” The green-eyed delivered the explanation as well as she could, a little embarrassed by her friend’s quirky attitude.

Arianna immediately puffed her cheeks. “I am sorry, Mrs. Katherine BUT Nonoroku totally means something!” She insisted while taking her hands to her hips.

“Really? What does it mean, then?”

“NONOROKU IS LIKE A woosh! AN ANCIENT TERM THAT HAS BEEN AROUND FOR nonoroku EVER! It’s the EPITOME of nonorokuness and t—“

Leaving her friend to speak in the background (as she wasn’t really managing to explain anything), Katherine turned her attention back to the clerk. “Hi. I’m Katherine Jasso.” She tilted her head with a smile before bowing a little forward respectfully. “That one over there is my friend Jasmine and this is Arianna. Hopefully, you can find the right outfit for her.” Knowing the ethnicity of her interlocutor, Katherine took the freedom to omit to make up last names for Jazz and Arianna, something she usually had to do when introducing them to Japanese people.

“Oh, right! The clothes!” Having finished her little speech about a word that clearly had no meaning, Arianna was brought back to the conversation when hearing Katherine talk about clothes. It was then when she would allow Meryl to pick a couple of outfits for her and even frame her in to study what would fit her style. “I love these!” Arianna exclaimed excitedly, grabbing both outfits and bouncing at the same spot “C-Could it be that….!?” She muttered, leaning forward to get her face closer to Meryl, with little regard for personal space. “... With these... I’ll finally be able to nonoroku bury Mrs. Katherine and show everyone I, the Wind Warrior, AM the superior beauty in our group!?”

“Enough! Why don’t you go get changed?” Katherine immediately scooted in front of Arianna, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcefully making her turn away towards the dressers. “P-Please don’t mind her! She’s just… weird, sometimes.” The raven-haired girl admitted while sweat-dropping.

When facing Meryl’s question, Katherine blinked. “I mean… I hadn’t really thought about getting anything for me…” She admitted timidly, a soft blush becoming evident around her cheeks holding a dubitative expression. Jazz kept browsing through the aisles. Katherine then cleared her throat and raised her head. “Actually, sorry if this sounds weird but… I wanted to ask you… " She looked around for a second, right before bringing her green eyes back to the girl “Have you seen… anything strange happen around here today? Anything just… out of the ordinary. Have you heard or felt anything out of place?”


Katherine's expression showed she understood how vague that question was.

Given how Katherine didn’t see herself as an ‘out there’ girl at all, and actually thought of herself as a rigid person most of the time, she couldn’t stop a smile from being drawn on her face when Meryl mentioned this. She had heard from other people recent events had changed her for good, but seeing this sort of reaffirmed by someone she didn’t know at all was… nice, honestly. Granted, for the most part, it was likely she meant Arianna, the most outgoing being Katherine had ever met but… she did use the plural, right?

“I bet you do!” It was kind of her job, after all? Besides, she did look very pretty in such a simple outfit!

“YES!” Oh no. Someone used Nonoroku in front of the Wind Warrior. Of course, she would feel like she had a new fan. The Fairymon raised a fist in the air and walked proudly to the dresser. She was totally winning at life right now.

Katherine’s previous amazement about being called ‘out-there' would look like nothing in front of her face turning red when being called pretty. She nervously took her hand to the back of her head, playing with her curls and looking away for a second. “W-What? N-No… that’s…” Well, even if she had changed for the better, she still had trouble taking compliments from a stranger. Some things would just never change, probably.

Although she had managed to reincorporate just well enough to throw the vaguest question ever at Meryl, she couldn’t get any informative response from her. Well, that was to be expected, with how little details she had provided when formulating that. “N-No… it’s nothing. It’s just…” Could she really explain any further into this without saying too much? Unlikely. Right when the Spaniard was about to give up, though...

“It’s not a big deal. We’re members of Shibuya High School’s Paranormal Club.” Suddenly, Jazz (who Katherine had introduced as Jasmine earlier) got closer to the pair. “We’re investigating a string of odd happenings that have taken place here in Cat Street recently.” The brunette explained confidently, Katherine’s eyes widening for a second before she nodded quickly. Yes! Of course. That was it. “It would be great if you could tell us if you have seen or heard anything strange recently. Maybe at nights?” Jazz used her puppy eyes, her long pigtails flailing behind her as she leaned forward with her hands behind her back. "Are you familiar with paranormal events at all? Do you have any interest in them?"

For a quick second, while Meryl browsed through the clothes, the holosuited Lopmon glanced at her tamer, who looked a bit perplexed by her being so insistent. That single look was enough for Katherine to get what she wanted to express.

This was the place.

It was then when Arianna went out of the dresser and approached the group again, wearing long, white pants and a beautiful, frilly pink top. “So, Mrs. Endesha, I was thinking… Since you’re my new apprentice maybe you could take me to this Trinidad and Tobago island you mentioned. I feel like going somewhere tropical for a change.” The purple-haired girl leisurely noted while fixing up her clothes a little.

“Two islands.” Katherine noted making a gesture with her fingers.

“Huh?”

“They are two separate islands. Trinidad and Tobago. It is a single country, but two separate islands. They're also very, very far away from here, in the Caribbean sea.”

“Tsk. Of course I nonoroku knew that.” Arianna grumbled while clenching her teeth. ‘Jasmine’ took the chance to quickly make another gesture to Arianna, trying to convey the same information she had passed to Katherine. The self-proclaimed ruler’s eyes widened, as she suddenly got filled with a fresh burst of energy. “So! Mrs. Endesha. Did you find anything for Mrs. Katherine to wear in her weak attempt to surpass me? Because there’s no nonoroku way she’ll look better than how I look now!” The holosuited fairy boasted as she gracefully took a little spin to show her new outfit.

“Y-You do look… quite pretty.” The Spaniard admitted without any remorse.

Arianna gasped, blushing. She immediately turned her back at Katherine. “S-Silly! Don’t think your rival will fall that easily for your compliments!”

Katherine slowly tilted her head.

One could only wonder if Meryl was asking herself how this paranormal club managed to get anything done at all.

It seemed that the interrogation getting carried by the clearly-not-made-up paranormal club had been a success. Eventually, Meryl had remembered something odd happening in this Cat Street, which would be too much of a coincidence considering the signal that had triggered in Katherine’s digivice and what Jazz had felt. Right now, they needed any type of clue they could get, so looking deep into this was their only choice.

By the time Meryl offered an answer, Arianna was back from the dresser already, so she could somehow collaborate (to use a euphemism on what she did) regarding the info the girl gave. “Right, right.” Katherine folded her arms and nodded as Meryl expressed her lack of interest in the topic. “I agree.” Arianna nodded, replicating Katherine’s movements, folding her arms and nodding too. Immediately, the raven-haired girl jumped to correct her ‘colleague’ quickly. “Y-You mean you’d agree most people think that way. Right?” Maybe the Spaniard was a little too nervous now but… if they were a paranormal club they were supposed to be interested in paranormal stuff, right!?

Arianna blinked twice as she slowly picked up on this. “Oh! Yes. Exactly. Some people see it that way. But I personally nonoroku love all of those ghost things!”

Katherine paid close attention to Meryl's words, quietly nodding and processing all of this data. Despite all of this information coming into play now, she really did appreciate the Trinitarian girl's interest in picking up clothes for her. A fashion lover as she was, she was very interested in seeing what the clerk, someone who knew a lot about this topic, could pick for her.

In all honesty, Katherine was fairly surprised about how Meryl had managed to develop an idea of what she would like to wear. It wasn’t completely accurate, but it was an outstandingly good approximation. While Katherine didn’t like outfits that were directly flashy at first, she did like clothes that could take someone’s breath away, even if she wouldn’t directly admit it.

“Let’s see what the Endesha intuition can do for me then ~” The Spaniard giggled playfully. Trusting Jazz could handle the continuation of this, and fairly fascinated by the combination of colors Meryl had picked, Katherine took the outfit and walked towards the dresser.

While Katherine got changed, Jazz/Jasmine walked closer to Meryl, slowly leaning on the counter with a relaxed demeanor. “So… Meryl, this weird guy with red eyes… has not appeared again since that night?” She asked while tilting her head. “Can you remember something about that night that was different from the ones when he has not shown up? The weather, the lighting on the street, or maybe… something you did? A big part of chasing paranormal events is actually trying to recreate scenarios to see if strange happenings occur only under certain conditions.” The holosuited Lopmon tried to sound as professional as possible, all while sometimes glancing to the side to see Arianna looking at herself reflected on the full-body-sized mirror. Jazz could only assume she was trying to strike to cutest pose she could, even if her definition of cute was probably not fully accurate.