More than Text Buddies (Izumi/Shiori)

It had been a couple of months, but finally Shirori and Izumi are meeting up in person! Being in completely different departments, with completely different schedules made it rather difficult for them to even see each other at school, much less meet up in person. Not to mention, on top of all of her school work, Shiori's had to keep up her strict workout regime and skating practice. She may not be directly participating in competitions at the moment, but it was only a matter of time before she would once again have to join them. I wouldn't do for her to get out of shape. With all of that, it's been rough just trying to get off school campus, much less hang out with friends.

But today is a precious rare day of downtime, shopping and fun! She's going to enjoy it for all it's worth!

In a good mood, Shiori enters the Happiring Mall located on the west side of Fukui Station. Since it's so close to the station it's very easy to find, making it the best mall to visit for those who don't know the area well. Shiori's never been to this part of Fukui city before, so she's excited to check it out. Both hands shoved into the pockets of her blue and white jacket, she whistles cheerfully to herself as she looks around for a directory. Finding one, she pulls out her phone and scrolls the text messages she'd gotten from Izumi.

"Okay, which store was it?" she mutters to herself. Smiling when she finds the text with the info she's looking for, she locates it on the directory and heads towards the beauty shop.

She glances around as she walks, taking in her surroundings, taking note of the shops and restaurants in the area. If something catches her eye, maybe they'll visit it later. It's around 9:00am on a Saturday morning, so the mall's not super packed yet, but there's still plenty of people milling around. The ground floor seems to be mostly restaurants and shops selling local products. The shop she's looking for is on the second floor, so she heads over to the escalator and steps on.

As she waits to be deposited at the top, she glances at the glass on the side of the escalator. Her reflection moves next to her, transparent and just a tad wobbly in the outline. Another smile tugs at her lips, this one a little rueful. She pats down her windblown hair, trying to get into some semblance of order, but it just sticks back up again. Her jacket is zipped down, revealing a baggy black T-shirt with the English words THUG fashionably printed in white on it. She's wearing black skinny cargo pants that hug her ankles with elastic, Her shoes are white and blue running sneakers that match her jacket. Her style today is a cross between Japanese men's street wear and a sporty look. She actually seems to be dressed rather lightly for the cold day. She'd figured they'd be in the mall most of the time, so she wouldn't need to dress too warmly.

Reaching the second floor, she steps off the escalator and walks around. Her stride is long and confident, yet not hurried. Turning around a bend, she immediately spots the shop Izumi had told her to meet her at. And just as she approaches it, Izumi steps out of the beauty shop, holding onto her purchase. Lifting her right arm up, Shiori grins crookedly and waves at the other girl.

"Yo Izumi! Perfect timing!" she calls out as she weaves through the people flowing around her.

Dark eyes shining, she stops in from of Izumi and peers down at the other girl. Her cheeks and nose are still rosy from being out in the cold, but the chill has already started to fade in the warmth of the mall.

"Long time no see! You find what you were looking for?"

Within the cold morning mist, none other than the fairy queen herself, Titania stood before Shiori.
Long blue hair flowing, she gazed upon the red-haired girl with happy smile.
Or so it normally worked.
Truth be told, Izumi was just taking in the persona of the role she'd been assigned.. all those weird speech patterns, graceful movements too.
Being ready for her biggest role occupied so much of Izumi's mind, she'd nearly forgotten to do all the other things.
This last-minute hair-dye was the peak of it, with her originally going for a dark purple, not too unlike the manner she'd had when she first met Shiori.


"Shiori-chan!"
The choice of fashion betwween the two friends couldn't be any more different.
Izumi waved, dressed in a teal blue komon kimono and some geta, untouched by the coldness of the morning as she'd been at the stylist for so long.
Something a bit different.. and the fact Izumi wanted something she felt had a bit more fashion sense to boot. Otherwise it'd just be an amalgamous blob of greys upon slightly darker or lighter greys, making her.. in a sense just blend in with the others completely. Such a fate was not one worthy of someone wanting to stand out now, was it?

"I made some adjustments, as you can see."
She smiled, and span around.
"And.. did you find anything interesting today? Not that we've exactly done much at a time like this, but.."
Such an early time, plenty of things the two of them could go ahead with pursuing.
Not that Izumi really had any ideas she considered good, she'd just poke around any bakery type places, and some clothing stores, anything fancy that caught her eye, or cute.
She checked her phone, before putting it away.

"You look pretty cool today, Shiori-chan."
She gave a thumbs up.