Hakuouki: Hitsuzen (SSL)

Settling In

"I'm so glad you were able to leave the hospital without any complications," Chizuru told Sumiko as she was helping her settle into her new room in Koudou's house. He had boxes that had been filled with Sumiko's belongings from nine years ago that he got from the Takahashis back when he officially became her new legal guardian. He had kept them for Sumiko, and now she was finally getting the chance to unpack them.

"It's so strange... seeing how I used to look. It seems like I just took this photo yesterday..." Sumiko said, looking at the strip of silly pictures from a photo booth that she had taken with a two older members from her gang. "I wonder how they're doing..."

"I'm sure they're all right," Chizuru said, giving her a comforting smile.

"Yeah," Sumiko said, smiling wryly. Those older girls would be in their early thirties. At least one of them was probably married with kids. She put the photo strip away in a small box for keepsakes to keep it safe.

"Well, that's the last of it," Chizuru said, folding the flaps on an empty box closed. "Time to go shopping! I hope you don't mind, but I asked a friend to come along. She's more knowledgeable about fashion than I am." Chizuru was wearing an outfit with a long-sleeve pink shirt under a sleeveless dress in a lighter pink and black stockings. Her hair was in that cursed 'dead anime mom' hairstyle with a cute pink scrunchy.

"That's fine. I didn't know what was 'fashionable' even nine years ago," Sumiko said, grateful for the help. She was wearing a black t-shirt with a ramen cup logo that she had gotten for free over a longe-sleeve red t-shirt and green cargo pants. All of her clothes were uncomfortably tight. Sumiko was actually afraid they might split at the seams. She had been really skinny when she was fifteen. Her hair was down with the middle section of her bangs pulled back and secured on top of her head with a pearl barrette.

—∞—

Sumiko and Chizuru left the Yukimura household with one of Koudou's credit cards and went to a nearby shopping mall, where they met up with Chizuru's friend.

"Hello, I'm Suzuka Sen," a pretty girl who was slightly older than Chizuru said, smiling nicely at Sumiko when they were introduced. Like Kazama had been, she was dressed in casual clothing that was of a high quality. She looked quite stylish. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought my foster sister, Kosuzu with me. She wanted to meet you." She gestured to the girl standing next to her. The other girl was also dressed in casual clothing of high quality, though her style was more 'cute'.

"Hello," Kosuzu greeted Sumiko politely.

"Hello," Sumiko returned their greetings. "I'm Takahashi Sumiko, but I guess you already knew that?"

"Yes. Chizuru told us a lot about you," Sen said, smiling again.

"Did she? Well, I'm not as scary as I might seem. Probably," Sumiko tried to reassure them. Kosuzu looked a little nervous.

"We know. You're an ex-yankee with a heart of gold, right?" Sen said, looking amused when Sumiko seemed a little embarrassed by the accurate description.

"Well, 'heart of gold' is a little..." Sumiko said, smiling wryly as she suppressed her blush. "Uh, so what stores do you recommend? I should warn you, we're on kind of a tight budget."

"No, we aren't," Chizuru said, frowning a little bit in confusion.

"I'm imposing one. I can't take such a huge chunk out of Uncle's bank account. He still has to pay for my food and school and so on," Sumiko said.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure he took all of that into account," Sen said. "What did he give you to pay with?"

"A credit card," Sumiko replied.