Day 2

Sanae awoke with a jolt to find himself in the middle A-East. As he sat up, he saw red indent marks on his skin, which were most likely obtained from lying on the pavement. As specks of rubble fell from the back of his shirt, he looked up. The sky was a bright blue, so it was neither early morning nor late at night. Looking at his phone, the guess was verified: it was 1:40 PM.

To his left, Sho lay in a crumpled heap, snoring loudly. From afar, it looked almost impossible for a human to be in that position, and needless to say for someone to be comfortable. Sanae would've thought he was dead if he didn't sound like a dying whale. But he decided to just let him sleep, at least, until the mission mail came in. He didn't want to know what a sleep deprived math genius sounded like.

He got up and looked around. He recognized the entrance to the stage, a common venue for top-notch performers. Although he wouldn't admit it, Sanae had a thing for pop music, and had actually gone to quite a few concerts before he died. To avoid ridicule, he always said alternative was his favorite, though it had never been quite true.

On the other side, a gothic store called Lapin Angelique stood quietly in the corner. To be honest, Sanae had never seen anyone go in or come out of that store. Naturally, he was a bit wary of it. He had nothing against goths, but he was a bit unsettled by them, and always associated them with death. Hopefully his mission would not involve that store.

"Wanna go in there?" asked Sho, out of nowhere.

Sanae jumped.

"Sorry," Sho added, buttoning his jacket, "Didn't mean to break your focus."

"It's fine."

"So let's go in," urged Sho, pulling Sanae's arm in the direction of the store.

"Why?" asked Sanae, pulling back, hoping his response would be dumb enough to warrant not going in.

"Why not? We can go into stores with that label on them and get cool stuff, and it might increase the probability that we stay alive. Or, I guess, in this case, stay not erased."

"Does it have to be that store?" cried Sanae, desperately wishing Sho had just stayed asleep.

"Yes, come on! And aren't you the one yelling 'expand you horizons' all over the place?"

Unfortunately, Sho hadn't made a dumb argument, and Sanae was dragged into the one place he didn't want to go. He trudged behind the math genius with his hands in his pockets, glancing up at the sky. The sky, not doing anything to help his situation, disappeared and gave way to the dark tiled ceiling of the gothic store.

"Welcome!" chimed a voice from the back of the room. From behind a counter, a beautiful young woman, dressed in an elegant purple Lolita dress with a small, matching hat perched atop her dark curls, emerged in an excited manner. "How can I help you?"

"Looks like we came to the right place," smirked Sho, tilting his hat up in a cocky manner.

"Oh please don't." thought Sanae, nervously rubbing his neck, partially out of embarrassment for Sho, and partially out of embarrassment for himself.

"Looking for anything in particular?" the saleslady asked.

"Not really, we're just looking for something zetta cool for my friend to wear," Sho paused. With a smile, he added "And he's a bit new, so he'll need some help."

Sanae was about to say something.

"In that case, come this way. We have loads of things in mens' size," the lady said as she led them to the left side of the store. As she rummaged through the rack, Sanae mouthed behind her back to Sho.

"I am going to kill you."

Sho grinned.

"Why don't you start with these?" the lady asked, holding up a shirt with arm warmers and bandage pants. Luckily, they didn't look too over the top. Sanae took them with a weak smile and headed towards the changing room, a bit worried about leaving Sho alone with the lady. He was already feeling massive amounts of second hand embarrassment.

When Sanae left, Sho turned towards the clerk with a cheeky smile. He leaned against the clothes stand.

"So, are you dead too?" he asked, with an eyebrow raised.

"Excuse me?" she replied, confused.

"Sorry, that was a bit improper. What's your name?" he asked instead, covering his last question.

"Princess K"

"Nice nomial, has a sweet resonance to it."

"Um, thanks?"

The clerk was becoming uncomfortable. Thankfully, Sanae emerged moments later. He struggled not to trip over the bandages dragging from the pants, but he managed to make it over to them without flying to the floor.

"So, does it work?" he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Sho turned toward him and covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"It looks…great," he spattered.

The clerk gave Sho a menacing glare.

"We'll take them," Sho concluded, noting the gains in defense listed on the tag. Defense is what Sanae needs most, he reminded himself. The clerk nodded her head and went over to cash register. As they walked over, Sanae frowned.

"A bit hypocritical to not get anything for yourself," he stated darkly.

"You kidding?" Sho laughed. "I'm getting that!"

Sanae followed his gesture to see a long, elegant black cape on display.

And it was then that he started doubting his chances of survival.