REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!Chapter 054: Return the Favor
There was no bonus CG. Obviously.
What Soifon had ant by not shortchanging him was that she was covering the full cost of the clothes.
"Try this one."
The shop environnt seed to have a mild effect on her. The edge that usually sat in her voice had softened sowhat.
She held up a dark red kimono, considered it at length, seed to decide against it, and then pulled out a grass-green version of the sa style for him.
"Take both to the fitting room."
The process of getting into a kimono had a reputation for being complicated, but the n's cut simplified and skipped enough of the traditional steps that it ca together without too much difficulty.
The shop's service was also thorough.
Once he'd changed, a staff mber ca forward and began working on the overall look with the sa matter-of-fact efficiency. Nothing elaborate: hair up, or loose, or a small amount of sothing applied lightly to the face at the right points.
The principle of it was simple. The right adjustnt at the right mont produced a result greater than the sum of its parts.
"Could you turn around, sir?"
Matsushita Yusuke held himself stiffly and let them do what they were doing. He had no fra of reference for any of this, which made offering an opinion impossible.
Two won who appeared to be sowhere past forty moved through the whole process with the clean efficiency of people who had done this thousands of tis, finished, and patted him on the shoulder.
"That should do it. Please step out and have a look in the mirror."
He nodded stiffly and pushed through the door.
Soifon was leaning against the wall outside with her arms crossed. She heard the door and looked up.
"...!"
Her expression went visibly rigid.
What was in her eyes was a complicated mix: surprise, and underneath it, sothing that might be described as appreciation. Not the kind she would normally let anyone see.
It lasted about one second.
Then she blinked, and it was gone. The familiar look ca back in its place.
"Hmph. You clean up adequately. Go look in the mirror and see for yourself."
She genuinely could not say anything normally.
Matsushita Yusuke didn't argue. He looked in the mirror.
And had to admit.
Clothes really did make the man. His features already ran toward sothing neutral and understated, and with the right framing, what ca out was sothing that read as composed and bookish in a way that sat well on him.
He stood in front of the mirror and looked himself over.
Fine for a formal gathering. The only lingering concern was the price, which had been genuinely alarming.
Was there a more reasonably priced option sowhere in Seireitei?
"That's the one. No need to try the other color. Wrap both of them."
Soifon stepped up and gave his shoulder a single light pat, her voice carrying an ease she didn't usually let through.
"Wear this out. The one you had on before..." A short pause. "Get rid of it. You won't have a use for it."
Matsushita Yusuke started to say sothing. Soifon didn't give him the opening.
She was at the counter before the thought had finished forming.
He stood where he was and felt the specific awkwardness of having soone else pay for sothing on your behalf without asking. It wasn't comfortable.
He looked around.
An idea ca to him.
Soifon collected the receipt and picked up the wrapped package, then called back over her shoulder.
"Co on. We still need to pick up a gift. Yoruichi-sama's gathering warrants sothing appropriate. We can't arrive empty-handed."
You couldn't take the hospitality without bringing sothing in return.
And the New Year context made it more explicit. Gifts at the year's turning marked the relationship and reinforced it. In a structure that was fundantally hierarchical, this kind of gesture was even more pointed.
Matsushita Yusuke had expected this. He didn't push back.
"Your own package, you carry."
"Soifon. Hold on a mont."
"What?"
"This is for you."
"...?"
She looked at what he was holding out.
Sothing stopped in her head for a mont.
"What is that."
"I saw it in the shop just now. It seed like it suited you, so I bought it."
It was a small semicircular pouch.
That description didn't do it justice. The actual thing was considerably more precise than the words implied.
Dark red base cloth with gold thread tracing the edges. Below the wide oval opening, small accents in deep violet that gave the whole surface a quality like it was catching light at the wrong angle, faintly luminous and slightly unreal. The color palette was bold without reading as garish. The craftsmanship was visible if you looked closely, the signs of handwork present but subtle enough that from any normal viewing distance, they disappeared entirely. The irregularities didn't affect the final impression. If anything, they were part of it.
Soifon took it.
In his hand it had been about half a palm's width. Sitting in hers, it had a different quality: compact and substantial, the kind of object that felt like it weighed sothing.
A short silence.
Then she looked up, and the expression she was wearing was hard to classify.
"You... do you actually know what this is for?"
Matsushita Yusuke shook his head without hesitation.
"No idea. Sothing to keep change in? Like a small wallet?"
He'd found it in the accessories section. It wasn't particularly expensive in itself. He'd picked it for the look.
Although, granted, factoring in the materials and the workmanship, the pricing had been of the more eye-catching variety.
He wasn't especially concerned about it. The two kimono she'd just paid for would have covered this several hundred tis over. On any reasonable accounting, this counted as returning a gesture, not as evening things out.
If he was being honest.
He was still substantially in her debt.
Having soone else pay for your clothes while you stood there was the kind of thing that didn't sit well regardless of how it was frad. This was the minimum.
"Don't you like it? I can take it—"
"I did not say that! I am asking whether you know what this is!"
Soifon saw him starting to reach back.
She brought her hand up and knocked his arm aside with a sharp movent, the reflexive defensiveness of soone protecting sothing they'd just taken hold of.
She then shifted imdiately into a very alert stance.
"I don't. Isn't it a wallet?"
"That..." She made a short frustrated sound. "You just hand things to people without finding out what they are first? You could at least do so research before buying sothing for soone. You're impossible."
She made a grumbling noise and held the pouch up, pulling the gold cord at the opening to part it and show him the inside.
"You see that? The interior is divided into compartnts."
"I see it. So?"
"So this is called a kushi-bukuro. Commit that to mory."
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