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Clearly Seedy: Unclear Directions
You keep your gait even and your breathing steady as you make your way through the impossibly luxurious complex, feeling like an imposter all the while. A few pink accents match your hair, but the rest is all purples and blacks. It wouldn't have been that difficult to use your magic on this outfit, to make the heels easier to walk in or to stop the dress from potentially tripping you up, but Yumi had vetoed it.
A standard part of the Contract package was the ability to keep balance in even the worst conditions, and as such heels were only an impediment to rank amateurs. Advertising how fresh you were was hardly a good idea, and if you walked into a negotiation with the Butterfly carrying an undisclosed enchantment... if you were lucky, you might simply be killed. If not, there were worse fates for Contractors.
Much worse.
Yumi had given in to your demands for equality by digging out a pair of heels herself, but they remain her only compromise to femininity. Her tall and lanky build already makes her stand out, and with the addition of the heels she positively looms, to the point that even many of the Yakuza enforcers have to look up to meet her eyes. It'd take a very particular type of dress to flatter her build, one she doesn't much care for, and so she's wearing a tailored suit instead, the light grey shade matching her hair color.
You're finally led up to a pair of imposing doors, a deep and dark wood you don't know enough to identify inlaid with gold. The suited man bows deeply. "The Lady will call for you shortly." You try to keep yourself from staring - adults being this deferential to you still feels really weird.
Yumi is apparently entirely used to the treatment, as she idly shoos the man away with a wave of her hand while slouching against a decorative column. Her lips don't part, but her voice whispers in your ear just the same. You manage to supress your flinch - Yumi's private chats don't have the same innate familiarity as the Incubator's telepathy, but they're often more secure - and they function in telepathy dead zones, like the Yakuza building.
"Don't copy me - keep standing all polite and attentive and shit." You dutifully do so, balancing on your heels while pretending to examine the engravings on the wood paneling.
"Respect's a tricky thing. We waited a few days to get our asses over here, so now Butterfly's gonna rub her superior position in our faces by making us wait. I get to show that I'm not a lapdog by making a show of discarding propriety, but I still don't get to just barge into the room."
The elevator at the far end of the corridor softly dings, and the pair of you are left alone in the hallway. You glance over your mentor again, taking in the apparently intentional disrespect with fresh eyes.
"You haven't earned that yet, and she'd bite back at you if you tried. And the fancy getups make her happier, since they make it easier for her to sell what she does to her dad, compared to the cutesy pastels, so they're an easy way to score points."
You can see where the Yakuza lady's coming from, really. This outfit may make you feel like you should be going to a school dance with it, but it's still a lot more fitting to the decor then your magical girl outfit would be. You don't feel comfortable in it, exactly, but at least it's the sort of thing that you feel like you
should be wearing on a meeting with organized crime.
Finally, ponderously, the door opens. You keep your hands politely clasped, turning to the girl you're here to meet. Yumi remains slouching, cracking a single eye open.
You first impressions are that she's... ordinary. Black hair, brown eyes, she could be any ordinary student a few years older than you. She's wearing a simple blouse and skirt, patterned green to match the jade decor of her office, but still far less formal then what you and Yumi are wearing. You wonder if that's the point.
She looks down at you, slightly, and you're mostly creeped out by how
not creepy it is. Shouldn't being appraised by "The Butterfly" seem scary? It lasts until she opens her mouth. "Ahahahahahaha~. That's positively
precious, Yu~mi. You've adopted a pet!"
