The room remained quiet after Mimi's question.
Not completely silent. Rai's lo-fi playlist still drifted softly through the speakers overhead, synthetic rain mixing with slow music that somehow felt painfully sincere now. Nobody had turned it off. Nobody had really acknowledged it either.
The girls remained scattered around the room where they had collapsed. Mimi lay half-curled on the floor with the slime resting on her stomach, absentmindedly poking its squishy surface. Ragna sat against the wall with one knee pulled up, staring at absolutely nothing. Nozomi sat quietly beside her, hands folded in her lap. Midori had somehow ended up upside down across two chairs. Neera still looked like her thoughts were trying to outrun each other.
Then Rai spoke.
"…Girls?"
Mimi raised a hand weakly without lifting her head.
"Present."
"I think you should take the pendants now."
A pause.
Ragna slowly turned her head.
"The ancient reality crystals."
"Yes."
"The same crystals we know absolutely nothing about."
"Yes."
"No."
Rai ignored her immediately.
"The pendants will enhance your bodies and allow you to withstand environmental conditions outside the Repository."
Silence.
Then:
"What?"
Neera sat upright so quickly she nearly scared everyone.
"The external atmosphere is no longer compatible with normal human physiology," Rai continued gently. "Your bodies would require adaptation."
Mimi slowly looked toward the ceiling.
"I hate every sentence today."
Midori lifted her head over the side of the chair.
"Enhance like superpowers enhance?"
"No."
A pause.
"…Maybe a little."
Midori sat up instantly.
Mimi sat up too.
"No way."
"No way."
"No," Ragna said immediately.
Nozomi looked toward the silver box still sitting at the center of the table.
"…How?"
"Take a pendant," Rai replied. "Hold it and say anupravesh."
The room went quiet for a moment.
Then Midori blinked.
"…Anu…"
"Anupravesh," Rai repeated patiently.
"Anupra…"
"Anu…"
"Anupravesh."
"Bless you," Mimi said.
Ragna closed her eyes.
Midori was already laughing.
Slowly, they gathered around the table again. The seven crystals rested inside the silver box exactly where they had left them.
Neera reached first. Of course she did.
The blue crystal settled into her hand, its fractured surface catching tiny pieces of light as she turned it over carefully.
Nozomi picked up the purple one.
Ragna stared for several seconds before taking the grey crystal with visible suspicion.
Mimi grabbed the golden one.
Midori reached toward the pink pendant.
Then suddenly paused.
Everyone stared.
Midori slowly looked down.
Then toward the slime.
Then back up.
"No."
Ragna said it immediately.
"I didn't even say anything."
"You thought it aggressively."
Midori looked offended.
"She's coming with us."
The slime looked up at her with absolutely no thoughts behind its little rippling face.
Midori gently held the pink pendant against its squishy little body.
"There."
Nozomi blinked.
"Midori…"
"It's a group member."
"It became a group member twenty minutes ago."
"It has emotional value."
The slime bounced once.
Mimi pointed dramatically.
"WAIT SHE'S RIGHT."
Ragna looked over slowly.
Very slowly.
"Mimi."
Mimi stood up.
"Mimi."
She marched over toward one of the nearby wall control panels.
"Mimi."
"Mimi no."
Too late.
With complete confidence, Mimi lifted the gold pendant and dramatically slammed it against the panel.
"ANUPRAVESH!"
Nothing happened.
Absolute silence.
Mimi blinked.
Looked down.
Looked back up.
"…Huh."
Rai waited exactly three seconds before speaking.
"…Mimi."
"Yes?"
"That was a climate control panel."
Midori folded over instantly laughing.
Nozomi covered her mouth.
Neera stared at Mimi with complete seriousness.
"…Interesting."
"That is not interesting," Ragna said immediately.
Mimi slowly lifted the pendant back up.
"In my defense…"
"No," Ragna replied.
"I felt guided."
"No."
"It was a very powerful feeling."
"No."
The slime bounced happily in Midori's arms, completely supportive of bad decisions.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
The girls stood there in silence, crystals still resting in their hands. Mimi stared suspiciously at her pendant, then at the wall panel she had assaulted moments earlier as if considering whether it deserved a second attempt.
"…Maybe I should say it louder," she suggested.
"No," Ragna replied immediately.
Then the world disappeared.
There was no flash of light. No sensation of falling. No dramatic pull beneath their feet. One moment they were standing in the Repository and the next, the room simply ceased to exist around them.
White stretched endlessly in every direction.
Above them. Below them. Ahead and behind them.
No walls. No ceiling. No horizon.
Just an endless empty space that looked strangely familiar, like those blank VR loading environments before selecting a game or movie.
Mimi looked around slowly.
"…Okay, I hate this one."
Her voice echoed strangely. The sound felt delayed somehow, almost like the space itself was deciding whether it wanted to cooperate.
Then a voice cut through the emptiness.
Cold and mechanical.
Not loud. Not quiet either. It simply existed everywhere at once.
"User AuR13 identified. Logging in. Retrieving user data."
Everyone froze.
Neera blinked.
"…AuR?"
"Retrieving..."
"Retrieving..."
"Error."
A pause.
"Components missing."
"File corrupted."
"Unable to recover user."
Silence settled over the white space.
Midori slowly raised her hand.
"…That feels bad."
"Creating new account."
Nobody moved.
"Please input a username."
The girls looked around uncertainly.
At each other.
At the endless white void.
Then:
"ent_slime promoted to User."
Mimi stared.
"…Excuse me?"
"R.AI logged in as User."
Ragna frowned.
"What does that even mean?"
"Level 1 clearance for new users: granted."
The world twisted.
The white space folded inward around them, reality collapsing like paper being crushed in invisible hands. The sensation lasted less than a second.
Then they were back.
The meeting room slammed back into existence around them. Chairs. Table. Walls. Lights.
Mimi stumbled directly into the edge of the table.
Midori nearly sat on the floor.
Nozomi caught herself against the back of a chair while Ragna planted her feet instinctively, already bracing for another reality attack.
Neera blinked rapidly.
"…What just happened?"
Nobody answered.
Because something felt wrong.
Nozomi looked down first.
Then froze.
"…Um."
The others followed her gaze.
Silence.
Every single one of them had changed clothes.
Gone were their old outfits, replaced by identical black fitted tops and shorts. Simple. Clean. Almost painfully default, like they had been loaded into some unfinished character creator screen.
Mimi stared down at herself.
Then slowly looked around the room.
"…No."
Midori stared too.
"…No."
Ragna closed her eyes.
Opened them again.
"…No."
Neera looked horrified in a completely different way.
"…Why are we wearing software settings."
Then Mimi noticed movement near the far side of the room.
"…Wait."
Her voice had gone small.
Very small.
Everyone looked up.
There were two girls standing near the wall.
One had soft lavender hair, almost the exact same shade as the slime from earlier. Pink eyes blinked slowly as she looked around the room in visible confusion. She looked down at her hands, touched her own face, then pointed at herself.
Silence.
Midori looked down at her empty arms.
Then back at the lavender-haired girl.
Then back down.
Then back up.
Her entire face changed.
"SLIME?!"
Beside her, the second girl remained completely still.
Light blue hair framed her face in an uneven asymmetrical cut, and golden eyes moved slowly across the room. She looked at her hands first. Then her arms. Then flexed her fingers experimentally.
Her expression remained composed.
Mostly.
"…Interesting," she said quietly.
A pause.
"…I appear to be experiencing confusion."
Another pause followed.
Her eyes widened slightly.
"…Interesting."
This time, she looked genuinely unsettled.
"…I am experiencing confusion about my confusion."
Absolute silence.
Six girls stared at her.
She stared back.
Then very carefully, she lifted a hand.
"…Hello," she said. "I believe I may be Rai."
Rai remained standing exactly where she was.
Her posture was composed, almost unnervingly so, but tiny movements betrayed her. Her eyes kept drifting down toward her own hands, fingers flexing experimentally every few seconds as if she was checking whether they still belonged to her. Then her attention shifted to her hair, lightly touching one side before looking back at everyone else.
There was something strangely fascinating about watching confusion happen to someone who had never needed to feel it before. She blinked.
"…I have a question."
The room looked toward her.
Rai tilted her head slightly.
"…What exactly is happening?"
Silence.
Ragna stared at her.
Then very slowly turned toward the nearest table.
Thunk.
Her forehead hit the surface.
Nobody reacted immediately.
"…No," her muffled voice said from against the table. "No, I refuse."
Another thunk.
"No."
Mimi stared.
"Did she just short circuit?"
Ragna lifted her head just enough to glare at her.
"If even Rai doesn't know what's happening, then nobody knows what's happening."
Then her forehead met the table again.
Thunk.
"…I quit."
Nearby, Neera had already recovered enough to enter thinking mode again. Her earlier panic had shifted into something more focused, thoughts reorganizing themselves rapidly behind her eyes.
"We should find Stella," she said, adjusting her sleeves absentmindedly. "If Rai's condition changed after the pendants activated, Stella might already know what happened."
Nozomi nodded faintly beside her.
"She seemed like she expected us," she said quietly. "And she knew things Rai didn't explain."
"She also disappeared immediately after giving us a mystery box," Ragna muttered from the table. "Suspicious behavior."
Neera crossed her arms slightly.
"Still. She's currently our highest source of information."
Nozomi looked thoughtful.
"…We should ask carefully."
Then a strange sound cut cleanly through the room. A very loud wheeze.
Everyone turned.
Mimi had folded completely in half.
Midori was barely doing any better.
Both of them were pointing violently toward the wall screen.
Ragna frowned and slowly lifted her head from the table.
"…What."
Neera turned toward the screen and then froze.
Pictures.
Rows of profile cards had appeared across the display.
Apparently the Repository had decided everyone now officially existed.
Apparently it had also decided to take profile photos.
Nobody had posed or prepared.
Because every single image had been taken during the exact moment they entered the white VR space.
Mimi's picture showed her mid-scream, eyes huge and arms halfway raised.
Nozomi looked startled but somehow still composed.
Neera looked like she'd just discovered God and intended to dissect him.
Ragna looked actively offended by existence.
Midori looked like she had seen a tax collector emerge from the void.
Then there was ent_slime.
Not the girl.
Just a picture of the slime itself.
And beside it:
Rai.
Except Rai's image wasn't her face.
It was literally the Repository logo.
Silence.
Then Midori hit the floor.
Mimi made a noise that sounded physically painful.
"Oh my god," she wheezed.
"Oh no no no no."
Below each image sat their usernames.
Neera's eyes immediately locked onto hers. Then her face lit up.
"…YES."
Everyone looked.
Neon_ERA
Neera pointed triumphantly.
"It fit."
Nozomi blinked down at hers.
Nozomi
"…Mine is just my name."
"BORING," Mimi shouted immediately.
Ragna's eyes drifted lower.
Then narrowed.
Very slowly.
Very.
Slowly.
RagnarokBr
Silence.
Neera looked at it.
Looked at Ragna.
Looked back.
Then smiled.
It was a dangerous smile.
"…Bromine."
Ragna stared.
"…What."
"Ragnarok Bromine."
"…No."
"Ragna Br."
"No."
"Chemical symbol Br."
"No."
"Periodic table final boss."
"No."
Ragna looked moments away from committing violence.
Mimi had stopped breathing entirely.
Meanwhile Midori had finally managed to sit back up.
Then looked at her own.
Then stopped.
Complete silence.
DanceOfTheF
Midori blinked once.
Twice.
"…No."
Mimi looked.
Then immediately folded again.
"No NO NO."
Midori pointed violently at the screen.
"IT CUT OFF."
Ragna looked over.
Then immediately looked away.
Her shoulders started shaking.
"…No."
Neera had physically sat down on the floor.
Nozomi covered her mouth.
Even Ragna was losing the battle now.
"Dance of the F?" Mimi wheezed. "Dance of the WHAT?"
"I DON'T KNOW."
Midori looked genuinely devastated.
"IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DANCE OF THE FLOWERS."
"Dance of the F," Neera repeated helpfully.
"STOP SAYING IT."
For a moment, the room forgot about everything that happened before this and just laughed hysterically.
Until tears started appearing in the corners of their eyes.
And through all of it, the lavender-haired girl sat quietly nearby.
She looked from face to face with complete neutrality.
Her expression never changed.
The laughter continued to bounce around the meeting room, uneven and messy now that everyone had completely lost control of themselves. Mimi was still folded over the table clutching her stomach, shoulders shaking violently while Midori had given up entirely and was lying sideways across two chairs. Even Ragna had abandoned any attempt at maintaining composure. She had turned away at some point under the extremely optimistic belief that nobody would notice the corners of her mouth twitching upward.
Only two people remained untouched by the collective collapse.
Rai stood near the wall, her golden eyes still moving slowly between the profile display and her own hands, as if she still had not entirely adjusted to the fact that she possessed hands in the first place. Beside the table, the lavender-haired girl sat quietly, looking between everyone without reacting. Her pink eyes moved slowly from face to face, lingering for a second on Mimi's wheezing laughter, then drifting toward Midori curled up in defeat on the chairs.
Then she stood.
The movement looked awkward at first. Her body leaned slightly too far forward before correcting itself, one foot stepping carefully ahead of the other. The first few steps looked uncertain, like someone trying to remember how walking was supposed to work rather than learning it for the first time. Her balance tipped left briefly, then right, before stabilizing.
The room gradually quieted.
Midori sat up first, blinking.
"…Wait."
The lavender-haired girl continued moving. Strangely, with each step she seemed to improve. The uncertainty faded quickly, her posture straightening naturally as though her body was adapting in real time. By the time she crossed half the room she was walking normally, almost too normally.
No one said anything.
She walked directly toward Mimi.
Mimi had only just managed to sit upright again, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes while still recovering from her own laughter. She looked up at the approaching girl and blinked.
"…Hm?"
The girl stared down at her for a moment.
Then bent slightly and lifted Mimi straight off the ground.
Silence settled over the room instantly.
Mimi blinked.
"…Wait-"
Then she disappeared upward.
The scream tore through the room before anyone processed what had happened.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"
Mimi shot toward the ceiling with enough force to leave everyone frozen in place. Her hands flailed violently before she hit the ceiling with a soft thunk, bounced once, and immediately started falling back down.
The lavender-haired girl stepped forward and caught her effortlessly.
No stumble.
No adjustment.
Just smooth, practiced movement.
For several long seconds nobody moved.
Mimi stared blankly.
The girl stared back with the same neutral expression she had been wearing this entire time.
Then Midori folded in half laughing.
Neera nearly dropped into the chair behind her.
Nozomi immediately covered her mouth with both hands, shoulders shaking despite her very obvious attempts to remain composed.
Ragna looked at the scene, looked at Mimi still frozen in the girl's arms, and sighed.
"…She remembers."
Mimi slowly turned toward her.
"What...?"
Nozomi lowered her hands slightly and cleared her throat, attempting to recover some dignity before speaking.
"In her defense," she offered politely, "you did throw the slime at the ceiling while trying to hit Rai."
Mimi stared at her.
Nozomi looked upward thoughtfully.
"…Fate, perhaps."
A brief pause.
"…Gods."
Another pause.
"…Whoever exactly you were attempting to hit."
The lavender-haired girl nodded once.
Mimi looked at Nozomi. Then at Ragna. Then at the lavender-haired girl still holding her.
Then very slowly toward the ceiling.
"…I've been avenged."
The laughter gradually settled into smaller aftershocks, occasional snorts and wheezes escaping whenever someone looked at Mimi still sitting perfectly comfortably in the lavender-haired girl's arms. Strangely enough, she had made absolutely no attempt to get down. If anything, she had settled into the situation with alarming speed.
Mimi crossed her arms thoughtfully.
"…This is fine."
"Of course this is fine for you," Ragna muttered.
Midori wiped tears from the corners of her eyes and finally sat upright again, still grinning. The lavender-haired girl remained standing quietly in the middle of all of them, holding Mimi without any visible difficulty while her gaze drifted from face to face with silent curiosity.
Nozomi looked toward her and smiled softly.
"…Actually," she said, "we should probably give her a name."
Everyone looked over.
Nozomi folded her hands together lightly.
"We can't keep calling her the slime girl."
A brief silence followed.
Then suddenly:
"Jelly."
Ragna had sat up.
Everyone slowly turned toward her.
Ragna blinked.
"…What."
Half the room stared at her. Even Rai looked mildly surprised.
Ragna frowned immediately.
"What? Jelly sounds nice."
The lavender-haired girl tilted her head slightly.
Mimi looked between the two of them.
"No."
"What do you mean no?"
Midori stepped closer, resting her chin thoughtfully in her hand.
"Maybe something related to goo?" she suggested. "Since she was a slime."
Immediately:
"Oh wait."
"Oh wait."
Mimi and Neera had spoken at exactly the same time. They looked at each other. Pointed. Then looked back.
"Yes," Neera said with complete seriousness. "Excellent."
Mimi nodded rapidly.
"Absolutely."
Ragna stared at them like she'd just been betrayed by civilization itself.
"…Excuse me?"
Neera folded her arms.
"Goo has significantly more customization potential."
"Customization potential?"
"Yes."
Ragna looked genuinely offended now.
"Jelly sounds better than goo."
"No," Mimi replied immediately.
"Yes."
"No."
"YES."
Midori looked between them like she was watching a tennis match.
Meanwhile the lavender-haired girl had gone quiet again. Her brows furrowed slightly in concentration as she repeated sounds beneath her breath, trying to piece them together.
"Goo…"
She paused.
"…me…"
Silence settled over the room.
Everyone turned.
The girl blinked and pointed towards herself.
"…Goo...me...?"
Nobody spoke.
Then Rai smiled.
Not a large smile. Just small and soft.
"…Gumi," she said gently. "That sounds like Gumi."
The room remained quiet for exactly one second.
Then:
"Oh my god that's adorable."
"I like that."
"Gumi sounds cute."
"Yes."
"Okay that's actually good."
Instant approval erupted around the room.
Instantly.
Ragna stared at everyone in betrayal.
"…Traitors."
"No," Midori corrected. "Democracy."
"Democracy is flawed."
Nobody listened to her. The lavender-haired girl looked around as the excitement unfolded around her, then looked back toward Rai.
"…Gumi," she repeated quietly.
She paused, thought about it and then lifted a thumbs up.
"…Gumi."
Ragna crossed her arms tightly and looked away.
"…Jelly was better."
The room had somehow become louder than it was during the whole "humanity is gone" revelation.
Mimi had planted both hands on her hips with complete authority, while Midori stood beside her nodding with the seriousness of someone participating in an important international summit. Across from them, the rest of the group looked varying degrees of concerned.
"This," Mimi announced while gesturing dramatically at everyone around her, "cannot continue."
Midori pointed accusingly at the matching black outfits. "We look like default settings."
For once, Ragna sat upright immediately.
"…Actually no, she's right."
Neera looked over at her in visible surprise.
"You switched sides unusually fast."
Ragna crossed her arms. "We look like unfinished game characters."
Nozomi lowered her gaze toward her own outfit, quietly smoothing the fabric with one hand.
"…I did think it felt a little plain."
Rai looked down at herself as well, studying the black fabric with careful curiosity.
"…Interesting," she said thoughtfully. "I appear to be wearing software."
Before anyone else could react, Mimi and Midori had already moved.
Mimi grabbed Neera by the wrist.
Midori grabbed Nozomi.
Then, after a brief pause, Gumi silently attached herself to Midori's side like she had decided that was simply where she belonged now.
Within moments the entire group had been dragged back into the synthesizer room whether they agreed or not.
What followed could only be described as complete chaos.
Suggestions and objections started flying around almost immediately. Mimi wanted accessories. Midori wanted movement. Neera wanted practical designs. Ragna rejected approximately eighty percent of the suggestions on principle alone. Nozomi attempted to mediate before eventually giving up and watching the disaster unfold.
At some point they reached a compromise. Mostly.
Their jackets remained consistent. Short fitted crop jackets and bolero layers formed over the existing outfits, each taking on the color of their pendants.
Then Midori suddenly stopped moving.
"…Wait."
Everyone looked over. She pointed wildly.
"Your eyes."
Silence fell immediately.
Somewhere between reality rewriting itself and creating new users, their eyes had changed colors too. Neera's had become a deep ocean blue. Mimi's burned bright red. Nozomi's softened into violet. Midori's had shifted into green. Ragna's had darkened into grey. Gumi's reflected pink.
And Rai's warm golden eyes now caught the light in ways that felt strangely luminous.
The room remained silent for several seconds.
Then Ragna sighed.
"…Nothing surprises me anymore."
Nobody argued with her.
The lower half quickly descended into complete personal preference.
Nozomi settled on a layered violet skirt over shorts, simple and flowing enough to move comfortably in. Midori immediately chose a green skirt with enough movement to spin in, because apparently that had been a requirement.
Gumi watched the clothing options silently for a while before selecting a soft pink skirt of her own.
Neera and Rai somehow reached the exact same conclusion independently, both selecting wrapped skirts layered over shorts.
"For movement efficiency," Neera explained. Rai nodded immediately.
"For movement efficiency."
Mimi stared at both of them.
"…You two scare me."
Mimi herself had gone in an entirely different direction. Red shorts. Black thigh highs. Hair clips. Bracelets. Decorative stars. Tiny accessories that existed solely because they were cute.
Ragna looked at her once.
"…You exploded."
"Fashion," Mimi corrected.
Ragna rolled her eyes and stepped into her own synthesizer. When she walked back out, silence spread through the room.
Dark shorts. Dark thigh highs. Chains. Spikes.
...More chains and spikes.
"…You exploded too," Mimi finally said.
"No," Ragna replied immediately.
"I evolved."
Nearby, Gumi had gone very quiet.
Everyone turned toward her.
She stood in front of the synthesizer panel, staring intently at something. After several seconds of consideration, she pressed a button.
Moments later a pink beret appeared in her hands.
Gumi stared at it for a moment before slowly placing it on her head.
Midori blinked.
"…Gumi?"
Gumi touched the beret lightly.
"…Round."
She paused.
Then looked toward where the slime had once existed.
"…Slime friend."
The room became very quiet.
Nozomi immediately covered her mouth.
Mimi physically leaned against the nearest wall.
Midori dropped onto the floor.
Even Ragna looked away.
Because apparently nobody had emotionally prepared themselves for Gumi's accidental critical damage.
The synthesizer room had gradually settled into quieter conversation after the fashion catastrophe finally ended. Clothes had been generated, arguments had been won and lost, and everyone had reached the stage where they simply stood around admiring themselves and occasionally spinning for absolutely no reason.
Then Midori froze. Something had moved outside the doorway, just for a second.
A soft sparkly blur passed through the hallway, pale peach hair catching the light before disappearing again.
The girls slowly turned. Stella had apparently been attempting to walk past the room unnoticed. Attempting being the keyword.
Because six pairs of eyes locked onto her at once.
Stella stopped. The girls stared. Stella stared back.
A terrible understanding passed silently through the room, like piranhas smelling blood.
"No," Ragna said immediately.
Too late.
"MOMMY."
"MA'AM-"
"STELLA WAIT."
"What are you doing here?"
"GET HER."
Absolute chaos erupted.
Stella got approximately half a second to react before the entire group descended on her at once. Mimi and Midori reached her first, immediately grabbing both of her arms while Nozomi hurried after them apologizing despite actively participating.
"I'm sorry," Nozomi said politely while helping push Stella forward. "I don't actually know why we're doing this."
"We absolutely do know why we're doing this," Mimi corrected.
"…What."
She had exactly enough time to say that before being gently but very firmly pushed into the clothes synthesizer chamber.
The doors slid shut. Stella stared through the glass. Mimi crossed her arms.
"You look too much like a goddess."
Midori nodded with complete seriousness.
"It's emotionally intimidating."
"You feel very…"
Midori waved her hands vaguely.
"…Untouchable."
Stella blinked.
"…I beg your pardon?!"
Rai stood off to the side watching the scene unfold. Her golden eyes moved slowly from Stella. Then back again.
"…I do not think this is an approved use of the synthesizer."
Nobody heard her. They had already begun.
Neera stepped forward first, eyes scanning options rapidly.
"Bell bottoms."
Everyone looked at her.
Neera blinked.
"…What?"
"…You chose immediately," Ragna said.
"Yes."
"…You had thoughts prepared."
"No."
"…Liar."
The bell-bottom denims were accepted with suspicious speed. Then the real war began.
"No. Hoodie."
"No, a cardigan!"
"Hoodie."
"No."
"Hoodie."
"No."
Mimi and Nozomi stared each other down across the panel.
"A cute hoodie creates warmth," Mimi argued.
"A cardigan creates warmth too," Nozomi replied.
"A cardigan creates taxes."
Nozomi looked visibly confused.
"…What does that mean?"
"Yes."
"Huh?!"
Midori leaned over between them.
"…Actually cardigan feels softer."
Mimi gasped in betrayal.
"YOU TOO?"
Eventually the cardigan won. Mostly because Nozomi looked quietly pleased about it and nobody had enough emotional strength to fight her.
Mimi folded her arms dramatically.
"Fine."
Then narrowed her eyes.
"…But I choose jewelry."
Nobody stopped her. That was mistake number one.
Midori quietly added a soft white turtleneck beneath the cardigan.
Ragna stared at the jeans for several seconds before silently selecting chains as accessories.
Neera looked over.
"…You infected her."
Neera pointed directly at Ragna.
"She evolved."
Ragna looked away immediately.
"No I didn't."
Throughout all of this Stella remained perfectly still inside the chamber. Neither resisting nor speaking. Not even blinking very much.
She looked less like someone participating and more like someone who had been abruptly abducted by very enthusiastic birds. Then Gumi stepped forward.
Everyone looked toward her.
She stared at the options for several long seconds before pressing a button.
A denim beret appeared in her hands.
Gumi looked at it and at Stella. Then reached up and carefully placed it on top of her head.
Silence.
The group slowly stepped backward.
Then looked up together.
The room became quiet.
Bell-bottom jeans with soft chains along the sides. White turtleneck. Beige cardigan layered over it. Small cute jewelry details scattered throughout. And resting on top of peach-colored hair...
A denim beret.
Nobody spoke or moved.
Stella stood inside the chamber staring forward completely motionless, not even remembering to blink anymore.
She looked like someone glitching in real time while existence attempted to process what had just happened to her.