An outdoor mall by Roppongi Hills, not too far a walk from Myth Inc. HQ.
The plan had been to just walk around, relax, chat, and then grab some food at a restaurant before heading back.
But...
"Oh my gosh, that cosplay for Niko is amazing!"
"How did you get it done so fast?"
"You must be a big fan of Meryl! ...No? Even so, that's amazing!"
...Hope kept getting stopped by Project MirAIs fans who wanted a picture with her.
Erie stood off to the side with Juliet as Hope took another picture with another group of fans wearing merch of their oshis.
...Which meant it was mostly Ohana, the Ki-sama/Ryuusei-kai, and then Rhea's fans.
Juliet watched as a high school girl who was in full Hana Homura cosplay moved to take a picture with Hope and then said, "I shouldn't be surprised to see how popular my oshi is... but it's still amazing to see so many Ohana around in Japan."
Erie nodded and said, "Me too. I knew Hana was popular, but I didn't think she was like mainstream popular. I've only ever seen Alfis back in America."
The Hana cosplayer finished taking the photo with Hope and did a deep bow before running off to rejoin her friends.
After that, Hope walked over to Erie and Juliet, a bright smile on her face. She fixed the black fluffy gothic lolita dress she was wearing and said, "Niko must be really popular! That's the sixth person who's stopped us!"
Erie rolled her eyes and casually moved to Hope's left side while Juliet moved to Hope's right. After that, Erie said, "You're too nice, Hope. Niko's supposed to be like all chaotic and stuff. You're ruining her character!"
Hope giggled and said, "Well, next time you can wear contacts too and dye your hair a bit darker. Then we can go as two Nikos!"
Erie paused and then smirked, shooting finger guns at Hope. "You magnificent women. We're definitely doing that."
Juliet looked amused and said, "Does that mean I should get a silver wig and some of my old ball gowns to dress as Zen?"
Hope gasped and said, "You should! And I'll get some too!" She giggled and said, "We can just always run around in cosplay! No one will ever know! And we can take pictures with fans and stuff too!"
Erie stuck her hands in her jeans and chuckled. "Why stop at just Zen? At this rate, you could just start a cosplay account as yourself, Hope. It's the ultimate gaslight, right?"
Juliet laughed and said, "Oh my god. Erie, stop giving Hope ideas."
Hope's eyes sparkled. "I could definitely do that! Like, I think I can pull off Alfi. Hana might be hard since she's more petite, but if I do angles for photos... Aoko should be possible if I just get different hair dyes..."
Juliet rolled her eyes and said, "See what you've done, Erie?"
"What?" Erie smirked and said, "If you've got the stuff, use it, right? And honestly, being able to cosplay characters by just dyeing and styling your hair instead of wearing wigs is SUCH a cheat. If I could do it, I totally would. It seems like so much fun."
Hope let out a warm smile and said, "I never thought about it that way, Erie... thank you."
Erie smiled back and lightly punched Hope's arms. "Don't worry about it. As long as you don't keep feeding us habanero laced ice cream."
"Well, if you're a good girl, then it won't be a problem!"
Juliet raised an eyebrow and said, "...I think this is the first time I've heard a girl call another girl a 'good girl' without it being weird. Is that a midwest secret buff or something?"
Erie laughed and said, "I think that's because Hope sounds too sweet. There's no 'mommy' energy, you know?"
Hope puffed her cheeks and said, "I can definitely be mature! And do a mommy thingy! I'm older than you two, you know!"
Juliet paused. "...That's right. You ARE older." She looked amused and said, "So why do you seem more childish?"
"That's because I make sure my inner child is nice and happy!" Hope puffed her chest up and looked proud. "If you aren't doing things that would make your five year old self happy, you aren't doing things right!"
Erie's eyes lit up and said, "So you're saying I should triple down on turning Freddy's Pizzeria into a complete horror-themed amusement chain complete with glitch-filled arcade boxes and holograms that jumpscare you?"
"U-Um. If... that makes you happy?"
"Bet." Erie pulled out her phone, already starting a group text message to Titor, John, Lore, and a few other people. "I've got the best stream idea ever for Halloween..."
Juliet rolled her eyes and said, "Come on." She glanced at the crowds of Japanese bystanders as well as all the foreign tourists pointing at Hope. "At this rate we'll be out all day." She pulled out her phone and said, "Shopping's a bust, but we can at least grab some food at a restaurant or something."
Hope clapped her hands and said, "Ooh! I saw that there's a fancy burger place nearby with experimental recipes! Why don't we try it out?"
Erie looked slightly concerned and said, "...How experimental?"
"Like, turkey burgers, salmon burgers, and things like that!"
"...Okay, that's not too bad." Erie nodded. "I've had a salmon burger before."
Hope started leading the way, walking off with her black heels clacking against the sidewalk. "Me too! Just once. I think I've had a trout burger too! Well, it was deepfried though. Ooh! I've also had a wildrice and gator burger at the state fair!"
Juliet walked beside Hope and raised an eyebrow. "A wildrice and what burger?"
"And gator! Like, alligator!" Hope hummed. "It's like... a fishy chicken? But the wildrice mix in the burger patty made it all fluffy and yummy, even after it was deepfried!"
Erie facepalmed and said, "It all makes sense now. Fair food... No wonder Hope likes weird things. I bet you like chocolate pickles too."
"Chocolate pickles are amazing! Especially when they're frozen!"
Juliet gagged. "Why? Just... why?"
Hope puffed her cheeks and said, "It's refreshing! They taste the best after you've been walking around the fair the entire day. A bit of sour, a bit of salty, a nice cool and icy inside, and then a bit of bitter from the dark chocolate coating!"
Erie looked amused and said, "That sounds like something a woman would grab for pregnancy cravings."
Hope paused and her eyes widened. "THAT'S WHY IT TASTED SO GOOD WHEN I WAS ON MY- MMPH?!"
Juliet clamped her hand over Hope's mouth and said, "We do NOT talk about that stuff in public."
Erie laughed and gave Juliet a teasing smirk. "What's wrong, Julie? Embarrassed about your female hygiene?"
Juliet held her hand back and blushed. "I am not embarrassed. It's just... weird. To talk about."
Hope rolled her eyes and said, "It's just normal stuff, Julie! Why are you so shy about it? You've seen my pads in the apartment."
Erie nodded. "Yeah. And we all know you're a weirdo who actually uses tampons-"
"ERIE!"
"What~?" Erie teased. "Wait, is that why you sometimes act like you have a stick up your-"
"I WILL stop making carbonara for you."
"Shutting up now."
Hope giggled and glanced over. "Oh!" She spun around with a twirl before point at a building nearby. "Ta-dah~! That one there! Let's get going!"
Erie raised an eyebrow and looked at the building's sign. "Prototype Burgers?"
"Yep!" Hope nodded. "I saw an ad for it! Apparently, a retired researcher from America opened it!"
Juliet looked at the sleek chrome interior and the overall blacksite military decor as they walked in before saying, "...You're SURE this is like, normal burgers, right, Hope? Not like, labgrown cancer cell protein burgers?"
Before Hope could respond, a man walked out.
Black tuxedo, a fairly trained body with a rugged and handsome face, dark eyes with shaggy black hair...
Xander Mercer smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about that. As fun as it would be to joke about it, I think I've had enough of messing with cells for a lifetime."
Juliet immediately snapped to attention, giving Xander a once over. Then she leaned over to Hope and whispered, "Hope! This guy's ex-military for sure! Where did you take us?!"
"Huh?" Hope blinked. "Mister Mercer isn't ex-mercenary, silly! He's a medical researcher! I read a few of his papers in college for biology!"
Xander's eyes widened and he said, "Really now? Which ones?"
"The ones about retrophages and genesplicing! It was super cool!"
Xander laughed. "Oh, so my graduate dissertations then. That's rare. I don't think I've met anyone who's read those in the wild. Other than Toby, most people usually read my other works-"
"YOU KNOW MISTER TOBY?!"
Erie immediately started to panic and said, "OH MY GOD HE KNOWS THE HITMAN?!"
Juliet grabbed Hope and Erie and said, "Nope! Danger! We're heading RIGHT back to the apartment!"
"But Juliiie! Burgers!"
"WE ARE LITERALLY IN THE FIRST ACT OF A HORROR MOVIE RIGHT NOW, HOPE!"
===
Xander watched as the three young women ran off... or were rather dragged off by the young woman with curly black hair. "...That could have gone better."
Toby walked out of the kitchen wearing a 'kiss the chef' apron over a plain black t-shirt and jeans. "...I told you the research lab theme was too much."
"But it's cool!"
"It is. And it is also alarmingly efficient in being cleaned up if there are unfortunate spills. And it also has many convenient locations to store things. Body-sized things."
Xander paused, staring at the young woman with curly black hair literally tossing one of the red-haired young woman over her shoulders.
Mostly because that red-haired young woman was wearing heels and couldn't run.
After seeing that, Xander slowly nodded and said, "...I'll take my little sister's suggestions and add more pink hearts everywhere then. Soften the atmosphere a bit."
"Candles would help. May I suggest apple cinnamon?"
Xander sighed. "I hate apple cinnamon... but considering that's the tenth group of customers who have run off this week, I guess we'll have to..."