Mirror Eyes & Bright Blue Skies | Jujutsu Kaisen

ⅩⅤ. Shopping

Ikuko clutched her purse straps as she watched the crowds of people scurrying past. The mall was huge, four floors tiered like a wedding cake and spread out into a maze of glass-fronted shops stuffed full of shoppers. It was impressive but only served to remind her of why she'd always avoided coming here.

She didn't have long to wallow in her discomfort, though, as Maki was charging ahead. Taking a deep breath, Ikuke dove in after her.

"So, Maki-san, " she said once she'd caught up, "What are we here for?"

"Clothes, for you."

"Ah, I thought... Gojo-san said he was going to take me to do that. I'm sorry to trouble you."

Maki snorted, "Don't be. It needs to be done, and I simply got tired of lending you clothes. Gojo-sensei should have taken you weeks ago, anyway." The black-haired girl muttered the last part under her breath, so quietly that Ikuko almost didn't hear.

Ikuko chose to keep quiet after that. To be honest, Maki still intimidated her, even after weeks of knowing the girl and even though she was years older than the girl.

So they swam through the crowd of people in relative silence.

Eventually, they reached a shop with gold lettering on the sign and price tags on the clothes that had Ikuko's skin crawling.

"Maki-san, nothing I owned was this expensive..."

"Don't worry about it, Nishimura-san," Maki said, an evil grin stretching her face as she held up a card, "Gojo-sensei is paying, and believe me when I say this won't put a dent in his savings."

Ikuko still wanted to protest, though less so than before as her eyes took in all of the cute clothes, her imagination running wild at all of the outfit possibilities. However, Maki seemed to catch the look on her face.

"No 'but's, we're going to have fun," the black-haired girl said and linked her arm through Ikuko's.

Ikuko was so surprised by Maki's enthusiasm to shop that she didn't resist as the girl dragged her through the seemingly endless racks of clothing.

Ikuko cautioned a tease, "I didn't peg you for the shopper-type, Maki-san."

"You've been wearing my clothes for weeks now," Maki scoffed, "perhaps you're not as observant as Gojo-sensei makes you out to be."

They started with the basics- undergarments, sleepwear, casual wear (t-shirts, jeans, hoodies)- and worked their way into cute outfits and accessories. Despite Maki's systematic shopping style, every now and then she'd spot an article of clothing from across the store she thought would look good on Ikuko, drag her over to it, and make her try it on.

Several of these items were dresses, but Ikuko refused to even try them on. One, the dresses Maki chose were extremely expensive; two, practically, Ikuko couldn't imagine a situation where she'd need to wear anything dressy; and third, none of the dresses had really piqued her interest.

That is, until Ikuko spotted a moss green dress with pockets.

Maki noticed her eying the dress and promptly shoved her into a dressing room with it. Ikuko didn't protest this time. She really wanted to see if the skirt twirled well.

It did, so Ikuko spent a good few minutes simply spinning and admiring the softness of the green cloth before she chanced a look in the mirror. To her surprise, it looked quite decent on her. The cut of the dress was loose enough to be comfortable but not so loose as to be unflattering, and the color brought out the warm tones in her skin and accentuated the warmth in her brown eyes.