It takes her awhile to find it, but Sophia manages to locate a costume shop. It feels a little bit silly to her, looking for a mask to go superheroing. However, it seemed important to cover up her identity. At least, it was to just about every other superhero in the comics. She makes her way past all the cheap Halloween-type costumes to the masks. There was definitely a variety to choose from. Theatre to tribal to masquerade masks were available. However, the masquerade masks seemed to be more her style.

She wants one that matches the outfit. Something orange. She also wants one that just looks pretty. She tries about twelve on before she finds the one. It is a gold mask with orange leaf like engravings in it. On the left side, there are long orange feathers with fake autumn leaves attached by a yellow brooch. There are black outlines around the eyes that sweep upwards. She finds it cute and would probably show Artemis whenever she got home.

She takes the mask to cash register.

At the register, the clerk appeared to be a handsome, respectable looking young man a little older than Sophia was. As Sophia approached, he flashed a warm smile toward her, the previous customer just walking off with her own bag of goods.

"Welcome! Did you find everything you were looking for?" he asks, making eye contact with her for a moment, while wiping the counter as to look busy and seem less obvious about being charmed by her appearance. Perhaps it was that good ole senshi energy that made her a beacon to the hearts of young men!

Sophia returns the warm smile. “I found everything just fine. Thank you.” She finds it a little funny how he avoids eye contact. It wasn’t abnormal for her to have admirers. However, most of the time, they tended to shy away like the man behind the counter.

Though never passing the opportunity to meet a friendly new person and trying to put the young man at ease a bit, she figures that she may try to engage him in some conversation. “How are you this evening? I am a little surprised to see other people here this time of year. Do you get a lot of customers in August?” she asks while the previous customer exits the shop. Sophia was well aware that her own presence was a little abnormal.

"Oh yeah, you might be surprised. We often do work for things such as cultural festivals and theatrical productions. Plus some people like to wear costumes for their own reasons. Some of them are...less than pure...but business is business." he says, then looking her in the eye again, revealing deep green eyes.

"So what do you have in mind for a mask like this? A class project?" he says casually, noting that Sophia was around the normal school age. "At my own school, the senior class has to put on a production soon, so a lot of my classmates end up showing up here. It's kinda convenient, though I wish they'd stop asking me for discounts." he says with a slight chuckle, then feeling kind of corny for making lines like that around Sophia's radiance.

Sophia doesn’t notice the corny line at all. This is partly because she doesn’t care and partly because she needs to come up with a lie for why she is here now. However, if Sophia had an underused talent, it was quick deception. Without missing a beat, she answers him, “My cousin is a little obsessed with the Renaissance era whose birthday is coming up. I decided to buy her a bunch of small things for a gift instead one big thing. This is gift one of about five.”

The mention of the school production has her interested. “What school do you go to? What production? How far away is it?” bombarding him questions excitedly. Realizing that she is getting a little ahead of herself, she back tracks, “Sorry. I enjoy theatre a lot. I did a try out for the arts program at Juuban last week.”

"Ahh okay, I always admired the Renaissance period, it was a time of creativity that still has no true rival since." he says, then rolling his shoulders when she asked about the school.

"Oh, it's a smaller private school named Akacemi nearby, I was invited there for my own art skills. I actually help my father design a few of the things here when I can." he says, then nodding at Sophia when she mentioned theatre and arts.

"What kind of roles do you like to play, if you have a preference? Do you have a favorite play?" he inquires innocently, the business transaction lost in time for the moment.

“I don’t have a strong preference toward any roles in particular. I suppose nothing static and two-dimensional, but everyone will say that probably. I suppose I make a very poor villain, so that is out. I am a little drawn to characters who loud and boisterous. However, I have been told that I make a better supporting actress than lead in the past,” Sophia answers. She was fairly good at supporting roles as she never upstaged another person’s moment as some other actors were very willing to do. Though like everyone else, she always wanted a lead role.

“Also, I am pretty sure a ton of people say this, but Les Misérables is one of my favorites. However, that flops back and forth with Chicago.”

Sophia looks around the store a bit as if the items that the man had a hand in creating had a sign on them. “Being invited to Akacemi is fairly impressive. What did you and your father make here?”

"I see, it is not emphasized enough that those who are called 'supporting actresses' often make or break a play. An ingenious main actor is nothing alone without others to support them and help emphasize aspects of the story one person alone cannot accomplish." he says, then shrugging and gesturing towards a rack of costumes.

"Well I've helped my dad design a number of costumes, from animal suits to things inspired by anime that teenagers really like to dress up as for various cosplay events..." he says, as there were numerous anime costumes related to the popular series that were on at this generation, one even looked similar to a magical girl costume of a senshi, though the colors were dark blue and the skirt was longer.

Sophia smiles widely as he complements her usual role. “Thank you. I don’t get a lot of recognition. I should admit that it isn’t all bad. A lot of times it is a ton of fun. Some of my favorite characters are secondary ones. And playing a critical role in moving the story forward is nice.”

“Those are really well made. You guys are really good with the detail work too.” She smiles a little at the magical girl costume. She preferred superhero to magical girl though. Magical girl made her feel too much younger. It seems bizarre that anybody would get something that accurate to reality to her though. “Where is that one from?” she asks, pointing to the outfit.

"Oh, that one was a request by a girl who had an original anime design. She had short brownish and reddish hair, but she never came in to pick it up, it was kinda unusual really. We just keep it on display hoping that eventually somebody will have their curiosity piqued and pick it up." he says with a small shrug, then looks about. Of course, the boy felt slightly self conscious about the fact he was a guy designing costumes.

"My true artistic passion however is painting, the costume work is just something I picked up and do well enough at with my artistic thinking...don't get the wrong idea" the guy says with a slightly nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his head. Smooth.

“This is all pretty cool,” Sophia says, being sort of mesmerized by the outfit. She finds it interesting that a random individual would commission an outfit similar to reality and not pick it up. She sort of wants to buy it if it wasn’t too expensive and show Artemis. “How much are you selling that costume for though?” She could always use it as Halloween costume for this year.

“Wrong idea?” she asks, confused by what he means. She figures someone who might tons of time into work that they should be proud of it. “I mean, I like it. And if you are capable of doing this, I can’t imagine how good your work is when you are actually passionate about it. What do you paint?”

The male rubs his head thinking about the costume for a minute, not sure what to actually price it at since it was a commission that wasn't picked up and a piece which while time consuming to make was of less value to anyone other than the original commissioner. After a moment, he had an idea. If he was lucky, maybe he'd get his chance.

"Well I can tell you really like this outfit, so how about I give it to you for free, but if you have time why don't you come to an art exhibit at my school in a week, on the eleventh at around four, that is, if you are available." he says with a friendly, albeit slightly nervous smile.

“Well, it seems like I hardly lose out in this deal,” Sophia says. She was curious about his other work. She gets the outfit for free, answers her question, and gets to know someone new all at the same time. However, if the young man means to ask her out on a date, the nuisance of this is lost on her. “I don’t have any plans for that date, so sure. Let me give you a way to contact me. My name is Sophia, by the way,” she says as she pulls out her phone to exchange numbers.

“So, August 13th at 4pm on the 11th floor. Got it. Hopefully, no one will call me out on being from a different school.”

A humongous bubble of sweat trickled down the side of the boy's head, as the most common aspect of social interaction was forgotten: his name. He felt like an idiot for such an oversight, but Sophia was just so interesting he didn't even want to think about himself or anything. Curse you Venus Charm.

"Ah, yes, my name is Kenji Ishiro" he says with a smile and then shakes his head about her concern about being from another school.

"Oh, no, not at all. People at my school aren't like the ones that may try to think less of those from other schools." he says reassuringly and confidently.

“Kenji. It has been wonderful meeting you, and I will see you then. However, I should probably get out of your hair while you are working,” Sophia says. She finds the boy nice if a bit shy, but so were plenty of people to strangers. However, she had taken up a lot of his time, and technically he was working.

She pulls out the money that she owes him for the mask, and hands it over. She can’t resist the urge to try it on for a few seconds. “How do I look?” she asks, joking, before taking it off. She wonders if the superheroing stuff works whether this will become a popular item. Before she leaves, she says, “I suppose I will see you the 13th. If anything changes between now and then, I'll text you."