Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===

Everything was peaceful.

It was the day after the weird incident at the discount shop.

Frenda had walked to District 13 between jobs. In the normal world, it was the time known as afterschool. However, it was still before three, so the sky was still blue. The weather was nice again today.

The trees lining either side of the wide street were dyed in reds and yellows.

It was already October.

Gone was the heat that made her curse the sun whenever she walked outside. However, the ultraviolet was still there, so she couldn’t let her guard down just because it seemed cool.

Her 7-year-old sister was walking by her side and holding her hand. She was wearing her backpack on the way back from school.

“Have you chosen a Halloween costume yet?”

“Hmm?”

Frenda Seivelun looked up into the blue sky in thought.

Halloween was still viewed as a temporary fad in Academy City and ''had yet to'' become an established annual event, but people were saying it would catch on before long. The manager of the elementary school dorm (a place where seasonal events were of the utmost importance) even dressed up in costumes on a regular basis. Furthermore, the Seivelun sisters’ blonde hair was neither dyed nor bleached. So whether or not it had caught on in Japan, it was a familiar event for them.

And while the capable older sister used her eye movement to guide her younger sister’s eyes up toward the blue sky, she operated her phone in the blind spot this created.

After a “poof!” of cloth inflating with air, she was wearing a full-body mascot costume.

“Whoa!? Th-that’s so cool! But in the first place, what is it!?”

“Costume outerwear. In the end, it’s equipped with a small electric fan.”

“Nyah,” cried the cat-like costume.

Clothing equipped with cooling fans was convenient, but it had been derided as ugly because of how it swelled out from within…so this had been invented to take advantage of that downside. It was normally worn as a thin hoodie or coat, but a phone app could inflate it into a costume. There was no need to stuff it with cotton or shape it with a metal frame.

…The biggest problem was the “so what?” question. In a normal life, there was no need at all to instantly switch between ordinary clothing and a costume. In the end, it had no use outside of magic shows and Halloween-like events.

“In the first place, what should I dress up as?”

“How about you let your handy sister sew something for you? Maybe a magical girl? Or Alice? In the end, just let me know and we can go select the material☆”

“I don’t want yours. You have childish tastes.”

The 7-year-old was pouting her lips and complaining. Little sisters were a challenge.

“Here, here,” said that little sister as she tugged on Frenda’s hand. It only took an instant to switch back from costume mode.

“I’m in elementary school now, so I can choose my own clothes. In the first place, how about we go there? I’m so grown-up now!”

The sparkle in her eyes was something else.

She had chosen the kind of cheap fast fashion shop found in just about any district of the city, but it seemed to look like an indoor amusement park to the 7-year-old.

And they appeared to sell Halloween costumes here.

Halloween. It had not ''yet'' fully caught on in Academy City, but maybe the company wanted to create a one stop shop for everyone’s clothing needs.

Event costumes weren’t bought on the day of, so they already had a special section full of colorful costumes: witches, fairies, maids, etc. But wait. Were maids really a Halloween thing?

“In the end, what type of costume do you want, my sister? A good guy or a bad guy?”

“Something cool!!”

So not cute then. But what did a 7-year-old consider cool?

The younger sister spoke with the college-aged woman who had been stocking the shelves. She was explaining what she wanted with lots of gesturing and smiling. This was one more thing she could do on her own now.

The next thing Frenda knew, several employees had gathered around to debate the issue. Eventually, the little sister returned to Frenda with a costume folded up in her arms.

“In the first place, I chose this! Now to try it on.”

“That looks like an unusual costume with lots of zippers and bows. In the end, can you put it on yourself?”

“Thou shalt not treat me like a little kid.”

The 7-year-old refused any help and shut the fitting room curtain.

…And since when did that little sister talk like that? Maybe she had picked it up from one of the employees. The righteous big sister glanced over and the group of female employees all averted their eyes.

“Huh? In the first place, this part goes like this and then I zip up the back, so…huhh?”

The squirming behind the curtain suggested she was having a hard time.

Figuring the wait was going to be a long one, Frenda grabbed a nearby Halloween costume.

(Wow. In the end, how do you even wear this mummy girl costume? Oh, you wear something like beige full-body tights below. Like a figure skater. But your figure will still show through.)

“All done, Onee-chan! Trick or treat!!”

The curtain flew open.

She was dumbfounded.

Frenda Seivelun, who could shrug off seeing a dead body, was truly dumbfounded.

Someone was posing in something like a bunny girl costume except with bat wings and curly horns. She had her hands up next to her face in a grabbing gesture and a tail was swishing side to side behind her hips.

She smiled and spoke in front of petrified Frenda.

“Tah dah! This was the shop’s top recommendation. They said it was the most grown-up and cool one. In the first place, I’m dressing up as this suck-you-bus thing this year!!”

“I-in the end, who was it! What stupid employee recommended my pure sister should dress up as a succubus of all things!!?”

“Hm? Suck you☆”