Takashi looks in a shop window five days later. He, Rin, and I have all completed at least three quests each, and now have plenty of money. And we figured that if we were going to be on the front lines, we might as well look like it, too. Takashi's got his eye on an expertly crafted suit of upper body armor. It looks like it's fairly light, and it seems pretty protective.

"I'm going to go in and check the stats," he finally decides, strutting into the shop. The bell rings as I dash after him, holding Rin piggyback style.

The shop owner is a scrawny girl who looks a little bit older than I am, with short cobalt blue hair and a hammer in her hand. "Welcome to Cinda's Battle Outfitters!" she says cheerily. "I'm Cinda. How may I help you?"

"Yeah," Takashi says. "I was wondering if you could tell me the stats on that armor you have in the window."

Cinda looks over at it. "Why don't you try it yourself?" She goes over to the mannequin and pulls off the armor with ease. It must be pretty light; I'm beginning to doubt its endurance. She waves Takashi over to a dressing room to try it on. Rin and I realize it'll take him a few minutes, so we go shopping for ourselves in the meantime. We get a red off-the-shoulder dress and white chest armor for Rin, and I outfit myself with a brown coat with no sleeves. Cinda is handing me a pair of brown, shoulder-length gloves when Takashi rushes out of the dressing room.

"How do you like it?" Cinda asks.

"Shut up and take my money!" Takashi yells, frantically bringing up the trade screens on his menu. Cinda laughs and accepts the trade. Takashi picks up a red cape and we're out the door.

A/N: Hi, guys! So this chapter is dedicated to @lucindalaflaga because I'm making a cameo appearance as a character in her book Defying Equilibrium! I figured it was only natural to put a character with her name into Reaching 100, so here she is! Love ya! Also, my profile picture is Haruko's outfit. No, I don't watch/read/play Tales of the Abyss