Chapter 22: Shopping and Fear

"Ne ne, where are we going now Shido?" A black haired girl asked as she dragged another black haired boy out of the Pro Hero Association building. She had an excited expression on her face, clearly showing her happiness.

"I don't know, you were the one who dragged me out, why don't you decide?" The black haired boy, Shido replied in a bored expression. All he wanted to do today was take a break from his concert and sleep all day long, but she had to drag him outside today.

Eri and Shido were currently in a disguise. Shido for obvious purposes, he was slightly too charming for his age, and would easily attract attention from the crowd. For Eri, Shido didn't know who she had escaped from, and he was taking no chances at the gang members finding where their 'test subject' went, thus the disguise.

"Boo, you're no fun, I was trying to get you out of the house so that you don't become a useless person." She explained her actions to Shido, who was dumbfounded by her claim.

"Wait a minute, who said I was a useless person? I'm earning my own money you know?" Shido retorted. Eri just giggled and hopped away. She of course knew who Shido was after he explained to her that he was Phantom.

Despite being an experimental subject, she still had access to basic technology, and through the television, her most frequently accessed channel was the channel which had Shido's performance in it. Shido didn't know, but a lot of his songs had helped others, and one of them was Eri. She was very tempted to just use her quirk on herself, so that she didn't need to suffer anymore. However, due to Shido's songs, she managed to get back her 'hope', and decided to endure the torture, and finally meeting Shido himself. If she had removed her own quirk, she would have been killed for being useless. Of course, she never told him anything about being his fan, and planned on taking the secret to her grave.

Shido just shook his head at her antics, and followed her. They were walking around the city randomly, and went to a shopping mall at noon.

Shido also learnt something today, that no matter the age, females are the best at shopping. They had wandered around for about an hour before eating lunch, and afterwards, they continued shopping again. However this time, they took almost five hours to finish shopping.

Over there, they went shopping for Eri's daily necessities, including toothbrushes, clothes and underwear. And truth be told, Shido didn't like it at all. Imagine going with a seven year girl to an underwear shop and buying underwear. The embarrassment he felt when he felt the stares at him when he was accompanying Eri into the underwear shop. The worst thing about today was that he had to pay using his money.

He was still a child at heart after all, not knowing about the fact that usually gentlemen pay for the ladies on a date. However, as they were children, Shido was lamenting about gender equality, and kept muttering things such as 'I'm going to make her pay for me next time' and 'Why am I using my money for this? I'm going to ask Uncle Toshinori to reimburse me later on' as he paid at the cashier.

The cashier looked at him with a strange gaze, but he ignored it. He was after all, used to stares people give him when he was performing. Even if the stares were different, they were both stares, and it was no different to him.

"So where are we going now?" Shido asked tiredly as he put all the shopping bags in his shadow space.

Eri thought for a while, before making a decision. "Let's eat ice-cream!"

Shido agreed as well since he was very tired and hungry after walking the entire day. Going to a nearby ice-cream parlour, they ordered their respective ice-creams, and ate them on the way home.

However, as they were walking down the street, Eri suddenly came closer to Shido and hugged his arm, not daring to look forward. Shido frowned at this sight, and looked towards where she was looking at. He saw a pale man of narrow build with short, shaggy auburn hair, parted to the left. What made him stand out of the crowd though, was that he had his mouth covered by a plague doctor mask, making him seem conspicuous. He was currently leaning against a car, as if waiting for something or someone.

As though he felt someone looking at him, the auburn haired man looked towards Shido's direction, and his gaze landed on Eri for a second before turning his head away again. Not long after, a package was delivered to him, and he left in his car immediately afterwards.

Sensing that the man was gone, Eri peeked her head out, looking very afraid. Her body was trembling slightly, and tears were pooled in her eyes, threatening to fall out.

Shido immediately hugged and comforted her,"There, there, I told you before right? I will protect you no matter what happens alright? With me here, no one can dream to even touch you, much less harm you, so don't worry." He lightly caressed her back as he whispered into her ears.

Eri didn't reply, and only hugged him more tightly. But after a few moments of silence, Eri felt awkward again and removed herself from Shido's embrace. Although she felt a sense of loss when she left Shido's body warmth, she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"I'm fine now, thanks Shido!" Eri wiped her tears away as she thanked him again.

"No problem, let's go back home now, all right?" Shido held out his hand as he smiled brightly.

'Home huh?' Eri felt warm at the word 'home'.

"Un! Let's go back home." She said while holding his outstretched hand,"Thanks for accompanying me today Shido!"

"Where did that come from?" Shido was confused at the sudden change of topic.

"Nothing." Eri quickly denied as she returned back to her usual cheerful state, dragging Shido along with her back home.

Shido just smiled at her antics as they walked back home together.

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