"Hm?" It had been another long day of Yasuko’s usual antics. He spent the day interning with his mentor at a local idol show in the heart of Yokohama. It was like any other day. Wake up, get dressed, do his make up, get to work. It wasn’t easy being an artist of his caliber but the sight of seeing the stars of the show, shining as bright as they could for the crowd to gaze upon? It made it all worth it. So there he was at 1 in the morning. His head down and throwing his bag onto his bed, eating the leftovers in the fridge and reading a text from his boss about the job tomorrow at 10 am. Just life as normal.



A screen flashed before Yasuko’s eyes. He didn’t have any sort of projector in his room last time he checked. Was it coming from his phone? Soft eyes went to the phone to confirm that theory. The screen was a welcome message of some kind, with a choice? It gave a small message with three options for Yasuko.



"What the hell?" It was too early in the morning to be making decisions like this. He needed to rest for work tomorrow. But the mystery plaguing the phone did tempt him. His soft fingertip hovered over the options presented to him. World Beautician did have a nice ring to it. But Face Sculptor? He pressed down and hoped for some kind of explanation.



"I didn’t want that!" Yasuko whined at the strange game. "I wanted information on it you stupid..." His voice faltered while a wave of sudden exhaustion crept over him. He hadn’t taken a bite out of his microwaved dinner before he fell asleep.

-

"Gwubuwaah?" He awoke with a garbled mess, the warm comfort of a bed having suddenly been replaced by an uncomfortable restaurant booth seat. From beneath the table rose the pink shape of the aspiring beautician. His eyes scanned across the interior of the building he had found himself inside of. Half asleep and half panicking, he wiped a sliver of drool from his lower lip and let out a soft groan of confusion. "This...isn't my apartment. What the hell am I?" The boy slowly rose up from his resting place in all of his five foot five glory and began to make his way around the fallen chairs and tables. The air inside of this place was dank and the dust in the air was enough to make his nose crinkle. Across the booth from him was the entrance into the restaurant and a way out. Yasuko took a few steps forward and reached out at black painted nails reached out to grasp the door until the sound of the handle come from in front of him.

The door leading outside opened to revealing a woman standing in front of him. A blue haired woman in twin pigtails that he found fairly cute looking. Standing before Jaydie was an androgynous figure only a few sparse inches taller than her, dressed in a beige sweater, grey skirt and black leggings alongside some worn sneakers. "WAAAAAAAH!" Yasuko let out a high pitched inhale as he took a few steps back and felt his heart fall into the pit of his stomach. Out of habit, his voice heightened in pitch to make the female leaning appearance that Yasuko was well known for back in Japan. "Holy shit, you scared the fuck out of me, dude." he said while clutching his chest with a soft sigh. "Do you know where we are? I was in my bedroom before I ended up here..."

Jaydie Bluestar

Yasuko shot the woman a look as she apologized from being so ugly. Her poker face was either the best in the business or she was messing around with him. It was honestly hard to tell for him, so he could only really take the woman at face value. "Ugly? Pffft, no way!" The beautician said while walking around Jaydie. He took in every little detail about her appearance, carefully inspecting her fashion choices, make up and even hair. It was a quick walk around, taking up a total time of at least around three seconds of intense scanning and so. But after which, Yasuko would come back in front of Jaydie with a playful pout. "You would dare call yourself ugly like this? You've got some real panache in you, I can tell! Just look at that hair! I mean, yeah, if you wanna get super nitpicky, I can tell it's kind of dry and you're not using enough moisturizer but that's true for like 90% of people! Stop selling yourself short!"

Yasuko was liable to ramble on for hours about the concept of inner beauty and how Jaydie was a diamond in the rough, but held back only by the common courtesy of social etiquette. He allowed her to speak a little while longer as the joke was flying straight over his pink head, truly believing that she wasn't too fond of her appearance. His expression worsened the more in depth she became. This poor woman was in desperate need of some self-love, and boy she was lucky that out of everybody, she ran into him of all people!

Until she started to burst out laughing and apologize.

Another pout came from him as Yasuko looked relieved, then quickly shifted into being salty about her little prank as he whined. "You really had me worried! Ugh, I was going to start bringing you to every salon and good place I know in Yokohama that could heal that soul of yours." After that little snap, he shook his head and tried to be upbeat despite having a fast one pulled on him. "Jaydie, huh? I love it! Cute name!" If she was going to be silly, then he could match it wholesale. His feminine voice shifted while Yasuko took a more dramatic stance before her. "I'm the last beautician of this fractured world, sent by the powers that be to mend the tortured souls, imprisoned by the facade of doubt and fear. It's my duty to bring out the inner beauty of everybody, so that we can flourish into the best versions of ourselves!" He struck another dramatic pose, tossing some loose strands of pink hair behind his head as if they would blow in the breeze. "I'm Yasuko, the Makeover Maestro, the Ferrywoman of Foundation, the Slayer of Self-Doubt, and Your Personal One-Stop Shop to bring out that hidden beauty you've got hidden away!~"

Jaydie Bluestar

"Thank you! It's nice to see such beauty is appreciated. When we get out of here, I'd love to help you out. Maybe get some foundation, or match up some fashion or make up for you! Everybody's got something they can flaunt, so we just need to find what yours is!" For as much fun as Yasuko was having with his new friend inside of this strange new area, he really didn't have too many ideas on how to finish this tutorial. The see through people that had just walked through the doorway caused him to jump in surprise, though look at both with external confusion. He looked back at Jaydie for some type of guidance before his phone would rumble again. "Not really. I didn't even get any kind of text or anything."

Just then, a vibration in his skirt pocket! Another alert! He fetched it up right on time to come face to face with some weird kind of RPG main menu mxied with a phone home screen. It listed his stats(?) and HP, alongside his class that he had seen a while back before falling asleep. But across the whole was a tutorial mission objective that scrolled across the main part of the screen, alongside a party menu consisting of Jaydie and himself.

"Let's see...Protecting citizens of the village but we can't fight directly, huh?" Yasuko perked up at the little mission before them. "So it's like a puzzle, I guess. We have to help protect people, but we're not allowed to fight the enemies ourselves. Easier said than done. Let's see what I have that could help."

"Face Sculptor?" He said aloud, repeating the class name on his screen. "Can I steal your face and be as cute as you?" It was a joke made in jest, even following it with a wink. He read through the quick blurb before reporting back on what he had discovered. "I think I get it. Says here that I'm just a walking wardrobe and each look does cool stuff. I can even give party members some of the outfits I have and share the benefits. Let's see..." Yasuko clicked the option for Solar Flare as his body was wrapped in light for a brief moment.

His attire changed from the sweater, skirt and leggings he had on to a simplistic, lightweight white sundress that hung off of his form with two scrunchie bracelets on both wrists. It did expose his more slender and lithe body, but didn't restrict his movement in any way. A pair of matching white heels pushed his height up an inch or two. He was still looking down at Jaydie, but any boost was appreciated. Two crimson colored wings burst from his back and fluttered once to test them, while Yasuko's hair would suddenly burst into flames that styled themselves in a long, flowing style that mimicked the sense of hair. A warm, inviting light engulfed the room while Yasuko looked at himself.

"How do I look? Think I'm hot enough?~" He giggled at his own pun, then twirled around and struck a playful pose at his partner before his eyes flickered back to the two weird see through people. "So this heals people around me and makes me burn stuff. Pretty cool, huh?~"

Jaydie Bluestar

Jaydie caught onto what was going on for the tutorial a bit fast than Yasuko was currently doing. He still looked pretty lost during her description of what the point of having people they couldn't interact with was. He was too impatient and cute for simple memory or puzzle games! That's why he always demanded to play action or fashion-based ones! But after some time spent absorbing everything he had learned, it clicked inside of his pink little head. Suddenly everything made sense! He could see the lines of code inside of the world! Maybe not literally, but Yasuko finally understood!

"Yeah, now I get it!" The fashionista took a few steps closer to the weird see through guards and studied them for a second. His hand came to his chin in thought, stroking his cute little chin. "So we have to set up a defense area for people we can't see or interact with us and vice versa? It's some weird ass kind of puzzle then! Pretty simple, so we just break stuff and move it around. Should be pretty simple!"

Yasuko was proud of his judgement, then scrolling through his phone again and coming across his ability. There was only one available, but it certainly would be helpful! "Says here I can give people my Guises and grant them the powers of it. So that covers the armor part. I just have to pick and choose when. Outside of that, we might be on our own for finding armor and weapons for the guards here. Any ideas?"

Jaydie Bluestar

"Weird, but it's helping us get out of this weird ass place. Lead the way, JayJay~" Not exactly the best place to wake up, but hey, if it was good enough for the horses, then it probably was good enough to help their weird guards. Yasuko listened intent as Jaydie came up with their next course of action. He followed the woman over to where she had woken up at, a short trip in total duration. But just like she had said, armor and weapons rested before them, some in better shape than others.

Still, it beat not having anything.

"I dunno, you sure you can work with all of this stuff?" Yasuko sat down on a spare crate, watching Jaydie work her magic with a critical eye. She went through some broken equipment before forming it into an all new one. A bow and a sword created...a bow that shot swords? It was creative, if unusual. "I stand corrected. Good thinking!" He pulled up the equipment menu as instructed to come face to face with their status screens. As expected, she had her weapon in her slot, while he had nothing! It did make sense, given his class. Maybe there was a weapon around here or something?

"You've got more time if you want to try your hand on combining anything else. I'm pretty much good to go given my outfits."

Jaydie Bluestar