The building of the convention was divided in two floors: the upper floor being a mostly empty half-floor where some groups of people were resting here and there; and the lower floor, where the convention proper took place. It was absolutely full, with rivers of people going everywhere around the stands. From the stairs of the entrance, one could already see some food stands, a plushie store and a huge manga store, and there was surely much more to see further in. Alex dreaded to think how the bathroom situation might look like…

As was usual for them, the first thing they did was to take a look around, checking out the different stores. They noted a big food stand that was serving actual bowls of ramen, which they decided it would be nice to have for lunch afterwards. They had agreed to an early lunch to avoid a huge line at regular lunch time, but it was still way too early.

They found some stands selling plushies, where Aiden bought one of the fairy form of his character, something he couldn’t miss as he said. Alex decided to buy a pair of plushies of Sophie’s favorite Pokemon, Mew, and gifted one to Sophie as a memento of the day, just like she did back on their first time outside in female form. Sophie was very grateful and hugged Alex tightly in response, making Alex blush slightly, specially now that some people were looking at them hug. They decided to ignore them and just continue walking after they all put their respective new plush inside their backpacks.

After buying some merch, including a super cute pastel pink Pokemon hoodie that Alex had been looking online for some time, they found themselves in front of a raffle stand. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but each ticket corresponded to a price, from a key chain to really expensive collectors anime figures. They each decided to buy two, letting Sophie choose the six tickets (not that it mattered), and opened them at the very same time. While Alex and Sophie only got key chains (which they exchanged since they each liked the series of the other), Aiden was really lucky, and got one of the grand prices. He took a picture with the person in charge of the raffle and the figure before putting it into the backpack, to remember the day.

During all this time, they had to stop a few times to allow people to take pictures with Aiden and his very thorough cosplay. Even though Alex and Sophie knew that their characters, Gale and Sofia, were pretty much unknown, they still felt a bit awkward standing around while people took so many pictures with Aiden. Not that they would say anything, because of course he deserved the credit, and they were happy for him. The three of them had already taken a picture together some time ago, which Sophie actually set as the profile picture of the chat group they had together.

After having a surprisingly delicious lunch, they decided it was time to take some pictures of their own, trying to find the best cosplays in the convention. Walking around less crowded areas, away form the stalls, one could see more numerous groups of people trying to camp and eat their home-made sandwiches, as well as some people with impressing but less maneuverable cosplays that could not comfortably fit inside the stall zone of the convention proper. Among them, they found a costume that they all found hilarious: a 2m tall inflatable Groudon. Aiden promised to frame the picture of the three of them with the Pokemon, specially since it tried and failed to look menacing which made it even more hilarious.

After taking some more pictures, including a surprisingly accurate Zeraora and a full team of people cosplaying the main characters of an educative human body anime (they even had a primary school child for one of them, she looked so cute to Alex and Sophie that they took a picture only with her), they ran into a group of people in a green school uniform cosplaying a famous comedy anime. The pink haired one in green glasses, seemingly the leader of the group, talked to them:

“Excuse me”, he said a bit uncomfortable, “Can we take a picture together?”

“Sure”, Aiden answered. “All of us?” he said pointing at Alex and Sophie, who were already stepping aside going by the experience of the day.

“Yes! If that’s possible...”, he replied enthusiastically.

Alex and Sophie got closer again, smiling from having someone actually wanting to take a picture with them. The group split into two halves, letting Alex, Sophie and Aiden stay in between them for the picture. They asked someone else in the convention to take it and each one made different poses for a few shots. After reviewing the pictures, Aiden gave them his Discord so they could send them to him, and he to Alex and Sophie afterwards too.

Before they left, Alex wanted to know something. “Hey, so, why did you want us too in the picture? Did any of you recognize the characters?”

“Erm, uh… no”, the leader said. “It’s just that, you know, we saw a group of pretty girls in cosplay and we wanted to get a picture. Getting the contact info of one of them was just a very nice bonus!”, he finished with a wink.

Alex just stood there dumbfounded (and a bit annoyed at herself for blushing at the guy calling her pretty), while Sophie called them jerks and Aiden laughed at how their faces changed as he informed them that he was in fact a boy. They left in kind of a hurry, but this made Alex think about how the behavior of some people here was making her uncomfortable, catching someone staring at her from time to time. It sure was different now that she was in her female form...

The afternoon continued with extra activities like a sword fighting competition they got to watch, impressive despite most participants being amateurs. Eventually, the time for the costume contest arrived. Aiden left the girls to get to the participants place, while Sophie and Alex went to find some place in the audience and cheer for Aiden. It looked like there were quite a few participants, around 30, so they would be doing preliminary rounds before the final decision.

Aiden’s preliminary was the first one, and only two out of them would be selected. They were asked to pose however they saw fit for the contest, and Aiden decided to take out his fairy form plush to put it on top of his head before going “ehe~”. Alex and Sophie clapped at their friend, who looked quite cute in this pose, to Alex at least. That seemed to convince the judges, as he was able to pass this first round.

The rest of the preliminaries went on, with some impressive cosplays that both Alex and Sophie were sure were also strong competitors for the win. IN the end, 8 participants remained. In this final round, a vote from the public was also going to be considered, along with the judges, as each contestant performed on their own. Aiden, in his turn, decided to sing a short poem-song staying in character, giving him quite a lot of votes.

Finally, it was time for the final decision. The judges started announcing third place, which went to Aiden. Alex and Sophie clapped and cheered enthusiastically as he was given a commemorative medal and the third price, a modest amount of money. Second place went to someone they had already taken a picture of, Zeraora cosplay. And finally, the first prize went to a woman in a thoroughly detailed cosplay of a player character of a videogame.

She was wearing a mesh bodysuit under it, clearly visible from different parts of the armor. She had a black helmet with red accents that only covered her forehead and sides of her head, and her long black hair came out of it in a ponytail. She was wearing a armor top with long sleeves that only covered her chest, leaving her full stomach open, and pants that covered her legs completely, except for some reason her inner thighs, that ended in boots (all of this in the same color scheme as her helmet). The most striking item was the long katana she was carrying in her back, black and scaly with spikes in the round part of the handle.

After the ceremony, Aiden got to the winner to congratulate her on her costume, and asked for a picture with his friends. He waved them closer, and together they took what was going to be their favorite picture, with all of them posing as best as they could. Aiden repeated the one from the contest, while Alex and Sophie unsheathed their weapons. The woman took out her long sword and pointed it at the camera, taking a stance from one of the moves from the game.

After the picture, she and Aiden decided to exchange contact info, and finally the three decided to return home. They were all exhausted, but Alex was so happy with the fun she had today. She decided to lend Sophie her costume, back into a pile after taking it off, for safekeeping when she dropped her off at her home, and went to hers feeling satisfied. She was going to treasure all the memories for sure.