Arisa Izayoi Arc

*For the character, see Arisa Izayoi.*

The **Arisa Izayoi Arc** is the seventh story arc in *My Dress-Up Darling*.

After Marin decides what her new cosplay will be, Wakana has trouble getting the new outfit ready. Marin wears the costume to a Halloween Party. In this party, Wakana and Marin are asked about their relationship status. Wakana vehemently denies this, which makes Marin feel bad. Wearing the costume in the cold weather makes Marin catch a cold and miss class. Wakana nurses her back to health. Unfortunately, he catches a cold himself.

## Summary

Wakana was playing *Tsukiyono Company*, a game recommended to him by Marin. Marin told him that she was interested in cosplaying Arisa Izayoi, one of the lead characters in the game. She fell in love with the character's bunny outfit, and Wakana agreed that the popular bunny-girl outfits had a timeless appeal, just like his hina dolls. After discussing their new project, Nowa found them as she had been trying to contact Marin about the Halloween party they were going to attend. While the two were bickering, Wakana was planning out the materials he would be needing to make the costume.

A few days later, Wakana asked Marin to come over to his house, which hyped her up, thinking that he was asking her out on a date. Upon arriving to Wakana's house, it turned out that he just wanted to show her an issue he was having in making her costume. The strapless body suit kept on flopping down and he was having trouble figuring out a solution by himself. They decided to buy some clear straps to keep the suit up.

At the fabric store, they ran into the store clerk, Usami. He saw Wakana's predicament with the bunny costume and suggested that he insert bones into the body like what you'd see in corsets. Wakana was stunned at how simple the solution was, especially when he had already made a corset before for Black Lobelia. Usami told him that once you form assumptions, they can act as blinders which may stop you from noticing things you might have noticed before. Wakana realized that he had become arrogant in his costume-making and started to brood. Usami assured him that the mistakes he made were part of the fun in creating the costumes.

Wakana was able to finish the costume and asked Marin try it out. Unfortunately, the body suit was high cut and Marin's underwear stuck out, which caused Wakana to become flustered. Sometime later, they found a studio where they would be doing the photoshoot for the Arisa cosplay. Mindful that Wakana would be uncomfortable with the amount of skin she would be showing, Marin revealed that she was wearing stick-on underwear and flesh-toned pantyhose. That way, she didn't really show some skin, even though it seemed like she was showing some skin. However, for Wakana, skin was skin, so he was sweating profusely and was unable to concentrate while he was taking Marin's pictures.

After the shoot, Marin decided that she wanted to wear her bunny costume to the Halloween party she was planning with Nowa. She invited Wakana to come along and to do it in cosplay. Wakana agreed to attend, thinking that he would get to see all sorts of different cosplays. However, when he was at the party, he felt that it was not okay for someone like him to be part of their celebration. Nevertheless, Rune and Daia started to compliment the costumes and the makeup he did for Marin. Upon hearing this, Kensei questioned why Wakana was doing Marin's makeup when he was a guy. Wakana remembered his childhood friend, Nobara's reaction to finding out that he liked hina dolls, and his heart immediately started racing, thinking that he would be judged. However, Shiki, pointed out that guys nowadays did makeup, too, and it wasn't out of the ordinary anymore. Marin then shared to everyone that Wakana's family ran a hina doll shop. Kensei started to go on about how awesome the people who made hina dolls were. This shocked Wakana that they were not disgusted by his passion. He realized that only Nobara had called him "gross" for liking hina dolls, and that he should not have assumed that everyone else thought the same way. He recalled Usami's words about forming assumptions that inevitably act as blinders.

As Wakana was swimming in his thoughts, out of nowhere, Nowa asked Wakana and Marin if they were going out. Wakana vehemently denied that they were going out and accidentally spit out his drink. He went to the bathroom to clean up and Marin went with him and waited outside the bathroom. She was saddened by Wakana's forceful denial and thought that maybe Wakana just didn't like her at all. Deep in her thoughts, two men approached her and asked if they could talk. On his way out of the bathroom, Wakana saw one of the men giving Marin an earful with Marin's head bowed down. He rushed to grab the man's hand and volunteered to fill in for her and asking that he leave her alone, thinking that the man was trying to pick her up. Fortunately, the two men were actually friends of Marin as they were stylists in her go-to salon, and they were lecturing Marin for damaging her hair and going out scantily clad in the cold weather.

Embarrassed by his assumption, Wakana apologized to Marin, thinking that he was being rude to her friends. However, Marin found him to be cute and kissed him on his bunny costume's cheek. Wakana heard the smooch sound of the kiss, but incorrectly thought that Marin was clicking her tongue at him because she was angry. He apologized once again for making her mad, but she insisted that she wasn't. During their back and forth, Marin sneezed and seemed to have caught a cold.

The following day, Marin called in sick from school. Worried, Wakana excused himself from class to take care of Marin. He changed her clothes, cooked for her, gave her medicine, and fed her while she was recovering. That afternoon, after resting, Marin felt better, and her fever went down. As Wakana was leaving, Marin's friends arrived at her home to check up on her. Afraid that Marin's friends might think that they were dating, Wakana decided to hide in Marin's balcony, causing him to catch a cold, himself.

After the two recovered from their colds, Wakana visited Marin during one of her photoshoots for her modelling job. After the shoot, Marin's editor noted how more dressed up than usual Marin was. Marin shared that she and Wakana were going to celebrate someone's birthday later which was why she was all dressed up. Rana assumed that the two were dating, even though Wakana had denied this earlier. She supposed that Wakana was just being shy about their relationship. Later, it was revealed that Wakana and Marin were actually celebrating Shizuku Kuroe's birthday, complete with cake and confetti.

## Story Impact

* Kensei Morita, Shiki Kashigawi, Manabu, and Hikaru are introduced.
* Wakana hangs out with Marin's friends for the first time. He also meets Manabu and Hikaru for the first time.

## Characters Introduced

Kensei Morita
Shiki Kashiwagi
Manabu
Hikaru
Hanaoka
Unnamed Editor

## References

1. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 6 Chapter 44.
2. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 6 Chapter 45.
3. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 6 Chapter 46.
4. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 6 Chapter 47.
5. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 7 Chapter 48.
6. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 7 Chapter 49.
7. ↑ *My Dress-Up Darling* Manga — Vol. 7 Chapter 50.