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Post by Scribbler on Oct 9, 2012 16:14:07 GMT -5
“Are you okay, Big Brother?” Mokuba asked when Seto fidgeted for the umpteenth time. It really was impossible to get comfortable as things were.
“I’m fine, Mokuba,” Seto said tightly. The sooner they got this out of the way, the better. As much as he wanted to track down their attacker and wreak bloody vengeance, even he admitted it would be nowhere near satisfying if he was constantly preoccupied by adjusting his underwear.
“What story did you tell this lady we’re going to see?”
Seto’s glower deepened. “You are still you. I am a distant relative who has come to visit.”
“Relative?”
A muscle in Seto’s cheek jumped. “A cousin.”
Mokuba blinked up at him and then faced front again. “Oh.”
They did, in fact, have aunts and uncles related by blood. Those people had palmed both boys off to an orphanage after dismantling the meagre inheritance their father and mother had left them. After they were adopted by Gozaburo and their pictures started to circulate in the press, their erstwhile invisible relatives had come crawling for hand-outs from their newly wealthy former charges. Seto had told them where to get off, of course, which made claiming them as parental figures now expedient but distasteful.
Seto folded his arms. He really was going to have to practise the manoeuvre with these … THINGS getting in the way so much. He cut less than an imposing figure as he tried to positions them several times in ways that didn’t make him look like a hooker touting for business.
They pulled into a secluded parking lot behind a row of small, bijou shops. When the driver halted neither Seto nor Mokuba made any move to get out. They each seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move. Seto got as far as putting on sunglasses and a hat to disguise himself so they wouldn’t have to say their cover story more than was strictly necessary, but still made no move for the door handle.
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 9, 2012 16:46:04 GMT -5
"...Come on Seto." Mokuba said as he turned the handle on his door. "We can't stay in here forever."
"That is true." Seto said with the force of how much he wished it weren't. Seto grimaced as he opened his door, got out slowly and carefully, making sure that nothing of his body's new shape caught him off guard. "Come on Mokuba, stay with your cousin Chiyoko."
It took Mokuba a moment to process that Chiyoko was to be Seto's assumed identity, at least while dealing with the tailor and presumably anyone else as needed. "Right, cousin Chiyoko." Mokuba hoped he wouldn't slip up and ruin everything.
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 9, 2012 17:04:28 GMT -5
The tailor greeted them effusively. She backed off when Seto pointed his noise in the air and all but growled at her. Rubbing her hands like a cartoon villain – seriously, Mokuba thought, you could practically see money signs in her eyes – she ushered them over to a set of plush red velvet lined chairs and ordered her assistant to bring them beverages.
“That won’t be necessary,” said Seto. “We won’t be here long.”
“Oh, of course not,” simpered the tailor. “Miss, ah, Chiyoko, was it?”
“That is correct.”
“Do you have a last name?”
“Not that you need to use.”
She flinched slightly, but covered it well. “The, ah, bill you see –”
“Charge it to this credit card.” Mokuba gestured the limo-driver-slash-bodyguard forward. The man presented the Kaiba Corp account card and the tailor’s eyes glowed with barely concealed greed. “Nothing is too good for our cousin. We haven’t seen her in, ah, years.”
“Nor are you likely to see me again for another decade,” Seto sniffed, laying into his role like a pro. “This little town is the back end of nowhere. If that damn airline hadn’t lost my bags, I wouldn’t be seen dead in a dump like this.” He sighed melodramatically and plunked his chin on his fist, waving the other hand imperiously. “Go ahead. Dazzle me if you can.”
The tailor blinked. “Ah, yes. Quite.”
….
“Could you stop wiggling your butt at me? It’s really off-putting.” Anzu tried to look anywhere else, but it was difficult in the enclosed space.
“Sorry.” Honda lifted his head off the attic floorboards. “Everyone’s gone from upstairs. Give it fifteen more minutes for Granny to get settled and we’ll be all clear. Nothing short of a nuclear blast would move her once she’s into her soaps.”
Anzu dangled her feet over the side of the old hope chest she had perched on. “I hope Jounouchi kept himself hidden all this time. I don’t think he believed me when I told him this isn’t a dream.”
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 9, 2012 17:22:18 GMT -5
Jounouchi was confounded by how irritatingly boring his dream where he was a woman was being; first he was a skinny woman no tits or ass and thus ruining the entire point of such a dream in his mind, and now dream Anzu had him hiding in the alleyway; he'd listened to her because dream Anzu was just as bossy as real Anzu and would more than likely have freaky dream Anzu powers that would let her punish him if he stepped the least bit out of line, but quite frankly he was reaching the point where he'd gladly accept dealing with that if it meant the dream would start acting like a dream instead of real life.
Which this wasn't, on account of how he was a woman now, and people did not just wake up the opposite sex in real life. Lots of other freaky, supernatural things happened in real life, but not that; after all, just because the Ancient Egyptians had magic did not mean that they were also aliens.
"Are you okay Miss?" Jounouchi looked up and saw a very tall man with long grey hair, yet he was still a young man, no older than 20 at most. He was looking at him up and down, at how poorly his clothes fit him now. "Do you need any help?"
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 9, 2012 17:29:41 GMT -5
“Nah, I’m good.” What a skeev. Jounouchi turned his back and started to amble away.
“You’re sure I can’t help you?” The guy stepped around him, blocking his path. Jounouchi took a step back, away from him, and narrowed his eyes.
“Thanks anyway, I’m okay.”
“This area isn’t safe for a pretty girl walking alone.”
Jounouchi stared at him incredulously. “Are you kidding? We’re in the suburbs.” Oh HELL no. his subconscious did NOT get to gender-bend him and then manifest a pervert. There was self-destructive shit and then there was just plain vindictive.
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 9, 2012 17:48:58 GMT -5
"You know how it is, one day a girl goes walking on her own, thinks she's secure, next day she's never heard from again." The man loomed over Jounouchi, something he could have done even if Jounouchi hadn't lost an inch or two of height from his body's inefficient redistribution. "Come on, don't be another statistic."
"You know something? You're right." The man smiled. Then he stopped smiling as the wind was knocked right out of him, courtesy of Jounouchi's fist in his gut; true, he had to put more force into it than usual and his fingers stung a little, but Jounouchi's years of street brawling and stupid fights hadn't left him or his female body. "So why don't you get the hell out of sight and out of mind before this stupid dream turns real ugly."
"The hell kind of a bitch are you?" The man was wheezing, he had not anticipated this outcome; Jounouchi thought to himself that his subconscious didn't know him very well. "Oh well, crazy bitches are still bitches." The man reached out and grabbed Jounouchi's arm and squeezed hard, started twisting it.
Jounouchi had had to deal with that sort of maneuver in a fight before, he knew what to do and was confident that he could still pull it off; unfortunately, the pain of the man's grip hammered home the reality of his situation like nothing else, and so Jounouchi screamed.
....
"Damn it!" Anzu heard the scream and was running for the door, unconcerned with whether Honda's grandma would notice or what she might think, if anything happened to Jounouchi she'd never forgive herself.
"Anzu!" She heard Honda say as she threw the door open and dashed for the alleyway; she saw a man over six feet tall and long pale hair grabbing Jounouchi's arm, and it was clear that the panic in Jounouchi's eyes kept him from being able to focus and get the thug off him.
So Anzu came in low and kicked the man in the shin as hard as he could, dropping him to the ground and forcing him to release Jounouchi. "Jounouchi!" She joined his side, took hold of his shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"Screw this!" The man yelled out. "No bitch is worth this hassle." He began to limp away.
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 9, 2012 19:51:02 GMT -5
“Oh no you don’t!” Jounouchi broke free from Anzu’s grip and cannoned into him from behind. He caught the guy in a flying tackle that would ordinarily have sent him flying. Jounouchi’s reduced upper body strength meant it only brought him to his knees.
“The hell?” He twisted, trying to brush Jounouchi off. “Get away!”
“You don’t get to pull that crap and then just walk away!”
“Assault!” The guy cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered. “I’m being assaulted here! Help!”
“You?” Jounouchi spluttered.
“Hey, all I did was hold your arm, and then you and your friend went all crazy psycho bitch on me. I was just being friendly. I should press charges! I think I broke my knee.”
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 9, 2012 21:06:05 GMT -5
"I'd think twice about that." Anzu said, glaring with the kind of fury and intensity normally seen when someone was bullying Yuugi in her presence. "We're right next to my friend's house and his dad is a cop, so if you think he's going to take the word of some long-haired creep over that of a respected friend of his son, you must have a damn good lawyer."
"Not to mention we've got connections with Kaiba, as in Seto Kaiba of the Kaiba corporation, so that lawyer of yours better be damn good."
"All right, fine, I won't press charges!" The man clearly felt like his whole world had been turned upside-down; welcome to the club, Jounouchi thought darkly to himself as he continued to refuse to let go. "Just let go already you psycho!"
"Come on Jounouchi, let him go." Anzu put her hand on his shoulder. "We can't afford a crowd right now." After a second he complied. The man ambled away, eyes darting about until he got around the corner. "You holding up Jounouchi?"
"...You're really asking me that Anzu?" Jounouchi's eyes kept moving in place, unable to sit still. "It's not even lunch and I was just targeted by some random creep out of nowhere, and also, I'm a woman!"
"Yep, awesome being the fairer sex isn't it?" Anzu said, trying and failing to take off the edge. "Look, like I told you, the same thing happened to Honda and Yuugi and his grandpa, so let's get you inside and we can figure out what the heck we're going to do about this." Yeah, there was no way she was leaving Jounouchi outside after what had just happened; if Honda's grandma had questions, she would deal with them as they came.
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 10, 2012 7:29:14 GMT -5
Jounouchi, however, seemed reluctant to move. He looked at his hands, uncurling thinner fingers than usual and staring at them like they had betrayed him. “That was so … not awesome,” he said in bemusement.
“Those kinds of things usually aren’t,” Anzu said irritably.
“I mean … I just …” He shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense. I could’ve pounded that guy into the ground. I SHOULD’VE pounded him. I should’ve been able to make paste out of him, but I couldn’t.” He curled his hands into fists, nails digging into his palms to leave half-moons when he stretched them out again. “I was … scared. Just for a second, and you totally can’t tell anyone, but … yeah. For a second, I was scared of that guy. Of what he was gonna … do to me.”
Slapped in the face by compassion, Anzu put her hand on his shoulder. “That’s okay, you know. It’s okay to be scared.”
Jounouchi shrugged her off. “Not for me.” He scowled at the asphalt. “Shit, this is one of those ‘learning curve’ dreams isn’t it? I’m supposed to wake up with a new life lesson to make me act less shitty to you just because you’re a girl.”
Anzu groaned out loud.
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 10, 2012 13:19:37 GMT -5
"Sorry in advance for this Jounouchi." Anzu slapped him across the face before he could respond.
"What the hell, Anzu?" Jounouchi gingerly rubbed his cheek.
"This is not a dream Jounouchi, this isn't about you learning some life lesson that quite frankly you should have figured out a long time ago, and so far it's targeted all the other guys we know, so you get your skinny little butt inside Honda's house and keep quiet if his Grandma starts asking us any questions, you got it?"
"Yes Mam!" Jounouchi stood at attention and walked just behind Anzu as they made their way back into Honda's house.
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 11, 2012 9:41:09 GMT -5
‘Chiyoko’ had come away from the tailor with a fitted black pantsuit and a plain white blouse that disguised most of her ‘assets’.
“Assets,” Seto had repeated, deadpan, when the woman used the word. He could see nothing advantageous about them. Maybe actual women had perfected means of using them as weapons, persuasive devices and ersatz airbags in the event of a car accident, but as far as he was concerned they were nothing but a hindrance.
“Well,” the tailor had said, preening a little. “We more, ah, abundant damsels have our own needs and requirements, don’t we?”
He wasn’t sure what to make of that comment, so he just aimed for as masculine a dress code as he could, paid and made for the exit. He refused the pair of heeled ankle boots she suggested to ‘really set off’ the suit and opted instead for flat black utilitarian shoes that at least allowed him to walk without swinging his hips too much. Long strides robbed his gait of yet more femininity, although Mokuba did have to hurry to keep up.
“You don’t need to wear sunglasses, it’s not that bright out,” the tailor’s assistant said.
“Yes,” Seto replied archly, jamming them over his eyes. “I do.”
“You were really unfriendly in there,” said Mokuba as they made their way back to the car.
“What reason did I have to be friendly?”
Instead of replying to what was clearly a rhetorical question, Mokuba asked: “What’s our next move?”
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 11, 2012 12:43:36 GMT -5
Seto Kaiba paused when they reached the car. "Chiyoko?" Mokuba repeated himself. "What's our next move?"
Seto got into the car, Mokuba did the same. "The fact of the matter is that what happened to us can only be the product of magic." Mokuba grimaced; his brother hated to acknowledge magic and the supernatural, the role that it had played in their lives through Yuugi. "I will contact Isis Ishtar."
"You really think she'll know what's going on?"
"If she doesn't, there's no one else who would."
....
"Really Grandpa?" Yuugi watched his grandfather nod, the book in his hand open to the relevant passage. "Then we need to contact everyone right away and let them know what you found out."
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 11, 2012 21:02:10 GMT -5
Sugoroku sucked on his lower lip; something he had always done, but which now seemed odd without his facial hair. “We only really know generalisations, Yuugi,” he warned.
Yuugi gestured at himself. “This is a little more than a generalisation, Grandpa.”
“Well, yes, but …” Sugoroku trailed off. “Yuugi, I think we can both agree that this is the work of magic. The problem is that whoever is responsible has a LOT of pretty powerful magic if they’ve been able to do this to not only you and me, but your friends too. To be truthful, we don’t know how far this problem extends.”
“What do you mean?”
“We could turn on the TV to find the male newscasters have all become women as well.”
Yuugi eyed the remote. “I guess… but doesn’t it seem more likely it’s related to just us, since the Millennium Puzzle is gone?” His stomach cramped again at the thought that the spirit had vanished to places unknown. Was he okay? Would whoever had taken him hurt him? Would –
“Yuugi.” Sugoroku derailed his worrisome thoughts before they could careen out of control. “I’m not going to pretend I or these books have all the answers.” To emphasise, he clapped the tome shut. The pages sent up a flurry of dust that made him cough delicately into his fist. “All it contains is information on Hathor and rumours of a cult that were as reliable as those about the Illuminati – and remember that this was published forty years ago, so who knows whether there are even rumours about it now?”
Yuugi frowned. “We could … check online?”
“I don’t think the Cult of Hathor is going to have a Facebook page.”
“But –”
“Or a Twitter.”
Yuugi’s shoulders slumped. “It might be worth a try.”
His total dejection made Sugoroku sigh. “Go and boot up the computer, then call your friends. Maybe they’ll have some ideas of websites we can check.”
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Post by cypsiman2 on Oct 11, 2012 22:09:14 GMT -5
"Okay then." Anzu said as she closed the door behind her. "Honda, you're absolutely sure your grandma won't budge?"
"It would be even more unlikely than what's happened to me and Jounouchi." Honda crossed his arms awkwardly, still not yet adjusted to the changes in his dimensions. Then he caught Jounouchi glaring directly at his chest. "Stop that dude, it's really goddamn creepy."
"You've got bigger tits than me." Anzu groaned in disbelief; could Jounouchi's fixation on breasts really be that strong?
"I'm just glad Yuugi wasn't here to hear that." Anzu muttered to herself.
....
As Yuugi waited for the computer to finish booting up, as the shock of what had happened had a chance to give way and the new reality settled in, he found himself tempted; he'd seen pictures and blurred out videos, but now he could see an actual naked female body up close and personal. It was his own, yes, and that was disconcerting, yes, but it still counted and he was still himself.
Yuugi looked back over his shoulder, double-checking that his grandpa wasn't there, that the door was closed. "One quick look."
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Post by Scribbler on Oct 12, 2012 7:47:16 GMT -5
“Yuugi would never be as perverted as you, Jounouchi,” Anzu thrummed, folding her arms with such ease that Honda immediately took mental notes. “He has standards.”
….
Sugoroku stared at the book spread across his arms, hoping willpower alone would make the answer appear on its pages. It didn’t, of course. It did, however, throw out some worrisome ideas that made him eager to find out if the Cult of Hathor’s Vengeance did indeed still exist. Hathor of ancient Egypt was notably benign, embodying principles of joy, feminine love and motherhood. She was depicted as a goddess who loved music, creativity, exploring foreign lands spent her time helping women in childbirth and welcoming the dead into the next life. Nobody knew her true origins, since worship of her predated anything archaeologists had managed to dig up, but as far as the Egyptian pantheon went she was one of the most popular and least petty.
Some archeologists, however, had postulated that there had been a splinter group of much ore warlike worshippers, the evidence of which they said could be found in former Canaan of the 11th Century BC. At the time Canaan was ruled by Egypt and a major temple to Hathor was constructed by Seti II at the copper mines at Timna. Though decried by many, back when Sugoroku’s book was published a handful of scholars put forward evidence of what they claimed was a group of women whose tiny country had been conquered by the Egyptians and who swore revenge on the much more powerful nation. Since the husbands of this group had all been killed in battle, they adopted female-oriented Hathor as their patron, abstained from men and dedicated themselves to guerrilla tactics against their enemies. They were named Cult of Hathor’s Vengeance posthumously, but their existence was never confirmed. Evidence that they had once been sheltered by priestesses at the Tinma Temple was devalued by other scholars decades ago, but given their current circumstances and the presence of Hathor’s statue in place of the Millennium Puzzle, Sugoroku was more inclined to their the idea credence.
Sugoroku headed to the tiny study where he kept his prehistoric PC.
….
“You’re telling me YUUGI wouldn’t care about BOOBS?” Jounouchi said incredulously, thinking about the ‘special’ video he had lent him that time. Yuugi had been more embarrassed than titillated, but the fact remained that he was watched it.
“Yes,” said Anzu.
“Bullshit.”
….
Sugoroku pushed open the door without knocking, still staring at his book. He raised his head as he entered.
“Ahh! Grandpa!”
And stumbled backwards so fast he fell over and crashed to the floor, the heavy book landing on his head.
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