The Academy, Part 7

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The Academy

Part 7: A Partner

"Well. I've still got work to do," Cassie announced outside the library's front door. Pointing to the fox-girl, she said: "You go do..something else, so you won't distract me!"

"Ooh, do I have your permission to pull some pranks?"

The catgirl sighed. "Like you ever ask for that. Just, don't you go making any messes!"

"Ah, I do love a challenge," she said, grinning. Cassie just let out a "hmph" and stormed off at a brisk walk. So the Kitsune shrugged at the other two girls. "I'll see you two later~," she said teasingly before wandering off too, at a much more casual pace.

"Those two are...a little strange," Emily commented.
"Well, as long as they're having fun."

"So, um..you told me before that you didn't feel trapped here..?"
"Well, sure," Halley said, "but it's still slightly inconvenient, right? Anyhow, I've been 'this' for long enough, and liked it well enough, that I figure it's 'bout time to make it official."

"There are other ways of being healthy and young again, these days," she pointed out.

"Sure, but—I already abandoned my 'old self' completely. So, 's far as I'm concerned, this method don't cost me a thing."

"I see..."

"Hey, you wanta get dinner?" Halley asked. It was arguably a little early for that, but the two of them had done a lot of walking around since lunch. Anyway, it seemed like Emily's present body had perhaps a higher metabolism than the one she was more used to.
"Sure," she nodded.

In the cafeteria, the wolf-girl came and sat on the opposite side of the booth with her food, then immediately started another conversation. "So—what can you tell me about your research, huh?"
"Um..."

Emily was somewhat used to people having at least some curiosity about her work. However, since around midway through grad school, she'd found that just giving a vague explanation of the basics behind the topic that her research was generally in was enough for most people's eyes to glaze over, after which she or someone else would quickly change the subject. The exception to this, of course, was other mathematicians, who could usually follow along at least partway into the particulars of her research.

When she started to do the former, Halley nodded like she understood perfectly well—like a student currently taking a class on the topic might. She asked a couple of the kind of clarifying questions that someone just pretending to understand wouldn't have been able to come up with. Before long, the redhead felt like she was talking not just to one of her colleagues, but to someone whose work was in the same area; the wolf-girl knew enough, and had enough interest, that she found herself wishing a whiteboard was around to properly write out the details.

Indeed, while Halley was eventually confused on a few important points, it was the kind of confusion that someone who mostly understood, and genuinely wanted to understand the rest, might have. "This is, really hard to explain without drawing some diagrams," she said eventually. "I feel like I'm telling someone the individual steps to build a house without showing them the blueprints."

"Well, then—if you're done eating, maybe we should pay a visit to the study building?" Halley suggested. "I'm sure there's a room or two free."
"Alright..."

The study building had an entire floor full of rooms specifically for people to get together and talk about whatever academic subject pleased them. The particular room the two of them found had a giant whiteboard, and a couple of the markers even worked. So she worked Halley through the part she'd been stuck on before, and continued on to explaining the open questions in her field—and the specific point her own research was currently at. All the while, Halley happily followed along, the motion of her ears and tail proving a continual distraction. Then she especially surprised Emily when, as they arrived at the end of an hour-plus-long explanation, she went to the board herself and started suggesting solutions to the unsolved problems. They weren't all good solutions, and many were things Emily and her collaborators had already tried, but they were the kinds of things only someone with a fairly deep understanding of the material could ever hope come up with.

They wound up talking about math for at least another two hours. No miraculous new solutions to Emily's mathematical problems appeared, but just being able to talk to someone else at such depth was unbelievable. It was especially surreal that, every once in a while, she would get caught up in the conversation enough to forget their situation entirely, and then the motion of Halley's tail or of one of her ears would suddenly bring her back to the reality of both of them being girls in school uniforms—one of which had fur! This invariably caused her to trail off mid-sentence, and she had to catch herself and think back through the past few seconds of conversation to remember what she was saying.

Eventually, the wolf-girl yawned. "Hwaa~aah..." It was an adorable sound she made, not to mention the expression—including bringing her hand up in front of her mouth and briefly closing her eyes. "Aah, sorry," she said afterward, "I was up pretty early this morning for a class, heehee~. Aaannd, it's getting a little late, huh?"
"It is..?" There weren't any clocks in the room, but Emily got out her phone and discovered that it was, indeed, quite late at this point. "You're right...and, there's a talk I wanted to attend fairly early into tomorrow morning."
"Guess we should-oughta' get going, then~," Halley suggested, gesturing toward the door. "We were kinda starting to talk in circles there anyway."
"Um, r-right.."

Still not fully acclimated to navigating The Academy's campus grounds, especially now that it was dark out, Emily followed the wolf-girl back to the dorm. Her eyes were again drawn to the constant motion of the short, dark-haired girl's huge fluffy tail in front of her, and in the slightly tired mental state brought on by thinking deeply about mathematics for so long, it had an almost hypnotic effect on her mind, making it hard to focus on much else until they got inside.

In the dorm, the wolf-girl grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom to change. Emily sifted through her suitcase once again, trying to find something suitable for sleeping in. "Uh, Halley.."

"Uh-huh?"
"I guess I've been staring at your uh..ears, or tail, a lot today. Especially tonight." She discovered a light-red, almost-pink nightgown, and decided that this was probably good enough.
"Oh, have you? I hadn't noticed~," Halley said in a teasing tone of voice that communicated rather the opposite. "C'mon, you know how I feel!" she said. "I'm proud of my fuzzy bits, so staring at 'em is a compliment 's far as I'm concerned!"

Tossing the bathroom door open, Halley emerged in a tank top, some boyshorts, and evidently nothing else. "Your turn~!" she said, moving out of the way and gesturing at the open doorway with a bright grin.

"Uh, thanks..."

While she got out of the school uniform (and felt mildly disturbed once again to find her hands seemingly knew what to do as though she'd done it hundreds of times before), she continued. "It's just..hard for me to think of staring at whatever makes someone else...unusual as anything other than offensive, I guess."

"Well, there's an awful lot more 'unusual' folk around these days than there used to be," Halley said. "Or at least, than most folks used to know about! I say if we all waste our time worrying about what's 'offensive', we won't get any real communication done!"

It was also a little strange to feel so...unimpressed by the sight of a mostly-naked redheaded girl in the mirror. It was only herself, of course, and even if it wasn't she felt so much like a girl at the moment that it would otherwise just be 'some other girl'...but, at the same time, she had felt a blush rise to her cheeks on seeing Halley in her present state of near-undress. Emily just shrugged it off and put on the nightgown.

"Aaah, that looks great on you!" the wolf-girl gushed as she came out of the bathroom. She'd seemingly been sitting on the edge of her bed waiting for the redhead to come out.

"Thanks, I think..?" She tugged at some of the cloth, unsure if this was going to work. Sleeping in something so loose wasn't something she was accustomed to.

"Say—if you think my ears look good, you should see how they feel," the wolf-girl suggested, hopping down onto her feet and approaching.
"You..w-wouldn't mind?" Emily had what felt like a realization that some deep, instinctive part of her had been wanting to touch those ears the entire time, ever since she'd first started staring at them. That couldn't really be the case—she hadn't even considered the idea of touching them before, after all—but the false realization came at least with an urge to do it regardless.

"Not a bit. Here~!" Coming just inside the taller girl's personal space, she leaned in slightly as if to present them to her.

Given such an invitation, Emily felt obliged by politeness (if not everything else) to at least try. She carefully reached a hand across and brushed her fingers through the thick black, fluffy fur. It really was as soft as it looked, not to mention unexpectedly warm. Rationally, there was no reason to expect it to be anything but warm, but her prior experience with things of such texture was mostly stuffed animals, so...

While her mind went on that track, Emily's other hand reached across and rubbed the other ear, too. The train of thought was interrupted by a soft, high "Aah~" sound from the owner of those ears, followed by an extremely canine-sounding "Rrrfh~!" that had her reflexively pick her hands up away from the other (mostly) human being's head.

Halley's eyes had closed at some point during this; she now folded her ears back slightly as she opened them and stood up straight again. "Awwh, why'd you stop? I was just starting to enjoy it!" she complained.

"Uh, y-you were? I wasn't sure..what that sound meant," Emily said.
"Well—for future reference, those were happy sounds. I'll push you off if I want you to stop!" the wolf-girl said. "You've got a really soft touch, though~. Would you mind petting them some more?"
Looking down into Halley's beautiful bright red eyes, open wide in such an expectant expression, she found it impossible to say no. "I...suppose not..."

Within another half-minute or so of gently rubbing the wolf-girl's fluffy ears, she'd drawn steadily closer to Emily, and followed this up by bringing her arms around the taller girl's waist in a hug. Furthermore, she buried her face in the redhead's chest, which her mind had no idea how to deal with! It was an adorable girl hugging her close, but also someone else's face in her boobs. On the balance, though..it felt rather nice.

She did stop after a while, however, once the sense that this was inappropriate finally overcame how cute Halley's behavior and voice were just now. The wolf-girl let go and hopped a tiny step backwards, enough to tilt her head up and show Emily a deeply-blushing face. "Heheh, I guess I've pretty well tipped my hand at this point," she said.

"Um..."
"Well, I just couldn't help myself! I've kinda wanted to do that ever since I first saw you! I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable, though," the wolf-girl continued half-babbling.

"N-no, that's alright...it was very weird, but felt kind of, good, I guess? I could do that again, if you want."
"R-really!?" she said eagerly, her voice high and breathy. "I-I mean, don't feel like you have to."
"N-no, it's fine.." Besides this verbal reply, Emily's hands had moved halfway to Halley's ears the instant she saw the expression the wolf-girl made in response to her offer.

Some more petting and hugging ensued. This time, she concluded by gently returning the hug, stroking a hand down through Halley's long dark hair before finally letting go. "H-heehee...!" the wolf-girl giggled excitedly, and it proved infectious. Emily broke into a giggling fit not as extreme, but somewhat longer-lasting, than the one brought on by a barrage of cat puns earlier that day.

"We, uh, really do need to get to sleep, though," Emily said once she'd finally recovered.
"Yeah, we do," the wolf-girl agreed somewhat sadly. "Maybe we can do a little more tomorrow night, though~?"
"Um..sure," Emily agreed without really thinking about whether 'more' meant additional ear-petting or some different act that was itself 'more' than mere ear-petting.

"I'm happy to take things slow," the wolf-girl said. "I'm mostly just really happy you're not mad or anything!"

"I..just don't know how I could be," the redhead said slowly. "You're, far too adorable to be angry at."
"Aa~awww~hhh...!"

Halley wound up attending much of the conference alongside Emily—only occasionally breaking off to see certain other simultaneous talks. They went to nearly every meal together, including some dinners with larger groups of conference attendees. It was much more fun than any such event had been before—even to someone like Emily, who found learning new math, of all things, to be exciting. The days flew by until the last day of the conference.

By this point, the two of them had stopped using separate beds. Halley was lying on top of her in a close hug, gently nuzzling her cheek. "Um..."
"Yes?" The wolf-girl picked herself up enough for their noses to almost touch, sensing a serious topic from Emily's verbal stall alone. Since this also brought Halley's beautiful red eyes to where they took up most of her vision, it took her even longer to fully form her sentences.

"Y-you know..I need to go back tomorrow. To the uh..'real' world. There are...people there who know me, as my 'original self', who I care a lot about."
"Oh, I guessed that," Halley said. "You mind if I tag along?"

For a moment, the mathematician was too surprised by the casual reply and counter-offer to come up with a good response. "Uh..I don't...it's just..you know."
"'I know'?" she repeated, meaning that she didn't.
"My 'real world' self looks pretty different? I mean, not to point out the obvious, but I'm usually male..."
"Oh, that's no problem." Evidently tired of holding herself up, the wolf-girl dropped back down to where their cheeks were touching, and talked into Emily's right ear. "Sure, I was struck by your beauty as a girl the first time I saw you, but there's plenty of other things I like about you now~. Besides, I bet you're a pretty handsome young man!"

"Pfft..." Emily giggled briefly at the little wolf-girl talking like an old person again.

"Anyhow, why do you think I rushed through that request for a 'last name'?"

"Well...I guess that settles that, then..." Emily lifted an arm wrapped around the wolf-girl's waist and reached that hand down a bit to the base of her tail, gently stroking it.

"Y-yip!"

The mathematician's next paper was a joint work, as most of them were, but among the collaborators was an unusual name. "Halley Wolfe" was a complete unknown in the field, with no prior publications and certainly no official record of education to speak of, and yet several people who'd been to a certain conference recognized the name anyway. This was the first of many papers published with the wolf-girl as an author—several of which didn't list him as a collaborator at all—forming a body of work that eventually earned her an honorary PhD...although the last name "Wolfe" only appeared on the first few of those papers.

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And now we have come to the end of this little tale, with a logical if not inevitable conclusion for the two main-est characters. I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a comment or two to let me know what you think.

The Academy, Part 6

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The Academy

Part 6: A Wish

"Well, that was weird," Cassie said as the group headed toward the exit of the gym. "Why give us such a cryptic answer?"

"Indeed," Emily agreed. "Why say 'what you're looking for' like it's an object, and then give a description that sounds rather like a person?"
"I think she knows the whole story, but didn't want to spare the time to tell it," Astra said. "Trust me—I've got an instinct for when someone's annoyed."

"Well, she was still helpful!" the wolf-girl said. "Once we go to the library, we can sort this whole thing out."

They exited the doors of the gym, and then everyone, simultaneously, paused as if uncertain which direction to go. It was normal for Emily to not know where to go, but now all three of the girls who'd been leading her from one place to another had stopped, too.

"I assume..at least one of you knows which way the library is?" she asked. Back at her home school, the library had been built back when books were the only way to get most important information, so it was gigantic, and placed very centrally in the campus, to the point that directions to a lot of other buildings tended to use it as a reference. Beyond the obvious bookshelves, and check-out counters it had lots of study rooms, a couple of big rooms for presentations, a computer and/or printing lab for students to use, and various other related services and resources had also wound up being located inside. However, it seemed that The Academy's history was a bit different.

"No clue~," Astra answered first.

"Uhhmm..heheh..?" Halley seemed to really be thinking about it, but she clearly had no idea either.

"I could swear I was given a tour of every building on campus after my interview," Cassie said, crossing her arms and folding her ears back as she tried to think.

"Well, then—there must be a campus map somewhere? Posted on a sign, or online?" Emily suggested, getting her own phone out. It was still a little strange to find herself so instinctively reaching for her purse instead of a pocket.

"The cleaning club's never been asked to clean the library up? Dust the shelves or something?" Astra asked the catgirl.

"Nnnot that I can think of. Or—I haven't at least, which, it'd be a pretty big coincidence for it to be just me for so many years."

"Guess we better be ready for a pretty dusty place, then," Halley said.

"Hmm..." The campus map Emily was able to find...didn't list a library. It had the cafeteria, the gym, the dorms, and plenty of other buildings. She'd referred to this very map in preparation for the trip to the conference, and now recognized the dorms, the cafeteria, the gym, and the building where most of the talks were to be held. There was a "study building" which was also listed as having computer labs and other functions that she would usually associate with a library, but...

"Nothing that says 'library' on this map at all. But..." Turning the phone where the others could see it, she pointed at one small building sitting in an out-of-the-way corner of campus. "This building isn't labeled as anything. Ordinarily I would think that was for some sort of maintenance purpose, but then Cassie would know about it."

"Aand I've never been there," the catgirl agreed.

"Aha! Great work, Emily!" Halley said excitedly. "That must be it! Or, at least, a new place to explore anyhow!"

"Worth a shot," Cassie said, shrugging.

"Well, lookit that," Halley said, pointing at the sign above the building's door. "Says 'library', plain as day. Wonder why it don't say that on the map."
"Never mind that, let's go inside!" Cassie said, hurrying toward the door. "I've still got work to do before supper, and this little curiosity trip has taken far longer than it should've already!" The wolf-girl was about to say something, and—seeming to sense it—the catgirl whirled to point at her with a severe glare on her face. "Don't you dare!"

"Pffheheh..." Guessing at their simultaneous thought regarding curiosity and cat(girl)s, Emily giggled quietly before following Astra inside.

"Welp..this is a library alright," Astra commented, looking around. "Nobody at the front desk—guess borrowing books is on the 'honor system'?"

"There's a sign-in," Emily pointed out. "Anyway, I suppose a place like this could enforce returning books by magic if it wanted."

"Maybe I'll test that out later~," the Kitsune commented.

"Astra, focus!" Cassie said. "We're looking for a person here, right? Or at least something that can be short and brown-haired."
"So: Not a book," Emily said. "Now listen you three—even though there don't seem to be too many people here, this is a library. So, please, try to keep it down?" Halley and Cassie nodded, and then the catgirl reached up to grab and lightly tug on one of Astra's ears until she did the same. With that, they split up to look for their mystery person.

Peeking through the shelves, Emily noticed some wooden stools and desks scattered around here and there. There were also rolling ladders attached to each of the taller bookshelves to allow access to the upper shelves. At one point she did stumble upon someone, a girl hunched over one of those tables with twenty or so pieces of notebook paper with messy handwriting all over them, some books behind the papers, currently busy scribbling even more of that same handwriting onto another piece of paper. But she was blond and looked to be on the tall side, so the redhead quietly went past behind her. If this place was so hard to find, then it was also a good place to do thinking in silence, away from both noise and prying eyes—and she had no intentions of bothering someone who wanted that.

Somehow, the four of them converged on the end of the very same aisle, Emily approaching from one bookshelf while the others appeared from behind the one on the other side. Turning to look, all of them could see the same thing. It was a short girl in a school uniform: White top with a red ribbon tied around the collar, short black skirt, leggings only up to her knees. And she had gorgeous, deep brown hair coming down to nearly the hem of that skirt. She was most of the way up one of the shelf-ladders, carefully placing a book into the top shelf.

The four of them exchanged a look: This had to be the right person...right? They came closer, but she seemed too intently focused on reshelving a few more books near the top to notice them. "Um, excuse us," Emily said quietly to get her attention.
"Oh?" She turning her head to one side and down to face them. "Hello there~, sorry I didn't notice you earlier," she said, her voice high, cute, and friendly. She nimbly scrambled down the ladder to floor level, hopping past the last couple of steps so her shoes hit the floor with a light clop sound, and turned to face them. "Not too many people visit the library this time of day, soo, it's when I usually do the stocking. Ah—I'm the librarian, if that's not clear 'nuff," she added with a quick nod. Now that her feet were on the same floor, it was easy to see that her height was about midway between Cassie's and Halley's.

"Nice to meet you," Emily said—even though the girl hadn't actually introduced herself yet. "I'm Emily; I..just first came to The Academy today."
"I imagine it was quite the shock," the librarian said with a friendly nod. "Always is, it seems. And your friends?"

"We're not—!" Cassie started (a bit too loud), and cut off into a soft "mrowh!" when Astra's tail curled across hers in an obviously intentional interruption.
"I'm Astra," the fox-girl offered, "This is Cassie and Halley. Not that that's any of our real names, but I suppose you know all about that, miss—?"

"Ohh, dear, where are my manners?" the librarian said. "Leah." She stepped just close enough to offer Emily a hand to shake, so she reciprocated. The handshake was gentle and friendly, much like everything else about the girl. Really, Emily was having a hard time thinking of anything remarkable about her at all. She just seemed like a nice, ordinary girl—their collective overall circumstances notwithstanding. "Soo, to what do I owe the visit?"

"Well—Sean said...or at least suggested, that you might know something we were wondering about," Emily said. "The...effect this place has, on anyone who comes to visit. For this kind of physical transformation, and especially the accompanying mental effects, some powerful magic is involved. And it has an apparent sense of purpose to it, and the rules appear to be able to change somewhat, which suggests a conscious agent is involved. It...to be honest, it makes me nervous to be under the thumb of a power like that and not really know its motivations for certain."

"The rest of us are just curious," Halley added helpfully.

"I see..." Leah nodded slowly. "Well, you're quite a brilliant girl, aren't you, Emily?" she said with a genuine, bright smile. "What's your main area of study, if you've got one?"

"Err, mathematics. I, came here originally to attend a conference starting tomorrow."
"Ahh, right," she nodded, "I remember helping process the application forms for that. Now let's see..I think the best way to answer your concerns is with a story. Perhaps you'd all like to sit down first?" she offered, gesturing to follow her as she headed toward one of the unoccupied desks.

"Now then..." Leah softly cleared her throat. "Once upon a time..."

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There was an old archaeologist. Retired, in fact. He had made all sorts of important discoveries, and while archaeology wasn't a glamorous field like physics or computer science that could make people celebrities, he was well-known and respected among his peers. He'd been a professor for quite some time, seeing many generations of students, and was now an emeritus. While he wasn't so involved in active research anymore, he continued to watch the progress of his field—and of other fields—with a keen interest.

Something that had embittered the man back when he was first starting out was a sense of elitism that pervaded his field. The old, established archaeologists were always in charge, telling everyone else what to do. They were not just the mentors, but the gatekeepers for anyone else who wanted to make new discoveries or theories. Certainly, to some extent, it had to be this way—the people who knew what they were doing had not merely a right, but a responsibility to guide the next generation toward doing things the correct way. But the sense of power, authority, and entitlement that some of the man's superiors had clearly developed disgusted him. He even witnessed the outright abuse of that power, to terrible ends. People got hurt, and the field of study suffered as a whole! And so, he paid his dues, sucking up to the ones in charge, only so that he could later shoot down their most ridiculous theories, and in some cases expose their most heinous abuses, once he himself was well-respected. And that was just what he had done.

Now that he was retired, and had a curious ear to the ground on a number of other subjects...even though he didn't understand much of the material in those subjects, he quickly learned that the elitism that plagued his field was far from unique to it. Those in charge, with not necessarily knowledge but primarily the reputation of having knowledge, were often all too happy to lord it over the next generation. Promising young talent that could've greatly advanced the field would vanish away because of such behavior; he'd seen it happening himself, even when he was doing his best to stop it. This would have just been one of the things he rattled on about to his younger peers and those who had replaced him, one subject of conversation among many that the old archaeologist could bring up at the occasional formal dinners, if not for what happened near the end...or rather, what otherwise would have been the end of his life.

While he still had the mobility to do so, the old man occasionally volunteered to properly clean, prepare, and catalog new objects. Not the big, important things that might get press or be presented at museums, but a few droplets of the sea of miscellanea that, despite their historical importance, nobody had the time quite yet to look into in great detail. It was in this capacity that the old man happened upon a small, ancient oil lamp—not functional according the notes it came with—and, as usual, set to carefully cleaning it off with a cloth.

Anyone who's read enough fantastical stories might be able to guess what happened next. One moment he was running cloth carefully across the lamp with a gloved hand, the next smoke was pouring out of its opening as though it were lit—no, far more smoke than that! And the smoke didn't disseminate through the air like it should have, didn't set off the building's smoke alarm—no, instead it insisted on illogically forming itself into the shape of a tall, handsome young man with a dark complexion, dressed in ancient-Arabian-styled garb. And the strange smoke-made man looked positively elated to be impossibly standing there in front of the old man.

"Mortal!" He spread his arms out wide. "Congratulations, you have freed me! The great Artoszatsar, from my long imprisonment!"

The retired archaeologist was still a little too deep in shock to respond. Actually, he was thinking that his latest set of medications might be interacting in a way that made him hallucinate, and so he was trying to keep his breath steady and hoping he wasn't about to have a heart attack before this episode was over.

The strange man dropped his arms to the side. "Well—your surprise is only understandable! How could such a great being as I be trapped in a humble lamp like that? How is it that I'm speaking the same language as you, despite the fact that I was stuck in there several centuries before it was even invented? Never mind that—the powers of a Djinn are as mysterious as they are incredible!"

"Arto..szatsar, was it?" the old man said after a long pause. "You're real?"
"Heh-hey, as real as you are!" he said, very gently punching his emancipator's shoulder. Since the old man could feel that, he at least ruled out this being a purely visual/auditory hallucination. "Now, I'm sure you're aware of the legends. Djinn such as myself are well-known for granting wishes, and I'm no exception! My overflowing gratitude at your freeing me requires that I do so, in fact! But we are no less well known for ensuring the results of granted wishes are interesting!"

"Uh..yes, of course."

"So, as another result of my overflowing gratitude, I will do you a favor, my friend! Rather than having you wonder what the catch is, I will tell you up front! In fact, I intend to grant two of your wishes. However!" He put up an index finger dramatically. "You must tell them both to me first! For I will grant both wishes with the very same magical act! Said act will grant the spirit of your wishes, but I will also be looking for a way to make it as entertaining for me as possible! Is that clear enough?"

"Er...yes, certainly."
"Then, I will grant you a moment without distraction to consider your wishes carefully!" he announced, and then crossed his arms and stayed silent until the old man's response.

Assuming that this was real—even as he accepted that he might very well just be dreaming right now—the old man thought about what he might wish for for a long moment before reaching a conclusion. Perhaps this genie would even find these wishes entertaining without too much modification.

"All right then, since there's two wishes—I'll make one for myself, and one for the rest of the world," he said.
"I like the sound of this already!" Artoszatsar said encouragingly.

"For myself—I'd like to be young and healthy again, full of pep, able to learn and think and move around like I used to."
"Understandable! Mortal life looks like such a pain!" the genie said. "But I admit that would be tragically boring to me all by itself!"

The archaeologist nodded. "For the world, I wish for...a place, a peaceful place of learning, freed from the restrictions of authority, status, and power. A place where everyone is equal—everyone is a teacher, and everyone is a student—and learning from others, the free and open exchange of ideas, is paramount. That's my earnest wish. I hope it's not too complicated, but I suppose there's plenty of room for interpretation in just how you accomplish that."

"Indeed there is—indeed! Now that's an entertaining wish! A real challenge, even! Hmm..."

Putting his hand under his chin, Artoszatsar considered the two wishes for a long moment. "To be young again...peaceful...and, everyone is a student..." He lifted the hand off his chin a moment later, declaring: "Aha, I've got it! You'll positively love this, I guarantee it!" Then the Djinn reached that hand forward and snapped, the sound of it seeming to audibly echo and visibly ripple out from the point where his thumb and middle finger had slid across each other. This rippling appeared to warp the space around them, changing the pair's surroundings into the interior of an unfamiliar library. It would later become clear that this was the two of them changing locations, not the genie altering their original location in any way besides the two's removal.

"Here we are, your 'place'!" Artoszatsar announced dramatically. "This is but one of many buildings in this 'place', which I invite you to explore! And you'll find your eternal youth coming along shortly! So—enjoy!" With that, the Djinn erupted into the smoke that seemed to have originally formed him, and it flew away in all directions, making its way out to the doors and windows of the building and seemingly going straight out through them, irrespective of how open or closed they happened to be.

With the strange supernatural entity gone, he felt as though he was standing in an ordinary, if deserted, library. The sense of unreality from the presence of a literal genie was in one sense gone, but the fact that he was in this place rather than the one he'd been a moment earlier still stood as proof that it had really happened. While trying to process this, it also occurred to him that Artoszatsar had said 'eternal youth', which was seemingly more generous than what he'd asked for; he'd wished to be young just once more, not indefinitely. But then, being young again would be somewhat soured when he eventually aged back to how old he was now, so perhaps the intent was to fully grant 'the spirit' of the wish.

A strange feeling brought the old archaeologist out of this train of thought. It was a very faint tingling, an almost electric feeling racing around across his skin that made him shudder just slightly. This sensation made him feel slightly...excited; he could feel his heartrate picking up slightly from it. He felt awfully stiff all of a sudden, and found himself reaching his arms up and stretching, arching his back slightly. There were a few pops, and a warmth spread through him as the aches and soreness of age vanished away. Next, he felt the hair atop his head shifting around slightly, and when he reached a hand up to brush through it, he found it noticeably softer and thicker than a moment before, the thinning toward baldness that it had done in recent years completely undone. The excitement he was feeling picked up a little more as understood: He really was getting younger!

Looking down, picking at his clothes and twisting his body around, he could see most every sign of age disappearing from his form. He rubbed a hand across his face where he was used to finding uneven wrinkles, and they were only briefly, faintly present, then gone and replaced by fresh, young skin the next time his hand brushed across. "H-hahah..this is real? Unbelievable!" he said. No, he had to be dreaming—but then why did everything seem so largely coherent? And why could he physically feel it? While he had his hand up near his face, he even tried pinching his cheek pretty hard—"Ow!"—and it hurt, but it didn't wake him. By now, he felt physically like he had in his early twenties, if not even better—more full of energy than was certain he'd ever been before! "Th-this is amazing! How..?"

The now-young man's question was interrupted by a sudden, second wave of tingling. This one was noticeably stronger than before, but no less electric, causing him to shudder somewhat violently for a second. He worried: Was it not over? Was he—going to be younger than this? He hadn't exactly specified that he still wanted to be an adult, and it would be characteristically mean for the wish to result in him being permanently stuck at the age of ten. But the genie had said he'd 'enjoy' this, and surely understood the intent of the wish...

The tingling seemed to fade all but his scalp for a moment, growing a bit stronger there, and suddenly he felt the just-thickened hair growing rapidly longer and longer. There were bangs spreading out along his forehead, several locks playing their way down past his ears to his cheeks, and he felt even longer tresses landing across his shoulder, then his upper back, then his lower back. Twisting around, he could see the cape of voluminous, deep brown hair spreading out behind him, and even caught it in the act of gaining some three or four more inches of length! "Huh, this...? My hair..?" he mumbled confusedly, reaching a hand up to brush and twirl some of it between his fingers. It was curious; the soft locks felt rather nice between his fingers, and he felt strangely..proud of how it looked? Even though, of course, it had to look strange—besides the fact that he hadn't made it look that way in the first place.

Seemingly done with his scalp, the tingling now raced directly down his spine, making him shudder once more. This was followed immediately by a different sensation spreading out from there to encompass his entire body, a sort of inward pressure that started out weak but quickly grew stronger. "Aa~aah..?" His perspective noticeably sank as the books and shelves all around seemed to rise up around him. "Wh, whaa~at's..?" His voice began to sound..smaller, somehow, as its pitch rose with each utterance it made.

Somehow, he didn't feel like he was really getting younger—and yet he was definitely shrinking! He looked down as he felt his shirt slipping across his shoulder, and found himself slimmer than before, his frame visibly narrowing inward. "Mm~mmngh..?" His shoulders, his waist, his arms and legs were all getting thinner and smaller; reaching a hand up toward his face, he could see it shrinking too, the fingers becoming shorter, smaller, and more delicate.

"I-I'm, mm~mmnhh..?" His voice sounded like a young boy's by this point. The tingling he'd thought gone before seemed to have reappeared down between his legs, and his just-youthened manhood seemed rather..stimulated by this sensation, making his heartbeat pick up once again and his face heat up with a blush. "Mnn~nh, aah, aa~ah..!" Even as the pressure shrinking the rest of him eased off, he found the tingling giving way to a strange tugging, slipping sensation down there—and now that was what was shrinking.

His shirt's collar now showed off most of his left shoulder, and its hem was down to his thighs, which was perhaps just as well since his pants and underwear had both abandoned him, each one slipping off in turn during the rapid shrinking a moment ago. The legs down there, now that he was looking, seemed so very slender and soft, every last trace of body hair gone from them; the neckline his oversized shirt's collar showed off was no different. It was like..it was just like a young girl trying to wear a much taller man's clothing. Because...!
"Aah, aa~aah..!" The stimulation between his legs seemed to only intensify as the thing that felt it became even smaller. His voice lilted up into a high, cute soprano tone—a girl's voice for certain—and he felt he understood at least a little bit of the genie's way of making this wish of his interesting. "Aah, mmmMMMMNNn~nnh..!" It was tugging away; he didn't have much longer to be male. But—he found that he really didn't mind that so much. After all, he'd lived a pretty full life as a man; why not see what the other side had to offer? Especially when..he was going to wind up so very cute!

This was the very last thing he thought as a man—how cute he was about to be—and then with one final tug, she found her sex fully and completely changed. Immediately she was assaulted with a sharp, intense wave of feminine pleasure, and the girliest sounds possible emerged from her mouth: "Aah—AAH—aAA~AAAA~AAAHHH~HNNNnnnh...!" Her little legs wriggled together as her thighs gently puffed out, growing thick and shapely. Then her hips pushed their way out to spread the top of her legs apart, her bottom growing ever so slightly rounder to grant her a nice, girlish figure.

"Haa~Aahh, hff, mnn~ngh..!" She continued to squirm as the fuzzy feeling between her legs intensified again, a second wave hitting her just as her chest tingled sharply, then pushed itself forward, quickly budding into a pair of small, girly breasts. She gasped, then let out another helpless "Aaa~AAHHnnn..!" as those small breasts bloomed forward, growing into a respectable pair of globes—not especially huge, but big enough to match her shrunken size and make her a fully-grown, adult woman.

"Hh, hff...mmmn~nnh.." The new girl panted and let out a soft sound, thoroughly enjoying the afterglow of that sudden burst of pleasure. She could feel her shirt shuffling around across her body, the underwear and pants that had abandoned her suddenly pulling themselves up her legs again only to shift and shuffle around once they got there. In no time at all, she found herself dressed in a girl's school uniform: White shirt tucked into a short dark skirt, a bra and a pair of panties beneath them. And she felt strangely certain..that her name was Leah.

While it certainly hadn't been her name before, she thought: It's cute! It definitely had a nice ring to it. She...couldn't quite remember what her name used to be, actually, now that she thought of it; but as an understanding of where she was began to fill her mind, she already decided that she didn't really need that old name anyway. It was time for a fresh start!

"...Standing there in the library, the old man found himself becoming young again. At first, he found himself very much like he'd been in his early twenties, but that only lasted a brief moment. Then he suddenly found himself shrinking and changing, and before he knew it he'd become a young girl instead—a cute girl, with long brown hair, dressed in a school uniform. She'd become the first student of The Academy."

"And...I suppose that'd be you?" Emily asked.
"Mm-hm," Leah nodded. "Although...if any of you convey this story to other curious students, I'd appreciate if you left out those last few, identifying details."

"So, basically," Cassie said, "the reason for this whole Academy and everything is just, 'a genie did it'!?"

"Easy there~," Astra said, reaching across to gently rub the catgirl's ears. Over her softly meowing, the fox-girl continued: "There are plenty of things you could explain as 'a Kitsune did it', but knowing the intent helps still helps put things into context. Or, in this case, what wishes were being granted."

"Indeed," Leah nodded. "I've since come to understand a little more about the mechanisms which the Djinn set in place here to grant those wishes. Basically, The Academy is what some who study magic call an 'enchanted land', a nexus of self-sustaining magic kept up by both the natural energy of the trees and such encircling it, plus a certain amount of magical energy 'donated' by each resident. And there are a set of rules determining the magic's effects on the land, the buildings, and anyone entering or leaving the place."

"From the way you talk, I guess you don't have much say in those rules?" Halley asked.

The librarian gently shook her head. "It would defeat the purpose for me to have any real power. I do have a slightly deeper connection to The Academy due to it being 'my wish' that it grants, but nothing that I could leverage for authority over others. That said, there are essentially two categories of rules here—the immalleable, and the malleable."

Cassie headtilted, one of her ears pointing sideways. "Mally-what?"

"Ah, sorry—that is, some rules can be changed, and others cannot. Certain..'requests' can be made of the magic itself, including changing the former. That is why, for example, pictures and video from here can now be shared with the outside world without interference. It had become a popular request on The Academy's website among attending students, and with the dropping of the Veil, that rule hardly seemed necessary—so I gathered signatures and submitted a form requesting that they be allowed."

"Seems like it wouldn't be all that hard to figure out who certain people are with that, though," Astra said. "Actually—Cassie and I know exactly who each other are whether we're on campus or not."
"You must have left together, or entered together, right?" Leah asked. "That's how things are meant to work. Those rules are mainly there to encourage everyone to think of each other as equal. I believe this was the right decision—not only would enforcing overly stringent identity-obscuring rules be too much of a strain on The Academy's magic itself, it would just lead to people looking for loopholes, which might lead to them breaking everything. As it stands, it's enough for everyone to understand the purpose of those rules and try to work within their spirit. It does help that this place also weights people's minds slightly to encourage thinking of ourselves as female students, and to prefer collaborative efforts slightly more than otherwise."

"So, this magic..it does alter people's minds," Emily said apprehensively.
"Well—as I said, it's a slight weighting factor; it's nothing one couldn't resist, and it pulls back rather than pushing harder if it's resisted for a long while. There's occasionally a very strong-willed student who mostly thinks of herself as a boy throughout her stay here. But—more to the point—the effect leaves folks' personalities and motivations fully intact, and disappears entirely as soon as one leaves."

"So—hangon—back up a sec," the wolf-girl interrupted. "You said you submitted a form? As in, to this place's magic?"

"Right," she nodded. "There are a number of forms available to handle various standard requests, for example, hiring someone to a new position," she said, gesturing lightly Cassie's way. "Plus a 'non-standard request' form. Anyone who wants to ask The Academy for something just puts one of those forms in the 'administration' mailbox. I have some intrinsic knowledge of how best to fill them out—again, because this place came from 'my wish'—and I don't mind using said knowledge to help out, but anyone can."

"Could you..is there a way to ask if I can keep this body everywhere? Without havin' to go on field trips or anything?" Halley asked.

"Yes, although you have to permanently give up your entire previous identity for that—name, appearance and all," Leah replied. "The Academy then adds a new last name to your 'student name', and makes your student form also your default one. Sean was actually the first person to want something like that; after the request to permanently keep her new look went through, the 'last name request form' appeared as a new standard one."

"Well, that's no trouble for me," the wolf-girl said, "I was dying of cancer before coming here, and faked my death so no one would come looking besides. Sooo...would ya mind helping me out with that?"

"Not at all~," Leah said with a friendly smile.

"First, however, do any of you have any other questions I can help you with?"
"Oh! Where's the money I get paid for doing my job come from?" Cassie asked.
"Well, The Academy has a mailing address and a bank account out in the 'real world', and some 'alumni' started donating to it a couple of decades ago," Leah shrugged. "There's no way to directly access that money, but a short while after the money started coming in, some new forms appeared for requesting contract work, applying for long-term employment, creating new job positions, etcetera. I put in one myself not long after they appeared, since I was already working as a librarian and thought getting a little pocket change for it wouldn't hurt."

"I think that is everything," Emily said. "The thought that an individual being can have the power to just..make a place like this with the snap of a finger still disturbs me somewhat, but at least I understand The Academy itself well enough to stay here...somewhat comfortably for the duration of the conference."
"Glad to hear it," Leah said. "Hope you enjoy your stay~!"

---

And there we have it: An explanation for The Academy's existence, as silly as it is. The main "conflict" of the story is resolved at this point, but we're not quite through. I have one more part to finish things off with a proper denouement. After that, this story will be fully complete! Now, I'm not sure whether or not I'll revisit The Academy as a setting in the future; it's certainly an established location in the same universe most of my captions take place in, so it wouldn't be out of the question for a caption to take place there, or another story to mention it off to the side. Regardless, I'm satisfied with the story I've written, and happy to have something I can call fully complete at the same time as it comes out, despite its length. The total size of this story (in the document editor that I typically use) comes out to exactly 45 pages, which is an appreciable length for a seven-part short story, I guess?

The Academy, Part 5

 First / Previous / Next / Last

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The Academy

Part 5: A Personal Marathon

"Say, Emily—how old are you, anyway?" Cassie asked. "I mean, your 'true form'?"

"Uh...late twenties...I think? It's still very strange to not know that precisely..."

"Well—enjoy being young," the catgirl advised. "I was a balding old man before coming here!"

"So, your 'true form' is of an advanced age?"

"Oh, no—not anymore," she clarified. "Astra made this my true form, on a trip to town sometime last year."
"A feat such as that is trivial for a five-tailed fox," the blue-haired girl affirmed proudly.

"Hey!" Cassie suddenly, sharply yelled, cutting off the conversation and storming toward a student near the trashcans. "That is a plastic bottle, missy! P-E-T number one! It goes in that can!" she ordered, gesturing.
"Uhm—oh, sorry." She put the bottle in the right place. "My college still doesn't have a recycling program..."

"Just keep it straight around here. The cleaning club has enough work to do without having to sort the garbage!"

Coming back to their small, group, she sighed aloud. "Must be another visitor for that math conference. I swear, though, some people..."

"It's like herding cats, eh?" the wolf-girl said, with an obviously teasing tone.
"That's not funny, Halley," Cassie said, annoyed.

"Oh, well—paw-don me, missy! At least Astra appreciates my hiss-terical sense of humor." The fox-girl was grinning wide, but not quite laughing.

"No, she just knows it irritates me!"

"Aww, I thought you were feline fine with her just a minute ago."

Cassie blushed in response to this, and protested: "Still not funny! R-right, Emily!?"

It was too bad the catgirl looked to her for affirmation at this point. The rational, empathetic part of her mind understood that this was nothing but an annoyance to Cassie, and wanted to back her up on this. However, the rest of her mind currently had the floor. So she lightly snorted—"Snrk—" and then broke out into an uncontrollable laugh. "Pffheeheeheehee...! Haa~AAHahahaah..!" It was bad enough, and long enough, that the whole group had to stop walking for a moment.

"Goodness—seems like the majority's against you, Cass~," Astra commented as the redhead's laughter finally started to calm down.

"Heheheh..um.." When it was finally over, Emily sniffed and wiped a tear out of her eye with a finger to keep it from getting in her glasses. "Sorry Cassie—I've got an awfully dorky sense of humor sometimes."

The catgirl crossed her arms, putting on a weak frown. "Well, I guess it's alright if you can't help it."

"I'll, try to keep it under control."
"Aww, you've got such an adorable laugh, though!" Halley said, smiling up at her. "Anyhow, Cass might act like she hates it, but she knows I'm just kitten around~!"

Emily couldn't suppress a big grin, but clamped down on the urge to start giggling again. "C-come on, let's keep going," she said, gesturing forward.

Soon enough, they reached their destination—which, evidently, was the school's gym. After seeing the cafeteria and the dorm, and hearing about how the latter seemed to "grow" alongside the student population, Emily had the impression of the entire campus as an impossibly well-kept-up, state-of-the-art set of buildings, and the gym was no exception. It was giant, with a running track on the upper floor and tons of different exercise machines, plus smaller rooms for (presumably) exercise classes to use. The group's destination, it seemed, was yet another impressive part of the gym: an enormous indoor pool. There was a purple-haired girl in a blue one-piece swimsuit—exactly the kind that high school girls in anime wore—doing laps in the pool, besides several other girls—mostly in similar swimsuits, though there were exceptions—just swimming, playing, or lazing around.

"Heey, Ariel!" Cassie called out, and the one doing laps swam her way up to the edge of the pool, resting her arms on the floor in front of her and looking up at them.
"Hello dearie~," she said, giving the catgirl a kind of grin that Emily immediately thought of as 'grandmotherly'—even though that made no sense on such a small, young woman. "You need my help?"

"Well—not in the usual way. Just got a question or two," Cassie said. Turning to the others, she introduced the swimming girl: "This is Ariel, one of the cleaning club members who originally interviewed me for the job." And then, to Ariel herself: "You said once that you thought you were one of the first to come here?"
"Oh, my, yes," Ariel nodded. "I was an old lady, you see, getting on in years—when a kind gentleman who I'm fairly sure was actually a Kitsune in disguise suggested I take a walk through the forest. And, well, I've hardly ever left since!"

"So, what do you young ladies need from me?" she asked with a tone of cheerful generosity.

"Well," Emily started, "we're attempting to track down whoever is...in charge here. I mean—I know the point of this place is that no one is exactly 'in charge', but the magical effects here seem to have some sort of powerful consciousness directing them." Something had been bothering her since hearing that Cassie had been hired by the school, so she decided to ask about it now. "To that end...how, exactly, did the cleaning club get approval to hire someone and spend the school's money paying her? Or, more to the point, who gave that approval?"
Ariel put a finger on her cheek, visibly thinking back several years. "Oh, dear, I couldn't say," she admitted. "Kristen's the one who did all of that way back then—she was the club president at the time—but she's left The Academy altogether. Anyhow, I think she just got the forms online somewhere and stuck them in a campus mailbox labeled 'administration'. But I've got no idea where that mail even goes to."
"Right," the catgirl added, "I get paychecks through the school mail too. No return address, so nothing to go on there, either."

Emily nodded, "Well, it was worth a try. Our other line of inquiry is this—who is that told you how this place works? If we can trace the 'lineage' of that information, then whoever was the first to tell it to someone must know something."

"That's if we're lucky enough for everyone along the line to still be here," Cassie said. "But still."

"Oh, well—the young lady who helped me understand the conditions of my newfound youth certainly does come to campus fairly often," Ariel said. "In fact, I believe she's usually right over there on this day of week around this time," she said, pointing toward one of the smaller rooms in the gym.

"Okay. Thank you for your time," the redhead said.
"Oh, it's no trouble at all. Hope you all find what you're after, dearies~!" Ariel said, and then juxtaposed how much like an old woman's speech that sounded by pushing off of the pool and practically jetting away through the water. This maneuver sent just barely enough droplets the group's way for Emily to feel a couple of them on her arm.

"Pflech," Cassie folded her ears back as she turned to lead the way to that room. "She oughta be more careful about splashing people."

"Wait—do you not like water?!" Halley asked, sounding entirely too happy to discover a new way to annoy the catgirl.
"I—no, I'm fine with water!" she protested, and when neither the wolf-girl nor Astra seemed to buy it, rattled off: "I can swim! I do swim! I just—don't want my uniform getting dirty, is all!"

Through the windows, Emily saw a group of girls lifting weights...although many of them were struggling with what looked like fairly light ones. A deep, mature woman's voice was calling from inside: "Two—three—four—! Come on, you can do it! One more time!"

"I suppose we should wait for..?" Emily began, but Halley was already halfway into the door (Astra not far behind), and once she'd gotten inside she waved at the owner of that voice—the trainer for the class.

The 'teacher' appeared to take this in stride; she'd been lifting the biggest weight in the class, and when she set it down she exhaled in a way that might have been a sigh of either relief or annoyance. "Okay! Everyone take five, and then we'll get back to it. Make sure to drink some water, you all!"

---

"Scrawny..."
"..small.."
"Too short!"

Ever since puberty, he'd been faced with rejections like those, time and time again—more than he could count. He worked hard to attain and maintain peak physical condition—he had toned muscles and abs and everything! But just because he was a little on the short side, just because his natural body type was thin and small, everyone looked down on him. He could outplay any of the guys, in any of the sports he tried out for, but still he was passed over just because the shallow coaches couldn't see beyond his diminutive appearance.

In the end, the best he could do was get a job at a gym as a personal trainer, helping guys with twice his size but half his skill get better. He convinced himself for a while that he was happy doing this job; it paid fine, and at least people were coming to him for advice now. But it still didn't sit that well with him. He still sometimes felt the looks of people in the gym, thinking: 'What's he know about getting fit? He's so small!' When that happened, he got a little angry, and sometimes did reckless things to prove them wrong.

One afternoon, consumed by this sense of annoyance and frustration, he made one such reckless decision. He had the next day off, and he made the decision that tomorrow, he would get up early in the morning, pack a backpack of food and water, and take off jogging in a particular direction—then not stop until sunset. That is..of course he would take breaks, eat meals, and handle other bodily needs...but he was going to prove his stamina and speed. Maybe he'd even brag about it online, after taking pictures with his phone along the journey.

The one thing left to decide on was a direction. He didn't want to pound the sidewalk the entire day; that was boring. He also didn't want to wind up lost in the woods or something, so sticking to an actual path was reasonably important. Eventually, he decided on a direction that would take him through his town's park, then out of his town alongside a road, into another town, and eventually into a little forest encircling some private college. To even make it that far before sunset would be impressive, so he didn't worry about what might be beyond there. So, plans made, he went to bed early. The next morning he set out bright and early and went jogging.

Whether or not other people recognized his efforts, exercising like this always made him feel good. The burn of his muscles doing their best to keep up with his mind's demands, the feeling of heat and resulting sweat across his body, was something he cherished in a way most people—even some so-called fitness nuts—didn't seem to understand. Besides that, conquering a tough challenge like the one he'd set today was simply one of those things that made him feel like a man. Petty as it was, it was something he liked.

He wasn't feeling enough of a burn after the first half-hour or so of his jog, so he decided to take on an occasional sprint. That had the desired effect, and when he slowed back down to a jog after a sprint there was a good while of his body needing to play catch-up. He didn't allow himself to slow down too much, instead chugging water as he went to keep himself hydrated but otherwise continuing at a steady, jogging pace. It felt amazing, and he was almost reluctant to stop around noon to have a quick lunch.

After the lunch, he warmed himself up real quick before taking off on a full-on sprint. The break had left him refreshed enough to cover a good distance before he had to slow down, and then it was only a short jog more before he found himself in that college town he'd seen on the map. He realized at this point that he'd forgotten all about taking pictures, but—that didn't really matter. It wasn't what was really important to him anyway, and if anything, he could take some photos near sunset, when he finally stopped. It was only a short trek (for him, at least) along the sidewalks of the town before he reached the edge of the forest.

As he jogged along the grassy path, huffing air in and out as he went, he felt..great. He was thinking that he hadn't felt so manly in a long time, that he should do this again his next day off. He'd probably stop once he reached the other side of this little forest, even if it wasn't sunset yet, and brag online about the distance he'd covered in so little time. Maybe grab supper in the part of town on the opposite end from the campus...

"Hff...ffh..." He decided to stop to take a breath, and a drink of water, reaching out a hand to lean his weight on a tree. Given his efforts before this point, this decision would seem strange to him in retrospect—but, in the moment, he didn't think anything of it. It was normal to take a break, right? The forest wasn't especially big, so he could afford it time-wise.

As he gulped down water, he felt a refreshing, cool breeze running across his skin. That was...nice. He'd been so busy jogging through all the nature he'd come across before this point that he hadn't really appreciated it all that much. The trees and grass made for pleasant scenery to run through, but he especially liked the way the wind played across the bare skin of his face, arms, legs, and stomach, and the way it teased his hair and made it blow out behind him...

Wait.

"Huh?" His thoughts had rammed into a brick wall: His hair wasn't long enough for the wind to do that to it, silly! But, when he reached his hand up to check, it found shoulder-length blond hair. Right, and there were some locks touching his cheeks, a few messy bangs even threatening to blind him if he wasn't careful with them. That...wasn't right, though; he always kept his hair short so it wouldn't get in the way. And, anyway, what kind of guy had shoulder-length hair? All the same, he could feel the wind blowing it out behind him, making the locks tickle his face in the front—and so the paradox remained.

What kind..of guy...? "I...wha..?" The cool breeze seemed to have set off an odd, tingling sensation on every bit of skin it touched. This was different from the feeling of cool air on sweat—which he was quite familiar with, of course—and when he looked down to try to understand what was happening, he couldn't make sense of what he saw at all. His arm hair, leg hair, belly hair, and—he pulled his collar forward to check—even chest hair, were all vanishing. The hairs were becoming shorter, some of them vanishing away, and as they shortened and thinned themselves out of existence this way, they left behind soft, smooth skin. It registered to him as...pretty..? He also felt an urge to touch his face at this point, and when his hand rubbed his cheek, it found the skin there much the same as the rest of it: Soft, smooth, completely devoid of the slight bit of beard he hadn't bothered to shave that morning. But—what kind of guy had skin like this!?

"I, I'm...what's...?" he mumbled in confusion, feeling an increasingly strong urge to stretch. As that urge built, he became aware of some of the locks of his hair touching the back of his stomach, below where his top reached, and even seemingly crawling downward along it as a result of growing even longer. And then he couldn't take it anymore; he raised his hands up and arched his back. "Hmn—!" All at once, he felt the release of an immense tension that he could've sworn wasn't there before. "Hmm~mmm~mmmnnh..!" His body stretched itself out bigger and taller, his arms and legs growing somehow! And, at the same time, the tone of his voice steadily, subtly changed.

Coming out of the stretch, he looked around as he rotated his shoulders, feeling the tension pop out of his body and leave him feeling significantly more limber and relaxed. The trees around him looked..shorter than before, and looking down, he knew he was taller than he remembered. But also, his frame seemed differently built from before. His shoulders were narrower, his arms, legs and waist all slimmer than he remembered. The urge to stretch then hit him again.

"Aah...!" As he almost involuntarily reaching his hands up, he could feel hair all the way down the back of his stomach, the weight of it touching the top of his butt. Men...didn't normally have such gorgeously long hair. But there wasn't time to think about that, as he found himself stretching upward all over again. This time, a strangely high gasp came in through his lips before he let out a relieved "Aa~aa~aaahh...!" The subtle shift in his voice grew increasingly noticeable. It was still almost as deep as he remembered, and yet...it was sounding less and less masculine by the second. By the end of this cry, as he dropped his arms again to find himself even taller than before, it had changed into a mature, yet distinctly womanly alto.

"I-I..whaa~at's..?" His voice squeaked strangely when he tried to make it sound the way it did before. There was a strange, increasingly strong tingly sensation right...down there, between his legs. He'd grown so much taller, but his body was so slim, his skin so soft and smooth—and his hair so gorgeously long that its tips were tickling his upper thighs, past the leggings of his shorts. What kind of guy..looked and sounded like that?

"Aa~aah..!" The tingling down there progressed into a strange tugging, slipping sensation. It was making his heart race in almost the same way a good run did, but it was also exciting the very thing that was shrinking, and drawing the heat of an increasingly strong blush to his cheeks. Of course, a part of his brain said; the reason for all of these things was that he wasn't a man at all! But—that wasn't right! He'd been a man for so long! He...wanted..!

"Aa~ahmm, mm~mmnnh..!" The tugging grew stronger down there. Did he want to be a boy? And..why? So everyone could look down on him for being small, for not being 'manly' enough for them? Why not...be something else? "Aah, aa~AAAhh..!" His usually-deep voice now revealed that it had quite a range, as his cries suddenly sounded high, cute—girly. And, of course, that was what was happening—his manhood, and his very masculinity, were disappearing; he could feel both happening at once. And...it felt really good..!
"Aah, nnNNgh..." Tug, tug...slip..! His manhood vanished away! "Aaa~AAAAH..!" A girl's voice cried out as she felt femininity blossoming into place down there. That was it; if nobody could appreciate her as a boy..nor especially as a man, then she'd just have to be a woman! She'd have to be..a tomboy. A strong, tall, beautiful amazon of a woman that made the boys wish they could be as fit as she was!

A deeply, intensely pleasant fuzzy feeling spread throughout her new equipment as this realization spread through her mind, drawing a deeply womanly "Aa~aa~AAAHHHHNNN~NNNNHHhhh..!" from her lips and making her hips squirm and thrash back and forth. She could feel the underwear beneath her shorts shrinking into a pair of girly boyshorts, the shorts themselves being pulled tighter against her hips as they spread themselves out wider, her butt growing bigger and her thighs thickening up, too. Yes, yes, yes! This was the kind of girl—the kind of woman—she wanted to be. Tall, strong, and curvy...!

"Ooh, oo~OOOoo~ohh...mnnh, AAH!" No sooner did the changes below her waist (and the accompanying pleasure) start to ease off than the new girl began to feel her chest tingling, then the nipples growing wide and tall before raising bumps up from behind them as they pushed forward. She had..a pair of tiny, budding breasts! But she was going to have to do much better than that. And so, the two little prepubescent bumps adoring her chest began to swell and inflate, stretching the material of her top as they grew bigger and bigger. Their sensitive skin brushing and straining against the soft cloth of the top was more than enough to stimulate more pleasant, womanly feelings down between her legs, causing her to cry out all the more. "AAH, Aaa~aAAAHhh..! Aa~aAAAHHHNNnnh..!"

This felt...even better than when she'd first become a girl! If a tomboy like her had access to these feelings, then she never wanted to go back to being a boy! She cheered on her breasts to get bigger and bigger, give her more and more of that wonderful sensation down between her legs, and for what felt like a very long time, they obliged. She could feel the two increasingly-huge globes beginning to press against each other as her top hugged in against them; they strained against the top trying to hold them in and forced it to grow to accommodate them instead. Then, finally, there was one last push, making her draw in a sudden, high gasp before letting out a deep "Oo~oooOOOOOOoooh..!" as she felt the pleasure down her legs hit a peak before finally, mercifully easing off, letting her huff air slowly in and out, feeling her breasts rise and fall with each breath.

"Hff...ha~ahff...mmngh..."

"I-I'm...it's..what..?" Coming out of the mental haze of the transformation, the new girl couldn't quite resist the thought that she was a tomboy, and perhaps even meant to be female somehow...but she still had enough of a rational mind to realize that something utterly bizarre had happened. Slowly looking around, she located her backpack of supplies before realizing it had shrunk slightly and turned pink. "...Huh."

While she dug through the backpack, she began a brisk walk—not a jog, yet with her much longer legs it covered nearly as much distance as the boy she'd been before could hope to by jogging. Maybe...there was some sort of explanation waiting in the center of this forest?

Years later, she found a small party of girls wandering into her on-campus exercise class. The animal-eared girls didn't look sorry to have interrupted her work, but the nerdy-looking girl with the red hair, at least, gave an apologetic look. "Um, sorry; Ariel told us that um..the person who explained how The Academy works to her was...here?"
"Oh, yeah? That'd be me," the blond-haired tomboy said, striding up to the group. "Name's Sean. You girls need somethin'?"

The redhead seemed flustered to have someone so tall, buff, and curvy approaching her. It was kind of cute. "Er..y-yes, but—Sean?" she asked, apparently distracted from her original question by the name.
"Yeah," the tomboy nodded. "I mean—my ID said somethin' else when I first moved in here, but I told everyone to call me Sean, and eventually it agreed with me. Don't even remember what it used to say. I mean—it's still prolly not my original name or whatever."
"Oh. W-well, I'm Emily; these are Halley, Cassie, Astra," she said, gesturing to the three animal-eared girls with her in turn.
"Nice to meet ya. Soo...?" Sean made a 'get on with it' gesture.

"Well..who told you how The Academy works? We're..trying to find out who decides on those rules. Or, 'what' decides, if it isn't a person."
"..Oh." Sean nodded, thinking for a brief moment. "Well...I can't say I know too much, but I think you girls will find what you're lookin' for in the library."

"That's uh..a rather mysterious way to put it," Emily pointed out. "Anything..specific we should be looking for in there?"
Sean put a finger on her chin briefly, thinking about how much of a hint to give them. "I guess...short, with long brown hair," she settled on. "That oughta be enough to go on."

---

It took me the longest of all, I think, to come up with an image for Sean that I was fully happy with. Cassie took a while to get any good image at all for; on the other hand, I'm pretty sure Halley was the easiest one by a fair margin. I also briefly tried to come up with an image for Ariel, but never turned up anything that was remotely close to what I had in mind, and it wasn't all that serious of an attempt in the first place.