Aetuornos Beta 3a-2

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3a-2: Encountering Foliage

While their group started out in a reasonably strict formation, it didn't take long at all for Kite to go and join Scylla up at the front of the party. And then the fox-girl went curling one of her tails up along the wolf-girl's own, drawing an initial yip from her but no apparent objection; in fact, the samurai girl soon responded by giggling and rubbing the top of Kite's head a little bit.

Franka watched this display of affection with a slightly conflicted emotion. She'd..heard of people with animal traits acting like this toward each other sometimes, even if they were just totally platonic friends, but no matter what it meant to those two, it was most definitely adorable to her—so, fun to watch on an otherwise kind of boring walk toward either their destination or a random encounter on the way.

But..the bunny-girl also felt a tinge of what might be called jealousy. Not that she wanted either Scylla or Kite to..behave that way...toward her, but she kind of wished for another person who'd be willing to do that? Glancing back, Hatchet had a quite neutral look on his face (and even his ears and tail, which were typically much more telling for animal-people), and was doing probably the most honest job out of all of them in watching out for threats in every possible direction. He..probably wouldn't be interested, even if Franka was—and she kind of wasn't. He just didn't seem like her type somehow. And anyway, maybe he already had his eyes on someone else? Regardless, she was just going to have to put up with that slight sense of frustration for now. And...just try to appreciate the cuteness of the pair in front instead.

Fortunately, Hatchet rescued her from this by starting a conversation. "You know," he said, "I know it's 'more immersive' and all, but I'm really disappointed there isn't any background music. The trailers had great music, and I was seriously hoping to be able to hear more from the composer in-game."

"Maybe they're just saving it?" Scylla suggested, looking halfway back. "Like, for major story bosses or raids or whatever? Or maybe we're just supposed to make our own music, like, if a bard hangs out in the tavern, he can play his lute or whatever."

"First problem I think of is, where'd you make it come from?" the fox-girl pitched in. "We ain't sittin' in front of monitors with speakers to play stereo sound out of; we got 'real ears' here to hear with. You'd have to come up with a sound source that works for everyone, even while we're all in motion."

"Orrr..just put the music 'in our heads'?" Franka suggested.

Kite replied, "I dunno, the first thing I expect if I start hearin' things in my head ain't 'oh, that's good music', it's 'where's the psychic attack comin' from?' And if someone don't like the music, or gets bored, or needs to hear better 'cause someone might be sneakin' up on us...ain't nothin' in place to turn it down or off."

"Sure, but those are all solvable problems," Hatchet said. "It can't be that hard to add an interface for some sound settings. And anyway, if there's enough control over our senses to make us aware of 'being hurt' without us really experiencing pain, then surely there's enough to make us hear music and quiet sounds in our surroundings at the same time."

The bunny-girl's body turned around before she'd mentally processed why: A strange sort of thwip sound, followed by Hatchet saying: "—Speaking of which!" A long, apparently-mobile vine extending out from what had appeared to be a large, but otherwise ordinary, bush as they'd passed it a moment ago had wrapped itself vertically partway around one of his eponymous weapons, probably in an effort to grab his arm, and he was now quickly chopping down into it with the weapon in his other hand. While he didn't succeed in completely severing the end of the thorny appendage, it evidently felt enough pain from his attack to withdraw that vine and throw out another at him. This one he managed to duck to one side of.

By now, Franka had called her buddy out, and—wreathing it in flames, naturally—pointed the way for the magical stuffed rabbit to go running along the ground toward the hostile plant life. It looked a lot less innocuous now, with several of those thorny vines stretching themselves out all around it and writhing and whipping around in the air.

Kite was somewhat taken aback by this new monster's appearance. "Wha—th—tentacle bush!?"

"Tentacle buuuush!" Scylla repeated, drawing her sword and rushing at it, easily overtaking Franka's bunny. When it whipped several of its vines in roughly their direction, she swatted or chopped them all aside, even catching one midway through its travel in the bunny-girl's direction. Seeing this, the fox-girl miko ran up next to Franka and firmly planted her staff thing in the ground, summoning a dome-shaped barrier around them.

"There ya go!" she said, her barrier demonstrating its use as the monster's vines whipped against it but failed to get through. "You can still control your, uh, 'buddy' through this, right?"
"Sure!"

Hatchet was similarly occupied by the thing's whipping vines, although his lower agility necessitated trying to duck aside and get out of range rather than countering them the way Scylla was. He made his way around closer to the wolf-girl, and the two of them seemed to hold enough of the monstrous bush's attention for Franka's buddy to run right up and dive into it, setting a sizable portion of it ablaze. It quickly grabbed the stuffed rabbit in a vine and threw it away, but the fiery aura had already dissipated on contact anyway—and had very much done its job.

"Go go go~!" Scylla was adroit enough to take the opening, rushing in and making a flurry of swipes at the hostile flora, cutting off several of its vines at the source. It retaliated with some vines based on the opposite side from where the damage was, managing to scratch and cut her up a bit before she leapt and backflipped away. Hatchet made a couple of expert axe-throws to prevent two particularly thick vines from grabbing her in midair and pulling her back in.

Once the stuffed rabbit was about halfway from the peak of its arc through the air to the ground, Franka raised both her hands in its direction, and the purple glow of her power surrounded it, slowing its fall to a halt about far enough off the ground for its head to be at the level of her own. Then she brought her hands out and closed them as if taking hold of invisible hilts, and her buddy's arms moved the same way, growing two long, steak-knife-like blades of bright purple light into the grip of its 'hands'.

It held one up in front of its face, wreathing it in flames like the whole rabbit had been before, then drew that arm back and moved it as though pitching a baseball. Both of these motions were imitations of what Franka was doing as well, and the end result was the fire-wreathed blade sailing through the air right at the center of the fire-and-katana-damaged part of the bush. The other knife received a similar treatment, and came flying at the monster a couple of seconds after the first.

The first knife buried itself in some central mass, seemingly causing enough pain for the outstretched vines to all recoil inward, frantically grabbing for the source of the fire to throw it away—but the knife had already burst apart into a brief puff of magical fire and vanished by then. The second one missed its mark, instead sailing right through some of those inward-facing vines, its hot, sharp blade slicing through them like they were freshly-microwaved butter.

Scylla had stuck the landing from her earlier backflip, followed by countering some more vines while Franka prepared her attack. Hatchet moved even closer to and a bit behind the wolf-girl, seemingly deciding to let her take the aggro and watch for openings to provide assistance—which he found plenty of, either chopping away some vines coming from the blind spot of her swing or occasionally sending an axe spinning through the air to counter an attack neither of them could've otherwise reacted to. After the two flaming knives made their mark, she cheered—"Whoooo~!"—and charged forward again, sheathing her blade. Putting her weapon away like that seemed a little strange at first, but when she got up close to what seemed to be the all-important core of the beast, she drew and sliced out in a wide arc with it that seemed to go faster than one's eye could see—in the sheath one instant, and well out to her side the next, with the only evidence that it had physically moved between the two locations rather than teleporting being the many pieces of plant along its path now severed and falling apart from each other.

The bunny-girl had dropped her arms, letting her buddy fall limp for a moment, and was bent slightly forward, panting from the effort of the knife-throwing trick. Hatchet was using the opening in a different way—running around and quickly retrieving his thrown weapons off the ground—and he now stopped a bit behind the wolf-girl, noticing that their enemy wasn't quite finished yet.

"Heads up!" Two axes went up on either side of Scylla, hitting some surviving vines just hard enough to knock them back briefly and give her time to recover her stance from the attack.
"Thanks~!" The wolf-girl chopped her blade up through both of the stunned vines, then stabbed it right into the center of the monster. At this, its relatively few remaining vines stretched all the way out and convulsed violently around in the air for a couple of seconds before all falling limp at once.

"...Think that did it...phew," Kite said, picking her staff up and releasing the barrier.

"Yeeaah~!" Scylla cheered. "Loot time!"

"You seemed awfully..vocal throughout the encounter," Hatchet remarked, watching her excitedly pick up and sort the few items the big bush had dropped on death.

"Nah, that was nothing. I usually taunt way more to keep the monsters' attention, but I didn't think a plant could hear me to appreciate it."

Franka stepped forward, stretching out her arms as if to hug someone. "C'mere, buddy~..." Her stuffed rabbit stood itself up and ran, leaping up into her arms. "That nasty plant made some little cuts, huh? Nothing serious, but not to be ignored either!" She took out a needle and some thread, having it float in the air in front of her to free up her hands to work. Thankfully, needing to actually know how to sew wasn't a requirement for this class; her body sort of ran on automatic for the 'healing' process.

"I guess you gotta do upkeep like that after every fight?" Kite asked, heading over to tend to Scylla's minor wounds.
"Little buddies can take damage just like people do," she said, nodding. "That's one reason Franka wants more of them!"

"Got it sorted~!" the wolf-girl announced. "Everything should be pretty much even, but you guys can double-check if you wanna. Let's see...I guess at this point, Ara would say we should 'analyze our teamfight' or something like that."
"Ara?" Hatchet asked.

"A mage we partied up with on our first session," Kite said. "Real-life friend of Scylla's."

"Well, that sounds like a reasonable suggestion anyway," he said, shaking his head. "I guess you have to stay still to do anything complicated with your, uh, doll?"

"Mm-hm," Franka nodded. "Franka can give basic commands, but powerful stuff needs focus. More friends could be used to distract bad guys later, though!"
"Sure," he said, crossing his arms, "but for now, you sticking with our barrier maiden seems like a pretty good plan."

"Don't get the idea stickin' in one place like that is all I'm good for," the fox-girl said. "Just seemed smart with so many vines flailin' around."

"Hey, you and me work pretty great together too!" the wolf-girl said. "I don't mind being the center of attention if you've got my back."

"Sure. I'm not really the 'starring role' type anyway," Hatchet agreed, nodding. "Franka, you can do more than fire halos and energy knives, right?"
"Yep~! Franka can make cold or lightning halos for this little one, too. Plus she can use other weapons like big swords 'n stuff, and can swing at close range instead of throwing them. And Franka's little buddies can be really powerful bombs too! Buut, they'll need lots of repair work afterward, so it's a pretty desperate, one-time kinda thing."

"Wellp." The fox-girl moved closer to one of the piles of loot. "I guess if you're all done with repairs, and nobody else is injured, we oughta grab our stuff and get goin'. Don't have all 'day', right?"
Scylla nodded, hurrying to grab the contents of another pile. "True, true..."

---

This part was sitting there mostly finished for quite a while. The reason is I thought it needed to be longer, yet couldn't think of what to do in that extra length. I eventually decided that it was okay for it to be a bit short, just so the story could move forward. Also, I tried to come up with some way to have the title refer to "getting a shrubbery", but couldn't quite come up with anything that felt right.

Release - Part 2

To Part 1

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Vezin felt a little nervous. While he accepted that the person he was going to meet was only 'partially' his wife, and was elated to have her alive and no longer suffering in any way that it could be done, it had also been made clear that her memory may be imperfect, or even broken entirely. It would break the selfish part of his heart if she were alive again, but didn't recognize him at all. Or if this 'new person' built of the two of them hated him, or...

His worries were interrupted by the little orb of pink light in front of him brightening its glow, dimming, brightening again, three times in a row: A prearranged signal from the witch. Immediately he stepped forward, reappearing in the room his wife, trapped in crystal, had been kept in for all those years. Lyra was standing there, and also a girl who was largely the spitting image of her, with a only a few slight details' difference. "Hello—?"

"Vezin!" His worries and nerves evaporated when the first thing the blond-haired fox-girl did on sight was call out his name and practically pounce a third of the way across the room to tackle him into a close hug. He hurried to gently return the embrace, letting a feeling of relief wash across him as she gently nuzzled his cheek for a moment.

"M-my dear...you're alright," he said quietly, a couple of tears coming down his cheeks.
She pulled her head back off of his cheek to face him, smiling. "Indeed I am! I've lost..some memories, but I think not the most important ones. May I..?" He quietly nodded, and she planted a brief but loving kiss on his lips before letting go and hopping back slightly.

"Listen..I'd like you to call me Joanna," she announced. "One thing I am missing is my 'old' name, and 'Johann' hardly fits...but overall, I feel it's better this way. You can remind me what it was once we're used to the new one, perhaps. Any objection?"
"Not at all. That's a lovely name," he said, nodding.

"And—it's gratifying to know how much you've done to try and help me..but do you know I only have one tail now to your nine?"

"I..thought as much might happen," he admitted. "I can certainly help you along in that regard, if you'll allow me."

"We'll see. First—what sort of Deal did you make with this witch in the first place?"

"There are some..historical artifacts she's most interested in. I agreed to help seek them out. And.."
"Wait, allow me to guess—you already found one, to prove your sincerity," she said, a hint of sarcasm in her tone
"Well..."

"You do love doing things that way," she said, "even did it with me, now I think of it. Well, now I'm curious what's got such a powerful person so interested?"

Vezin turned Lyra's way, quietly summoning the item he planned to give her from his private collection into his hands. He had some idea of her interest, but wasn't certain how much she really wished to share—and, even though he'd happily give away all secrets he knew to his wife anyway, it'd still be rude to do it in front of their owner.

"Let's see.." Fortunately, Lyra appeared willing to share; she was just trying to think of the best place to start. "You're both aware there are multiple Earths, right? And universes in general?"

"Indeed," Vezin nodded. Joanna jumped slightly.

"That's...huh, I feel half-surprised? I don't remember specifically being told that, but it feels familiar anyhow," she said. "That is—Johann certainly didn't know that, but then, Kitsune were a surprise to me 'till today!"

"Well, I'm..let's say, not from around here," Lyra said, "I've been to lots of places, and observed many more, and the ancient civilization I'm interested in is unique to this particular Earth—yours. They don't seem to have been around for very long, and took up a pretty limited geographic area, but the fact that they existed at all is a little odd all on its own."

"It sounds as if there is another reason for your interest?" Vezin said, walking closer and offering her his piece. It was a broken-off chunk of a wall with some pictographs on it; the person he'd acquired it from thought they were Egyptian heiroglyphs, but they were clearly nothing of the sort.

"I guess I can let you in on it, since you're helping me out," Lyra said, carefully taking the piece of wall from him and staring into it for a couple of seconds before continuing. "They appear to have had some level of, let's say, premonitional knowledge of certain major events in your world." A translucent pink bubble appeared around the piece in her hands, and then the whole thing vanished—likely to her own abode. Then she waved her hand to one side, making the image of another chunk of wall shimmer into view next to her for the two foxes to see. "For example: This one I found earlier says something about, 'Descendants of the sun...conflict, or 'attack' as a verb...demons and monsters. That sound familiar?"

Vezin nodded, his ears folding down slightly. "The war.."

Joanna tilted her head. "Wait, which one?"
"The very same one I lost you to," he explained to her. "A group of humans—descendants of celestials, who were made by 'the sun', took up a 'righetous war' against us 'monsters'. The demons' help was indispensible in resolving the crisis. Although.."
"Yes, that wording makes it sound like the 'descendants of the sun' were on the side of right," she nodded.

"That's the way it is with a lot of prophecy," Lyra said. "Even knowing that the grammar clearly places them as the aggressors, your first instinct is to assume they're meant to be the heroes, compared to some 'demons and monsters'. This isn't the only major event they seem to have predicted either, although in most cases it's nearly impossible to tell what they're talking about until it actually happens.

"The piece you just handed me says something about the touch of—hmmh, a few words I haven't seen before, I think the last one is something like 'rejection' or 'defense'? Then, the sun...and then it says 'the moon bears a new...'" The witch paused, tilting her head slightly. "The last word's usually used for something like 'powerful', but here it's in the place of a noun."

"So, overall: Something—we aren't certain what—involving touch, rejects the sun, and the moon bears a new power, or 'powerful one'," Vezin said.

"Something like that. Obviously it must be talking about Sol and La Lune, but the rest of it doesn't make much sense to me," Lyra said with a shrug. "Maybe some more fragments will help, or maybe it'll only make sense in retrospect, like the rest of them. Either way, I'm very interested to see what else they had to say."

Joanna said, "So, I take it you're intending on traveling around the world looking for more of their stuff to handle your end of the bargain?"
"Indeed," Vezin nodded.
"Then—let's go together! I've got a pretty limited view of the modern world from Johann, and the other part of me hasn't been anywhere in over half a century. Adventuring around the world sounds like an awful lot of fun~," she said, smiling beautifully and wagging her tail a bit.
"Well—certainly. If you'd like to so much," he nodded. Then, to Lyra he said: "I will contact you the moment I find anything of interest."
"Heheh, very well. I'll leave you two alone, then," Lyra said, starting toward the door. "Don't mind me—I know the way out."
"I'd have guessed as much."

Vezin turned to the girl who was, at least partially, his wife, and gestured at the door out of the room she'd been trapped in for so long. "Shall we?"

"Certainly!"

So he led the way across the hall toward a much more pleasant room, a sort of lounge with plenty of comfortable seating. While they walked, Joanna said: "I wonder, if you'd let me borrow some of your power? While there's such a gap between us, at least."
"Anytime you like," he said, nodding, as they came into the room.
"Well, what about...right now? There's just one thing I'd like to try out with you, if you don't mind."

Turning toward her, Vezin found the blond vixen standing with her arms behind her back and a small grin on. It didn't take a genius to figure out she had some trick in mind, but—to see her as happy as that, he'd be tricked by her a thousand times. "Very well," he shrugged, granting her unrestricted access to his power.

She smiled a little wider, and came up close to him. "Alright~! Hold still a moment, would you dear?"

Vezin's heart raced as she pulled her arms around him again in a close hug, her fingers touching his ears for the first time in so many years. He shuddered slightly as she began exercising his power through her hands, sending a tingling down through his ears to the top of his head. It ran down his scalp to his face, and from there flowed down through the rest of him. His arms wrapped around Joanna as this happened, and he gave in to an urge to start nuzzling her cheek as she continued petting his ears, a soft, low vulpine churring coming from his throat.

The old fox could feel the tingling progressing into a gentle pressure all across his body. One of Joanna's hands moved from his ears to his hair, brushing through it as it started growing longer and longer. In the front it brushed across the fox-girl's hair with the motion of his nuzzling, and in the back he could soon feel its weight on his shoulders. At the same time, he could feel that pressure starting to shrink his form. His frame softened, his shoulders narrowing and his waist, arms and legs all slimming down; his clothes fell steadily looser around him as it happened. Joanna's weight had been entirely in his arms at first, but he felt it leave him as his height diminished. First her toes, then the balls of her feet, and finally her heels landed on the ground—leaving him just as short as her.

"Mmh—mrr~rrh...!" Vezin's cheek rubbing against Joanna's felt softer and smoother than before. His churring voice rose in pitch, starting to sound decidedly less masculine. He could feel through his clothes the slight weight of hair as far down as the small of his back. "Mnnh—aa~aah..!" And now..a tingling, slipping sensation began to hit him between the legs. It wasn't hard to guess what she was doing to him by now, but he was also..enjoying it to a rather unexpected degree. Joanna nuzzled him back, her tail curling itself around his, and kept on petting his ears, as he felt the thing between his legs steadily shrink smaller and smaller, his form slimming the rest of the way down to a slender, effeminate shape. The resulting looseness of his clothes didn't last, however, as the suit he had on began to pull closer and tighter around his small frame, reshaping itself to fit what he was turning into...

"Mrrh, nn~nngh..!" A dark, sultry alto tone emerged from Vezin's throat as he felt the change down below progressing into one final, sharp tug down there. "Mrr~rffh..! Oo~OOO~OOh...!" Finally, the gray-haired Kitsune's sex changed, and immediately she was hit with a burst of wonderful, fuzzy feelings down there, at the same time as her pants and undergarments pulled snug and flat right between her legs. "Mmr~rrfh..!" Her hips pressed themselves outward, her thighs and bottom growing plump—all of which pushed against the suit bottom, making it grow just enough to fit them while staying tight. Then her chest erupted in a burst of tingles, just as something tickled the base of her tail and made her let out a high "Y-yip!" That something turned out to be her hair, the bright gray locks now falling far enough down for their tips to touch her there.

But she was, of course, much more occupied by what immediately followed that tingling, as her chest immediately sprang to life. "M-mrr~rnnh..!" A bump rose up from under each nipple, pressing her shirt, vest and jacket all out at once as they quickly grew larger and larger. "O-oo~ooh..!" The way Joanna was holding onto her made the growing breasts press directly into hers, a very strange yet pleasant sensation all its own. "Aah, aa~aah...m-mmr~rrrnnh..!" The feeling of her breasts blossoming out larger and larger treated the newly-female fox to still more fuzzy, pleasant feelings down between her legs, and she helplessly squirmed in the other girl's arms, alternating between human and vulpine noises to express these intense feelings. But before she knew it, her breasts were giving one final, hard push, drawing a helpless high, breathy "Aa~aah...!" from her lips as her girlish pleasure finally, satisfyingly resolved...and then, at last, the change was finished.

"Mm-mrr~rrnnnh...!" Vezin helplessly nuzzled the blond vixen for a moment longer.

"H-heheh..!" Joanna giggled, rubbing the other girl's ears in return, before finally letting go and pulling herself back enough to get a good look at her. "My goodness, you look good in that!" she announced—not clarifying whether she meant Vezin's curvy new female form, or how it looked wearing a tight, female-tailored suit.

"I-I'm glad you think so...this was, quite a surprise," Vezin said slowly, trying to get used to hearing a deep alto tone ring out from her own lips.

(old image)

Joanna had done a little more than just shift her form; while the tail she'd had out before was just as present as ever, the other eight were now partially sealed, able to reapppear only with the other fox's permission. The power from them was still present, of course, but it still made her feel a little more vulnerable. Joanna..probably had in mind for them to 'match' available tails, a next-best thing to them having close to the same actual number.

"N-not that I'm..complaining, but...what ever gave you the idea to do this?"

"Well, I just changed from male to female, and somewhat enjoyed it," Joanna said. "And—I'm a 'new person' after all, and you must have changed some in the years since we last knew each other. I thought it might be nice to get to know each other anew on this adventure...and perhaps it'd be nice to give you something unfamiliar to enjoy it with?"

"Unfamiliar..yes, I've certainly never tried this before," she admitted. "Did you have in mind..being the 'husband'?"
"Mmh, perhaps later. For now, I rather like it like this," Joanna said, coming near again and pulling her into another tight hug. "Don't you~?" she asked teasingly, a teasing, blushing grin on her face—which was not two inches away from the other girl's.

"Er...yes..."
"Heheh..you're exceedingly cute, looking so nervous," she said, rubbing one of Vezin's ears again.

"M-mrr~rrh.." This time, she couldn't help returning the favor, even as her head slid forward to start nuzzling Joanna's cheek again.

"Aa~ah..oh, that's nice too! Mrr~rh..."

They stayed like that for a minute or two, wordlessly enjoying each other's affection, before Joanna finally let go of her ears, using that hand to stroke down through her long hair instead. Vezin slid her hand down to hold the other girl in her arms, feeling her chin lean against a shoulder. "I'm thinking..maybe a new name would fit you, too. How about Ziva?"

"I could..get used to it," she said.

"That settles that, then! Maybe we can set out tomorrow. For now..would you like to lie down for a bit?"
"Y-yes...my legs are, feeling a little weak..."
"Heheh~! I don't know if I could stand without leaning on you right now, either! Come along, then...!"

Joanna gently guided Ziva over to one of the couches and down onto it, landing on top of the gray-haired vixen. Immediately they were back to petting and nuzzling, their tails winding around each other. This was...very different from how things had been before. But Joanna clearly liked it this way, and Ziva was quite happy too...if anything, happier than ever before!

---

Ziva's image was generated, of course. I just couldn't find anything drawn that quite matched what I wanted for her, which contributed a lot to my writer's block for even part 1 of this story.

Lyra's a pretty important character in my "multiversal setting", but tends to be off in the background of most stories; she kind of prefers it that way. She's been mentioned before here and there as "the pink witch", and just about anytime in a caption/story that someone shows up with bright pink hair and is never named, it's probably her. I thought it'd be fun to have a small story that properly semi-introduced her.

Release - Part 1

What appeared to be a young woman wearing a long, dark-blue dress and a somewhat wide-brimmed, conical hat in the same shade, with distinctive bright, bubble-gum-pink hair trailing down to where her knees probably were under that dress's skirt, walked what most would think to be a meandering, lost path through the midst of some particular woods. Eventually she arrived at something which didn't really belong—and, indeed, which most people who entered those woods would never encounter: A grand mansion, with architecture dating from at least a century prior to the present day. She came to the front doors and used their ornate, fox-themed knocker, waiting patiently for the mansion's owner.

Before long, one of the gigantic front doors opened, swinging inward to reveal a tall, light-gray-haired man, sharply dressed, with the telltale ears and tail of a fox. This was a Kitsune, and while he only had one tail visible at the moment, this was one of the older and most powerful of their kind, possessing nine tails and a great deal of experience and wisdom. He smiled to his visitor. "You came after all!"
"Mmhm, I found a little bit of spare time," she said. "You know, I don't usually take requests, but the Deal you offered is still attractive. Just be forewarned that I don't take too kindly to being tricked." She kept a pleasant smile on the entire time.
"Oh no, my intentions with you are entirely honest, miss Lyra," he said. "Please, come in, and allow me to explain what has made this old fox so desperate as to make offers." He gestured politely inside.
"Sure." She followed him into an antechamber, and from there through several hallways and rooms; the mansion was a maze full of furniture, appliances, and decorations characteristic of many different eras placed not quite where they would entirely clash, but enough to give it all a distinctly surreal, timeless feel.

"I wanted your help in particular, first and most obviously because I know that you are exceedingly powerful, far more than your better-known actions would suggest," the old fox said as he guided her. "Obviously, if I or someone with equal power to me could resolve this, it would already be done. And secondly, I know that you dabble sometimes in souls, and in unsealing things."

Eventually, they arrived in a mid-sized room, empty apart from just one thing prominently on display in its center: Seemingly a statue made of bright blue crystal depicting, in detail, a badly injured Kitsune woman in a state of obvious distress. Without even looking at the statue, one had the strange, unsettling impression that someone was screaming in pain nearby.

"This is the woman I love," he said as an initial explanation for this sight.

"Uh...huh." Lyra took a few steps toward the statue. "Yep, there's...definitely a soul in there," she nodded. "And this is, awfully complicated-looking—no run-of-the-mill petrification, that's for sure."

"Those fools a few decades back—you know, in the war—used very poorly understood celestial magic to do this to her. I believe that they were unsure whether they wanted to try to seal or kill her, and this confused, tangled state is the result."

The witch nodded. "I could brute-force this crystal back into flesh, but it looks like she'd just die then. I assume you don't want that."

"Not, except as a last resort," he said. "But if nothing else will work, I am willing to accept that. Better she be at peace than...this."

Lyra came close enough to reach out a hand and gently touch the statue at chest-level, closing her eyes as though listening in. After a long moment she said, "Hmmh, this is no good. It's not too difficult for me to pull a soul into a different body, so in theory we could just make a simulacrum, but—that's..not gonna do it here. There's...damage, to the soul itself." She opened her eyes again, looking at him and seeing an expression close to despair. "Believe me, I've seen worse—far worse. This is less like a bunch of torn-up rags and more like some frayed edges here and there. I'd guess, from being in this state some sixty years? But on a soul, that's still really bad; it leaves openings for things to really break over time, even after it's in a healthy body."

"Can anything be done?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah, sorry! I didn't mean to worry you quite so much," she said, stepping back away from the statue and turning fully toward the nine-tailed one. "It's just—what I'd need in order to fix this is more complicated than just 'power' or 'stuff'." She sighed. "It requires...a person. And I have conditions if we are going to use a person."

"Name them," he said without hesitation.

---

A dark-haired, middle-aged man in a disheveled suit followed the fox through a door, passing from a hospital hallway into one of the mansion's many lounges, pausing a moment to look around the suddenly opulent surroundings in wonder. "Goodness..."

"This way, please. Across the hall." There was a little bit of eagerness and impatience in his voice; the visitor picked up on this enough to hurry and catch up to him. Lyra was waiting in the room with the statue, standing next to a complicated magic circle freshly chalked onto the floor.

"So.." The visitor shuddered, looking across at the statue and feeling it 'scream'. "That's, your wife? The one I'll be sharing a body with?"
"Ahem.." He turned toward the pink-haired woman when she cleared her throat, and paused again; there was something about her hair, he thought, that made it seem...alive? Like the way it was moving around couldn't quite be accounted for by the movement of the air across it. "So, my name is Lyra. And you?"
"Er..Johann, miss."
"And are you aware of what's going on?"

"Sure." Johann gestured to the fox standing opposite her. "This fellow introduced himself as Vezin, said he could cure my brother and make him rich. Set for life. Sure I didn't believe him at first, but he proved his wealth pretty convincingly already, and then did that first part for free. And..in exchange for him taking care of Harry, I'm supposed to help him revive his wife trapped in crystal by letting her share my body. Is that about the size of it?"

"Hmm, pretty close," Lyra nodded. "To be absolutely clear about this, though—it's not that you're 'sharing a body' with another, separate identity. If we go through with this, you would merge your entire being with hers. You'd still be you, but you'd also be her—one person with all of the memories of both..or at least, yours plus those of hers which have survived the damage. You might find your personality entirely different as a result. And, this is pretty much irreversible."

"Huh, well—that's better than I thought," Johann said. "I thought we might be on some sort of time-share where it'd be hers most of the time, but I could still visit Harry now and again. But from what you're saying....I'd still, care about him, wouldn't I?"
"If you feel that way now, then almost certainly," Lyra said with a nod. "You'd also care just as much as she does about other things. Like him," she said, pointing at Vezin.
"I suppose that's alright."
"This would also make you a Kitsune, since that's what she is."
"That being...a fox-person like Vezin there?" Johann said, gesturing. "Is that why he can do miracles?"
"Sort of. But that level of power takes a long time to build up, and isn't guaranteed anyway."

"Well, that'd only be a bonus in the first place."

Vezin stepped slightly closer to his visitor. "What do you think, then? There is no rush to make a decision now that your brother is no longer on the verge of death. But if you are prepared to make a Deal..."

Johann nodded. "I'll do it." He glanced Lyra's way. "Vezin told me that a 'Deal' is something special to him. He can't go back on his word with that?"
"Kitsune have a very hard time not abiding by a Deal that was willingly made," she said nodding. "But it is important to be clear and explicit on the terms."

He looked back at the old fox. "So..."

"In exchange for your help in reviving my wife, I will take care of your brother Harry, keeping him wealthy and successful throughout my life. And, since you will 'be' her, I will also take as good a care of you as you wish," he said. "Are those terms acceptable?" He was looking Lyra's way with this question, and when she didn't object, extended a hand Johann's way.
Johann shrugged, taking the hand and shaking it. "Agreed."

"Then the Deal is struck. I'll step out of the way," the Kitsune said, taking a small step backwards and then fading entirely from view.

After briefly looking around the room and finding only Lyra and the statue present, he said, "Alright...what do I need to do, then?"
"Just stand in the center of the circle," she said, pointing, "and take deep breaths. I'll handle the rest."

Once he did as instructed, the witch began softly chanting, taking slow steps up to the statue to place her hand on its left arm. Some sort of bright, golden-yellow light slowly trailed out of the statue, winding istelf around her arm; this process terminated with the statue suddenly, loudly shattering and crumbling into a bunch of bluish dust on the ground. Then Lyra raised her hand up toward the ceiling, the light coiled around it arcing up into the air between her and him before darting down into the outer edge of the circle drawn on the floor, filling the chalk making it with the same golden glow, which ran all the way around its perimeter before progressing steadily inward along the lines of the diagram.

When the glow reached the middle, it became almost blinding, and he found his body becoming seemingly weightless and lifting slightly into the air, followed by a feeling like wind blowing upward against his body and clothes. It caught his hair and made it grow longer, the glow settling into it to brighten its shade rapidly into a brilliant blonde. Meanwhile, the glow pushed into his body, presenting as a distinct sensation of warmth spreading inward toward his core.

His ears tingled sharply before stretching out, pulling themselves up taller and wider as fur quickly spread across them, finally settling into the shape of some very large, vulpine ears. The warmth likewise spread out from the base of his spine into a slim tail, growing a foot or so out before tingling sharply as its fur spread out thicker and fluffier, growing steadily longer at the same time until it become a huge puff of bright yellow fur with a white tip.

Alongside these first few changes, Johann felt like he was starting to remember something. It was fuzzy and distant at first, like he'd been caught in a dream for a long time and was only just beginning to wake up, but they began to grow slightly more distinct at this point. In these memories, he had the same blond hair and bright yellow fur—and was, besides being a Kitsune, a woman as well.

Tingling raced across Johann's skin, making him shudder slightly, and was followed immediately by the warmth gently pushing his body inward. "Mmnnh..aa~aah...!" His voice lilted a little higher as he squirmed in place there in midair, feeling his body collapse shorter and smaller around him: His shoulders narrowed, his waist trimmed and flattened, his arms and legs grew shorter and slimmer, and even his face grew smaller, softer, and rounder. "Aah, aa~aah..." Yet, even as strange as this shrinking felt, there was also something familiar, and even right about it.

A bunch of scattered individual memories were starting to put themselves together into his head in the proper order: Growing up a girl in Japan in the late 19^th century, falling for a man and eventually eloping with him, traveling the world, settling down, and growing old with him before learning he was a fox, and regaining her youth by accepting his help in becoming one herself. Not all of it was completely clear, with gaps and fuzzy blurs in several places, but the overall story was clear enough.

Johann's clothes fluttered around him in the 'wind' of the magic changing him, the suit's coat and vest combining into a single garment, tightening around his slimming torso even as its sleeves billowed out wider, the tie undoing itself from his neck to wrap around his waist as a sash instead, the pants slipping off of his hips and splitting apart to reform into some tight, soft leggings. His underwear lost its leggings and pulled increasingly tight around what they did still cover, especially between the legs...

The cloth pulling closer and closer down there made it quite clear that something between his legs was smaller than before, and now it was tingling quite sharply, tugging and slipping itself inward. "Oh~...mn~nngh..!" A high, soft, cute voice came from Johann's lips now, as he felt—perhaps even welcomed—the steady loss of masculinity from his form, all of the shrinking resulting in such a slender, slight appearance that only the bulge between his legs marked him as male. But even that was rapidly getting smaller and smaller, until—with a soft cry of "Aa~aah..!"—it, too, melted away, and he'd turned entirely into a fox-girl.

"Mnngh..aah~nn...!" She squirmed in place a little more as an increasingly familiar fuzzy, pleasant feeling erupted between her legs, joined by the sensation of her hips and bottom puffing themselves out into some proper curves, her upper thighs following suit soon after. "Mr~rrfh..!" She barked happily, feeling the heat of a blush on her cheeks and a grin across her lips as her chest tingled before beginning to push itself out. This felt..almost as nice as being with him, soon after he'd helped her awaken as a fellow fox. Their life together after that moment flashed through her mind, a bit blurrier than what had come before it...but definitely, wonderfully blissful throughout. And..she knew from Johann's memories that something..terrible must have happened to her at the end of all that, but couldn't remember it at all—nor anything else past the night of their wedding anniversary in 1939.

"A~ah..ahh~nnnnNNNNhh...!" Oh, now this felt good! Her chest continued to push itself out, stretching and brushing across the cloth to become a proper bosom, fit for a beauty like herself—and the sensation of all of that brought on some very strong girlish pleasure! "Mnn~nh..rrfh, RRFH~!" She simply enjoyed the ride as her transformation completed, treating her to a perfectly wonderful resolution to all of that excitement just as her breasts pushed out one last time to their full new size, and then let out a high, soft sigh of relief as it ended, slowly opening her eyes as she felt herself starting to float back down toward the floor.

"H-hahah~! That was amazing!" Her top was a sort of kimono-dress, but its skirt-like hem didn't actually reach far enough down to hide her new panties, and the only thing on her legs were a pair of stockings that barely reached past her knees. But—that was fine! It showed off her looks pretty well.

"You're feeling okay?" Lyra said, moving slightly closer to the fox-girl as she landed, gently and gracefully setting her stockinged feet onto the floor.

"I'm not sure I can rightly describe what I'm feeling right now, but it's awfully nice! I guess—'good to be back'? But also—'this is a nice surprise'!"

"I needed to allow the 'new' soul to reshape your body however it saw fit to regain as much of that 'self' as possible," she explained. "Vezin or myself could now reshape you again, if you're uncomfortable with that look."
"No, no—not at all! I mean I hadn't imagined myself as a young woman before, but it certainly beats being an older man. I'd say 'I think I could get used to this', but I feel rather like I already am. So, no trouble with that, then. Could..is there a mirror around near here?" she asked, looking quickly this way and that.

"Here," Lyra said, waving and summoning a full-length mirror next to herself in a brief, blurry shimmer of motion. The fox-girl hurried up to right in front of it to get a good look, leaning in slightly. Johann had been blue-eyed, and..she was pretty sure 'she' had had green eyes...so it sort of made sense for her to have one of each. Getting to see herself full-on like this made her even more certain she approved of this form; it was, after all, even cuter than she'd hoped!

"How are your memories? As 'her', I mean, although you should tell me if you're having difficulty remembering Johann's life as well."
Johann stood up straight again to face the pink-haired woman. "Hmmn...pretty good? There's some holes, and it cuts off I think earlier than it's supposed to. I can't remember at all how I got in that statue, like? Aaaannnnd..." She leaned forward again just slightly, tapping the side of her head a couple of times. "Don't know my old name. It just comes back 'Johann', although I don't feel that fits me too well, either."

Lyra nodded. "That's overall pretty good news. Having one's soul damaged is about as bad as it sounds like it should be. And, while you certainly are both of those people, there's a sense in which you're a new person as well. You should not feel overly bound to whatever obligations either of them had, or at least—don't allow yourself to be weighed down by them. Coming up with a new name may help you feel freer."
She put a finger on her lips. "Joanna, perhaps?" Then, looking around the room: "By the way, where'd Vezin disappear to, exactly? From what I can remember...and how he was acting a couple minutes ago, I'd think he'd be jumping into my arms by now."

"I had conditions for doing this for you," Lyra explained. "Such as making sure you—'Johann'—knew exactly what you were getting into. And allowing the 'new' you as much time as you want, alone, to sort things out. It would be wrong to allow Vezin to impose who he thinks you should be before you're ready to meet him."

Joanna nodded. "That's awfully nice of you, but really...I've got one set of memories that never knew any romance, and a ready-made partner sounds pretty nice to that end—and another that was his wife for over half a century. I don't think there's all that much 'sorting out' to do. Only thing is.." She paused, twisting around slightly to run a hand down along her tail. "I recall having four of these?"

"The Ruler sees you as a 'new Kitsune', so no free tails—you must earn them from scratch," Lyra said.

"Makes sense. But Vezin was up to six back then. Where's he got to now?"
"He is a nine-tailed fox," Lyra said. "He might have fast-tracked the power gain in his desperation to get you out of that state."
"That's sweet, but also...hmmn, a bit disappointing. We were having a fun competition back then, and now the gap's so big?"

The Kitsune paused a moment, getting an idea—perhaps even more than one of them! And her frown turned into a slightly mischievious smile. "Pardon me about all that, miss Lyra. Those are complaints for him, not for you. I've got nothing but gratitude when it comes to you getting me out of that crystal cage, and alive again besides!"
"All I ask is that you make sure he holds up his end of the Deal he made with me," Lyra said.

"Certainly, but anything else—you just ask! Now, I'd really like to see him again, honestly," she said, rubbing her hands together. "Feels like it's been a near century."

"Very well," Lyra nodded.

---

To Part 2

---

This is a little standalone story with ties to lots of the long-runners, but it should make plenty of sense without having read any of them.

Battle Vixens! - 134

First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Episode 134: Vixen Party

Emma decided that she wasn't hungry enough to join the crowd pushing their way into the doors, instead waiting patiently for them to get through and planning to follow them inside afterward. Amory seemed to more or less have the same idea—or, maybe he was just waiting with her. "By the way, um...your dad has my number?" she half-asked him.

"Oh. Yeah—he, wanted it in his phone, in case of 'emergencies'. I guess he decided something was an emergency? Sorry, I guess I could've at least told you about it."
"I-it's fine, I get it. And...he didn't have anything bad to say, anyway," she said with a slight smile. "I shouldn't really be surprised you know him better than I do. Um...

"I'm probably, gonna call some of my family back, after this. Now that they know..."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he said.
"It's just—would you, mind if I mentioned that we were um..I mean, that you...?"
"Not a bit. It's only fair anyway—since I told dad without even asking you."

"And..if they want to meet you..?"
"No problem at all."
"Okay. Although um.." She fidgeted with her hands a little. "A-april and Bev are both really pretty, so..."

"What, you're not about to suggest I'd fall for one of them over you?"

Emma blushed again. "H-heheh..I just, thought of it as a joke. But, didn't tell it right, I guess."

"Hey, we can go in," he said, pointing, and then hurried to catch the door and hold it open for her.

The restaurant had no single table large enough for even half of them, so instead they'd been given a cluster of tables all close enough to each other that even people sitting as far away as possible could still pretty much hear each other—fox ears or not. Light had more or less just taken a random empty seat, and so had wound up at the same table as Simon, Karis, and the Quinns. Simon had grabbed Cynthia on her way over to where Rowan (now back in human form) and Dawn were sitting, so she was here too. Emma and Amory wound up at one of the tables on the outside edges of the cluster, along with a couple of the city vixens.

Zeno waved to the two of them as they came and sat down. "Gemma! Nice to see you again."
"Um, i-it is?"
"Sure! Listen—you doing okay? I can't imagine spilling my identity unexpectedly like that, but you know..saving a life would be worth it, to me."

"Um, yeah. I guess I feel the same way..I just, kinda. It freaked me out a lot at the time."

"Well, you know—" she leaned back in her seat a little. "The VI's got people, for anything like that. If you need any help or whatever? But I guess you've already got someone to talk to, eh?" she said half-teasingly, gesturing at Amory.
"Y-yeah..." Emma just looked away shyly. Her face wouldn't show it, but...a thought, or maybe a suspicion, occurred to her. It felt like Zeno was deliberately saying that a certain way—a different way—but still badly wanted her to hear it..something which only one other person seemed to badly want her to know about. So was that really a different person, or...maybe it was the same one twice?

Well, she'd just said she didn't want her identity 'spilled'. Emma definitely wasn't about to confront her about it.

Thad was at a table with Warp, Sam, and Ning. "Say, Ning—what went down with you and the bank? I mean, I know you didn't get arrested or formally charged or whatever, but.."

"The VI has some very good lawyers," she said. "The money I stole had already been returned, of course, but there was the tiny little matter of the cost to repair all the damage done in the process. So we worked out a deal—a payment plan, pretty much. The VI's doing a little merchandising with my likeness, and all the proceeds from that pay the bank back with interest until it's all settled—then goes to me after. Think I'll put it in Nadia's college fund. In exchange, they don't press any charges or hassle me or anything. Pretty sweet, right?"

"Yeah, I guess most bank robbers wish they could get off that easy."

"You think that's impressive, how about me?" Warp said with a slightly vicious grin. "Guess dyin' and coming back helps matters, though."

A few waiters went around taking orders, interrupting the bits of chatter going on. Then Nico (who was over at Rowan's table) leaned back and waved. "Heeyy, those of you who are married—how'd you first meet? To get things started, my hubby and I were high school sweethearts~. Passing notes in our freshman classes, wanted to marry alongside graduation—but our parents said 'nope, you're going to different colleges. Pass the distance test, and then we'll see!' But we were among the lucky few who did pass!"

"Ah, yes.." Clark nodded. "Rory and I were in grad school—different subjects, but at the same university. She just, walked up to me one day a complete stranger and said, 'you're cute and you talk cute. Wanna date'?"

"'Talk' cute?" Cynthia questioned.

"He had this adorable British accent back then!" Rory said with a big grin. "You'd hardly know it now—but it does peek through sometimes."

"I pick up what I hear around me, is all. Can't help it," he said with a shrug. "Well, I'd never been on a date before, let alone asked to one, but my friends said yes for me. I suppose I should be grateful to them."

"You'd better!" Rory said, laughing.

"I met my wife overseas, during the war," Sam reported. Her table was a little farther off from Light's table, but close enough to comfortably participate in this conversation.
"Yeah, same," Ning said from right next to her. "Guess it's a generational thing."

"Well, Simon and I met at college too," Karis said. "I was halfway through my math ed major and saw this guy doing sketches at a table outside the cafeteria. I forget exactly what I said, probably something about his work looking good—which, of course, got his attention. And then I mentioned some manga I was reading at the time, and he was like: 'anime is not art!'" She gave this quote in a deep-voiced, mocking tone, practically spitting out the T at the end of the last word.

"So then she picked me up out of my chair and entirely off the ground by the collar of my shirt," Simon continued. "'Say that again, I dare you!' is what I recall. But I'm not much of a fighter—or rather, I wasn't one pre-superpowers—so I suggested that she please put me down, and we could settle the matter like civilized people instead."
"We debated for three entire months," Karis said. "Not—constantly, but we'd meet or run into each other off and on, and always have some new argument or piece of evidence to throw back and forth. Finally he gave up and admitted defeat, and we both announced relief that we'd never see each other again. 'Good riddance!' was your exact words, if I remember."
"Complete with throwing my arms up in the air," he said nodding. Then, after a pause: "We found something new to argue about two days later."

A little later, after drinks and appetizers had come out, Simon leaned forward slightly. "Say, Light—looks to me like you're in a pretty good mood for once!"
"You can tell?"

"I do have a lot of practice reading people. And you certainly seem more relaxed than the other day. Not to mention better than I'd expect from fighting to the point of fainting from exhaustion less than an hour ago."
"Yeah. I guess...I've let go of some stress. I'm gonna try to, do a little better at just accepting people's help from now on."

"Does that mean I can teach Rowan my keyphrase tomorrow?"

She tilted her head slightly. "You want to help that badly?"
"No, don't get me wrong. It's just—from listening to your friend over there," (he gestured to where Magus had been gushing about their recent fight for the last several minutes) "fusion is obviously amazing, and I am missing out on it! But I am willing to offer my support in exchange."

Simon seemed to like to box people's perception of himself in in this way, expressing a personality of "absolute selfishness" at every opportunity..but Light was starting to get the impression that it was just his strange, backwards way of being "humble". "I guess..if you want to do it that badly, it's fine," she said slowly.
"Excellent!" He then turned his attention to telling Cynthia his personal opinion about a bunch of different colleges' art departments..which she seemed a little confused and overwhelmed by, but didn't tell him to stop.

"Hey, boss?"
"Hmm?" Rowan sat up slightly, not even bothering to object to Nico calling him that. It was his own fault if he answered to it, after all.
"You've got a real serious look on your face. Something eatin' ya?"

"Uh..no. Just thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. Wondering if it'll be as bad as today, or worse..."
"Yeesh, I hope not. C'mon, let's not think about that! It'll spoil your supper. Have a fried green tomato!" she insisted, pushing the plate of appetizers at him.
"..Thanks." He'd lied, of course, but there was no way he could say what he was really thinking about.

During the fight earlier, shortly after they had fused...Light had taken an opportunity. She—rather, they together, as Wave—had deliberately thought about something, as a means of communicating it to him in a way nobody else could listen in on. An idea, a terrifying possibility that had occurred to her, and to Clark Quinn. And the Giver herself had confirmed this idea as a real possibility.

Vixens in general were capable of causing a disturbing amount of destruction. On a rainy day like today, Rowan himself could personally cause a localized flood. Ning could cause city-wide power surges, or strike an entire crowd full of people with lightning. Simon could make earthquakes; Rory could probably level buildings if she put her mind to it; Cynthia could turn a city block to ash with some effort. But this...this was on another level entirely: The possibility of nuclear annihilation in just one person's hands.

Light hadn't wanted to tell him about it just to let him know it was possible. She wanted help. It wasn't something she could do by accident. It wasn't necessarily easy; it wasn't even guaranteed to happen if she tried, and of course she never would try 'just to see'. But she wanted there to be someone else, who knew. Who she could trust. Who understood the ramifications, and could help assess whether the situation was serious enough. When was the risk worth it? And so...Wave had agreed/decided upon a term, a codename almost, for this particular use of Light's power, to be used if they ever needed to speak about it again.

"The Last Resort."

Even if tomorrow brought attacks that really were worse than today..it was still hard to imagine things escalating to that level, to where it would truly be necessary. Every other option would have to be exhausted. There would need to be a concerted effort to evacuate everyone in a wide radius to minimize the loss of life. If they did this in the city, there would be no city left afterward. The scar would remain for generations.

He certainly appreciated Light's trust, to want him to help her decide...but ultimately, he also wanted the same thing she did: To never have to think about it again.

---

It was fairly late into the evening. Dr. Brand walked out of his office, seriously considering abusing the powers associated with his mask to reach his car faster, and with less rain absorbed into his clothing. He paused several steps down the hallway, noticing a light still on nearby. It was one of the grunt workers for the research department's part of HR.

Out of a small burst of curiosity—and, certainly, concern for a coworker's health, he came and gently knocked on the door before stepping carefully inside. "Still hard at work?"
"Awwh, yeah," she nodded. "I know it's getting late—just got a bit more paperwork to fill out."
"I'm on my way out myself. You shouldn't stay too much longer." He leaned over the paperwork in question. "Are we hiring someone new?"
"Uh, well—not necessarily, but they like us to be proactive. These are a few potential contracts—different sorts of positions for Gemma," she explained. "Just in case. And—since we now know a legal name, I was asked to fill it in on all these."
Dr. Brand sighed. "I'm no lawyer, but this is almost certainly a breach of ethics. Nevertheless..I suppose this decision wasn't yours in the first place." He was about to turn and leave when the name she was writing on all of those papers caught on something in his brain.

"...Emma Hayes," he read it aloud, slowly.

"Yeah? Same last name as one of our consultants! Wild, right?"
"...Yes," Dr. Brand said slowly.

In the course of his scientific studies, Dr. Brand had gained a pretty good grasp of statistics. He knew, objectively, that with billions of people on Earth, and untold opportunities for them to run into each other in various configurations, well—any one specific coincidence might be unimaginably rare, but some coincidences happening to some people was practically guaranteed. But lately...he found that he didn't like it so much when events started to rhyme. It was just that he was all too aware of who might be the poet.

"How, exactly, did we come to employ Ms. Hayes in the first place?" he asked, trying to put some curiosity into his tone of voice.

She tapped her pen against her own head a couple of times. "Oooh, let me think...right!" she brandished the writing implement up in the air victoriously at remembering. "Frank's secretary—Opal? Biiig into fashion, said she was a huge fan of her designs. Naturally, she went through a much more rigorous screening process and everything, but that's how we first heard of her."

"I see...

"Well, I'll leave you to it. Be especially careful driving in the rain and the dark," he said, turning around to leave.

"Yeah, you too! See you tomorrow, Dr. Brand!"
"Likewise."

---

Simon stood up and waved. "Your attention please, everyone!" Then he sat down again, waving Rowan's way. "Okay, floor is yours."
He stood up slowly. "..Sorry about the interruption. I just thought it would be best to make you all aware—as I imagine many of you haven't been checking your phones much. The Giver made an announcement that there won't be any attacks tomorrow. However," he continued loudly, raising his hands to keep everyone's attention and cut off the start of a few cheers, "the same announcement also says the day after will be 'worse'. We should all, of course, spend some time resting and recovering from today's efforts, but don't forget to prepare for whatever 'worse' means." Then he dropped his arms again and sat down, allowing the people to resume the cheering and then get back to their conversations.

Not too much later, the dinner was over, Simon settled the bill in full, and everyone spilled out the front doors. Amory waved to Thad. "So, I guess you came from the same place I did, since Emma's from there?"
"Sure did. You wanna split passengers?"
"Yeah. I thought I could get Gemma and Light, and..?"
"I'll take Magus? That cool with you?" he asked the girl in the hat.
"Huh?" She seemed much more obviously tired than earlier, making even just following the conversation difficult for her. But she caught up after a second or two. "Oh, yeah—that's fine."

Light gently pushed Emma toward the front seat, taking the back for once. Just out of curiosity, she looked up how No Evil had dealt with the day's last attack. Some distant, blurry footage clearly showed the monster just barely failing to grab Lift before she'd had time to react and jump out of the way. She smiled slightly, feeling like she'd at least made the right decision when it came to that...

She was also reminded of something mildly important. "Oh, right. Braille helped us out this afternoon, and wanted help working out how her power works. We're, pretty sure we figured it out, but.."
"Yeah, if you wouldn't mind visiting her with me tonight?" Amory suggested. "Along with, maybe, the rest of No Evil or something."
"Sure," Emma nodded. "Um...excuse me a minute." She'd already been in the process of digging out her phone.

"Um..hi?"

"Emma, darling!" the woman on the other end said immediately. "Are you alright? Hurt anywhere?" She sounded decidedly mature, with sort of a 'high-class' sounding veneer to her inflection and choice of words.
"N-no no, just..tired. I, I wanted to thank you for the message...and um, also for not making it six messages."

"You really ought to thank Doris for that; it was her idea. You know how she hates to lose credit for any little thing."

"Mm-hm. I'll, call everyone back. It's just...a proceess, you know."
"Certainly! Say—I'll be coming pretty near you tomorrow for some business. This consulting job I've been doing remotely wanted me to look over some things in person. If you have some free time?"

"Yeah, I'd love to!" she said, seeming genuinely happy at the prospect.

"Uh—b-by the way uhm.."
"Yes?"
"It's just. I've recently um. There's." She blushed faintly, seeming to struggle to find the right way to introduce the concept.

"Goodness, dear, you sound positively flustered! Are you trying to say you're actually dating someone?"

"Uh—yes! Kinda, pretty seriously even. I-i-i-if you wanted to, you could maybe..meet him? ImeanIthought, he's like an only child of a single parent, so probably not used to so many people, but just, one at a time, might not be so overwhelming?"
"I would relish the opportunity to meet someone who's won your heart, love. So—let's talk scheduling, then?"
"Uh—sure!"

Omega Zeta Kappa 24: ο

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I've got a plan. Come to the library.

Gene received a simple, two-sentence text midway into his breakfast on Saturday morning. It was from perhaps his best friend, Odin, who'd recently turned into a gorgeous, redheaded succubus. The last time they'd seen each other, she'd been walking off with a couple of other demon-girls—both members of the now-sorority OZK—after making him a sort of promise. It amounted to giving him the best chance possible to get a date with the girl of his dreams.

He had no need to question what the 'plan' mentioned was supposed to accomplish. From the moment he got out his phone and read the text, he scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and booked it to the library, stopping just in front of the front doors completely out of breath. He was about to walk inside, but then thought: 'The library' was a pretty vague description of a location...did she want him to come inside, or meet out here, or...?

One of the library doors opened, the demon-girl on the other side. She was wearing a t-shirt (which was a pretty tight fit for her chest), some very short shorts, and dark leggings up to her thighs. "In here, dummy."
"Oh—hff, okay..." Gene followed her inside.

"Dude, did you sprint all the way here?"

"Yeah, k-kinda...heheh.."
"Well, I guess it's better we do this quick anyway.."

Odin was nice enough to walk at a slow pace, giving Gene plenty of time to catch his breath. They headed up the stairs to the second floor. "So uh...what's your plan, exactly?"
"It's not...that complicated, but...well, you'll see, I guess."
"I'll 'see'?"

Odin sighed, not like she was annoyed at him, but rather something else. "A bunch of other people..decided to involve themselves. So...we're gonna meet with them."

"Okay...?"

She led the rest of the way to where all the private study rooms were, and then to the entrance of a fairly large one near the back. She then knocked on the door, even though Gene was pretty sure they didn't have locks on them or anything. After a moment, a tall wolf-girl with light gray hair opened the door, glancing between the succubus and Gene. "This the guy?"
"Mm-hm."
"Alright..." She moved aside, gesturing for them to come in. Gene hesitated, feeling a little uncertain about just what he was walking into. Odin half-turned around and gave a reassuring expression, like she'd sensed his nerves. He nodded and followed then, trusting her. The wolf-girl shut the door behind them, and he found himself in a fairly crowded room; other than her and Odin, there were seven more strangers.

"Sssoooo." Odin said, and gestured his way. "This is Gene. Gene, meet: Jen," (the wolf-girl) "Myla," (a short catgirl with purple hair) "Tielo and Mars," (both fox-girls, the latter currently staring into her phone), "Vade, Xavie," (both fairly normal-looking girls), "Nikki" (a girl even taller and bustier than Odin, with even longer hair), "and Perri," (another fairly normal-looking one, a redhead).

"That's Xavier!" the slim, white-haired girl introduced as 'Xavie' snapped. "And why did I come so late in your list?"

"It was alphabetical," Odin answered immediately.

"Wh—no it wasn't—!"

"Then be glad it wasn't," she shrugged, and continued over Xavie's confused sputtering while she tried to come up with another complaint. "Anyway—they're all members of OZK." Gene thought: for thinking they were just a bunch of 'weirdos', Odin seemed to have warmed up to them all pretty quickly. "Jen, Myla, and Tielo are part of the council."

Gene looked between those three. "So, like—Rich's friends?"

"Yep!" the catgirl said cheerfully, although Jen seemed to approve of the title a little less.
"Who better to know what she'd find 'interesting', eh?" Tielo said, her grin somehow managing to be adorable, friendly, and vicious all at the same time.

"Llllet's just say everyone here's got a reason to want to mess with her," the wolf-girl said.

"More than one," the huge one...Nikki, right...added.

"More importantly, there's plenty of magic and expertise between the lot of us to figure out something goo~ood," Tielo said, rubbing her hands together.

"So, uh, you all have...some kind of idea for a major makeover? Or, like, something I should do to get her attention?" Gene said uncertainly.

"I guess calling it a 'makeover' isn't entirely inaccurate," Myla said. "To put it simply—Rich likes change, and is fascinated by the unusual."

"She is elated to have witches and demons in our midst," Xavie said.

"Yep!" the catgirl continued. "She was happy enough to see Jen here turning part-wolf, but even more excited once it was confirmed she's an Ookami!"
Gene asked, "Which is...?"
"A rare type of celestial Yokai," Mars said.

He glanced her way, and noticed her eyes were still glued to her phone. "Yeah, that, doesn't help me much."

Odin loudly cleared her throat to stifle all the chatter. "Basically, we want to see whether you have the potential to awaken as some rare kind of 'magic person'. If we can make that happen, it will probably make Rich way more interested in you."

"And if that doesn't work, uhhm, at least you get some neat powers?" Perri said.

"It'll work, trust me," Tielo said. "We just need to find something 'interesting' enough. Which would be...your cue, Vade?"

Vade had been leaning back in a chair this entire time, seemingly asleep. "Huh?" She sat up slightly and looked around like she didn't know why her name had come up in conversation.

"You did say you know a spell to scan for one's potential of awakening, did you not?" Xavie said.
"Oh, right! Yeah. Come over here for me?" she said, gesturing Gene's way. He glanced at Odin, who gestured for him to go ahead, and then complied.

"Is this uh, scan thing, gonna hurt?"
"Huh? No way, it's totally passive. It's just easier if you're closer," she said, still not getting up from the chair. "Aaand if you hold still. 'Kay?"

"Sure..."

Vade lifted her right arm, hand spread open, just high enough to sort of point the palm of that hand his way. Then she mumbled something gibberish-sounding in his general direction, and a faint glow settled around him for a few seconds. As soon as the muttering and glowing stopped, she dropped her hand again. "Hmmm..."

"What'd you see?" he asked.

"Well, I've got good news, and bad news," she started, then after a brief pause continued: "And also more good news that mitigates the bad news." She paused again before continuing: "...Which comes with some news that might be kinda bad depending on—"
"Will you get on with it," Nikki demanded.

"Don't you dare take that tone with her!" Xavie immediately snapped

"Oh, yeah, what're you gonna do about it?"
"Girrlls?" Vade said gently, lazily waving a hand over to lightly touch the closest spot on Xavie—which happened to be her right thigh. Xavie's face flushed red and she looked away to try to hide it; Nikki just crossed her arms and glared quietly.

Turning back to Gene, Vade continued: "Anyway, I guess I'll give it to you in that order since it won't make sense in any other. Sooo, first of all, you've got the potential to awaken as a dragon, which I bet Rich will find more than interesting enough."
"Can confirm," Tielo pitched in. "And setting her up with a dragon is a way better prank than our prospects seemed before!"

Gene wasn't sure how any of this was supposed to be prank, but he wanted the whole story regardless. "Okay, so, the bad news?"

"Right, well—the thing is, awakening as a dragon takes a lot of magic power. I mean like a ton. And...you have so little power of your own that it'd basically all have to come from outside sources. I'm talking an amount that, if I tried to supply, I'd be in a for-real magical-burnout-coma for at least five days straight."

"Wait, is that a thing?" Perri said, before Nikki shushed her.

"But the other good news is, I don't have to supply it myself. I mean—" Vade lightly swept her arms outward, gesturing at the whole room. "We've got two Kitsune, two witches, a stupidly powerful succubus, plus an Ookami, all right here! Which oughta be enough to awaken you without it being too big a drain on any one person."

"Uh, sweet." Gene was already feeling some hype from the idea of becoming a dragon. That sounded so cool! "So—what's the other bad news?"

"Weeelll...it's just a hunch, but basically everyone I just named had their magic recently entangled with Rich's wild-magic-filled, 'make-you-a-girl' potion pretty recently. Especially Odin—whose power we can't do this without—seems to have some of..that built into her very nature. It probably wouldn't be enough to have an effect if it was just a few people channeling the power, or if it wasn't so much power that I can't possibly hope to filter out all impurities on the way to you. But basically, there's a pretty high chance of, uuh, let's say 'contamination' of the awakening with that potion's effects."

"Meaning...Gene would get turned into a chick," Odin clarified.
"That's the possibility," Vade nodded. "And if that does happen, well, dragons have such ridiculously high resistance to magic that it'd be pretty difficult for anything external to turn 'her' back into a guy. Sooo..you'd probably be stuck female until you're good enough at being a dragon to determine your own form."

"Is that a thing?" Perri asked again.

"Sufficiently powerful beings of all kinds can essentially alter their forms on a whim," Mars said (still not looking up from whatever she was doing on her phone). "And fully-fledged dragons are inherently, collossally powerful."

"So I'd get to be a dragon—but a girl dragon," Gene concluded, and Vade nodded slightly. "Is uh...I mean.." Since Tielo seemed to be the expert on the matter, he turned her way. "You think Rich would still be, 'interested', then?"
"Oh, absolutely. If anything, I think she'd be delighted if you—as a dragon—were able to join OZK."

"You shouldn't feel like you have to go with that option," Odin pointed out. "That wasn't the only potential you detected, was it?" she asked Vade
"No—just the one that stood out as the strongest," Vade said. "Lower-cost options include..let's see, a tanuki? Dryad? Demon like your friend there? If we just pump some undirected magic in you, you'd probably randomly awaken as something, anyway."

"All of which would leave him male—or at least easier to turn back to male," the succubus said.
"Right!"

"Dude, are you kidding?" Gene said, turning Odin's way. "I could be a dragon. Like, a flying, fire-breathing, super-strong, collossally powerful, immortal dragon!" he excitedly gestured to illustrate each descriptor as he spoke it. "That's awesome!"

"I just..don't want you to feel like you have to," Odin said. "If you like the idea that much, though, we can go for it. I'll help you as much as I can."

He grinned big. "Thanks, man."

"So—if everyone's okay with this—what exactly do we do to supply the magic?" Odin asked Vade.

"Oh, you can just channel it my way. I know a spell to 'accept' magic, and all you should need to do when I'm casting it is focus your attention in my direction and 'want' to donate some of your own power," Vade explained.

"And...is everyone on board?" The succubus looked around; a chorus of various words of assent replied.

"Okay then~!" Vade hopped onto her feet.
"You seem unusually energetic all of a sudden," Xavie observed.

"I'm excited. This is exciting! I've never directly awakened someone before, much less into a dragon!"

"Waaiiit," Odin said as soon as she heard this. "What're the chances something goes wrong?"
"Mmh, pretty low. I've spent years learning good control over my own overpowered magic," Vade said. "Anyway, if it failed, it'd just drain us all a little in exactly the same way but awaken him as something else—not like, cause a dangerous explosion or anything."

The succubus crossed her arms. "And I guess, we'll just have to trust you on that.."
"She is the closest thing present to an expert," Tielo pointed out. "Mars has no doubts about this—do you?"

"Nope."

"See?"

"I don't see why her opinion matters so much," Odin said.

"C'mon, let's go for it!" Gene said, getting a little caught up in the excitement himself.
She sighed, "Okay, okay..."

"Ah, right—I'm still maintaining my soundproofing spell for the room," Vade said. "So nobody panic if the magic gets kinda loud. Now let's get started..!"

Vade spread out her arms to her sides, the hands palm-up, and softly chanted some more gibberish. After a moment, the room somehow seemed to dim slightly, as if the light bulbs were getting less power. Gene looked around the room, watching as some faint trails of light spiraled in from the various magic-wielding girls in the room toward the space just above each of her hands, each one in its own color and texture. Nikki's was a brilliant pink, Jen's a pure white, Xavie's 'light' somehow more like a black shadow. The two fox-girls and Myla had magic about the same color as their respective hair, and a very faint, translucent thread of bright red light came from Perri. Odin's magic was a deep purple, thick stream of light that seemed larger, brighter, and more solid than anyone else's; it came to Vade's left hand, and she seemed to need to focus carefully to send some of it along to her right, as though to keep the two in balance.

Before long, all of the various magic was floating above her hands as two brightly-glowing orbs of wispy light, the various colors swirling around chaotically through them. The mage brought her arms slowly forward until they touched, cupping both hands together and combining the two orbs into one. The swirling colors in them faded and slowed their motion somewhat as she continued chanting, her expression one of intense concentration. Finally—and, to be honest with himself, this part made Gene pretty nervous—the giant orb of magic-light-stuff was gently, slowly floated over to him, and into him. He felt a paradoxical mixture of deep, calming warmth and highly-energetic excitement all at once, spreading from the point it first contacted his body outward and growing rapidly stronger as he absorbed the entire thing. Finally, the magical light-show seemed to be over, and the room's light bulbs resumed their usual function.

Vade took a slow breath in and out, looking slightly winded. A brief glance around found most of the others looking like that had taken something out of them too—but only a little bit. However, aside from that giddy, warming feeling persisting, Gene didn't feel very different. He certainly didn't feel like a dragon yet. "Did it uh..work?"

"Oh, yes, perfectly," Vade said, nodding with a small smile. She stepped backwards and flopped back down into her chair before continuing: "Couldn't have gone better! You'll need a few seconds to properly absorb that much magic, is all."
"Not to spoil the mood or anything, but that was super, like, dark and quiet, rather than loud," Perri pointed out.

"Eh. You never know with partially-wild magic," Vade said.

Gene found this conversation a little hard to focus on. The warm/excited feeling from the big ball of magic entering him was continuing to get stronger, advancing from warmth to a sense more like actual, fiery heat. It continued to be bizarre, however, in that he thought it should be hot enough to burn or hurt or something, but instead it only felt all the more comforting. He shuddered slightly, gasping in a breath and letting it out again, and felt that increasingly intense heat in the very air crossing past his lips.

"O-oh, d-dude..!" The heat now running throughout his body seemed to spread out again to his skin, flickering all across it as a sharp, tingling sensation. Gene gasped and breathed out again, and felt the air come out even hotter. The tingling faded from all but his scalp and between his legs, and his hair suddenly erupted outward, bright golden tresses falling across his forehead, cheeks, and shoulders, before finally trailing all the way down his back to the tops of his legs.

"Aa~ah, haa~ah..hff, ffh..!" His voice audibly shifted, its pitch rising, as he felt the warmth sort of..melting him, making his body pull itself smaller and slimmer. His belly sucked in until it was flat, his shoulders narrowed, and his arms and legs slimmed down. The tingling between his legs grew steadily stronger, and on top of the intense heat pouring through him, his cheeks felt even warmer with a blush. All of this definitely meant..!

"Aa~ah,, hff...rr~rrgh.!" A sort of growl came out as Gene felt a strange push from the corners of his head, something quickly shoving its way out past his hair on each side. He couldn't quite..feel whatever had just grown out, aside from the bases of them on his head and their weight. Horns! "Rr, rr~rraaAA~AAah...!" Despite the growling coming out about as low as his voice could, it sounded like a young boy's. This time he felt something shove its way out from his back, ripping through his shirt and stretching out to his left—then an identical feeling from around the same place pushing out to the right. Wings!

"Mm~mnh, aah—aa~ah—..!" The tingling between Gene's legs had progressed into a tugging, slipping sensation at some point. So, he was really..becoming a girl...! He'd expected this to be a cost for awakening as a dragon, to feel at least a little disappointed he hadn't lucked out and stayed male despite Vade's warning...but it felt so good, and so right..!

Gene inhaled again, and let it out. This time it wasn't just hot air that came out, but a burst of brightly visible, burning fire! At the same time, he felt a push from his lower back, around the base of his spine, and the thing pushing out from there rapidly spread itself out longer and thicker, waving around through the air behind him excitedly as he felt his manhood shrinking smaller and smaller...a tail!

"Mmnn~nnnnghh...!" Finally, Gene felt it happening. His manhood melted away, just as the rest of his body's masculinity had. "Aah, aa~aaaAAAaah...!" A cute, high voice came from her lips as she felt her first taste of girlish pleasure spreading through, bringing with it a gentle push to her hips and thighs as she began to grow a woman's curves.

"Rrr~rr~RRRRRHhh..!" Another low growl came out, her high voice audibly deepening and maturing a little bit throughout. She could feel the warmth pulsing out of her body, fire flickering its way all across her half-torn, ill-fitting clothing. Most of it simply burned to ash; some was instead refined by the flames, reforging into something new. "Mm~mmn~nh...! H-heheheh..!" At the same time, her chest pushed its way out, growing steadily bigger and bigger, and bringing with it some more bursts of feminine pleasure.

"Aah, aa~aAA~AAh...!" One last push came to the new girl's chest, increasing her bust size from modest to generous. It was accompanied by one last burst of fuzzy feelings between her legs, bringing all that anticipation and enjoyment down there to a satisfying conclusion. Finally, she breathed in one last time, and let out a deep, monstrous roar—accompanied by another jet of flame from her lips, no less!

"Haa~aah...hff, ffh...heheh...!" After a brief, satisfied squeak, Gene started trying to catch her breath...but she couldn't keep from giggling! She felt so giddy, strong, powerful, and above all—hot! She'd never felt so good in her entire life! Even if she was now only wearing a mostly-unzipped tracksuit top, a pair of tiny panties, and a pair of socks!

"Well..it looks like it worked, anyway," Odin was saying.
"Unless she just looks like a dragon or something," Nikki suggested.
"Are you serious? She just literally. Breathed. Fire!" Perri objected, waving her arms excitedly.

"I've never actually met a dragon before, but that's definitely a unique aura," Tielo added.
Vade (who had leaned back in the chair enough for her head to be facing the ceiling) added: "It definitely worked, trust me."

And Jen, finally, asked: "Is no one gonna say anything about her clothes?"

Just about when she'd come close to catching her breath, Gene snorted slightly and started giggling again. "Haa~aAAAHAHAH...!" Now that she was paying a little more attention...these girls were hilarious! They were like an inadvertent improv comedy troupe or something! Was it always like this around OZK? Maybe they were more fun than she thought.

Odin came up and gently placed a hand on her shoulder as she came out of the laughing fit. "So..not that I need to ask, but how do you feel?"
"A-maaaz-ing~! Heheh..!" Gene hadn't gotten much shorter, it seemed, but that still left Odin the taller of the two of them. She impulsively hopped up to give her friend a tight hug, in the process becoming aware of a lot of newfound strength and—thankfully—also the capacity to control it and keep her arms' grip around the succubus to a not-spine-crushing level. "Thanks so much, dude!" Admittedly, there was also the awareness of her impressive bust, and how it felt squishing against the other girl's own.
"Uh..y-yeah.." Odin returned the hug only gently and briefly before insistently setting her back down. "Could you zip that thing up, please?" she said, blushing.

"Oh, yeah—heheh!" While she did, she twisted around a bit to face the rest of the room's occupants. "All of you, too~! Thanks sooo much! Anyone else want a dragon hug!?" she asked, spreading her arms (and wings) out wide.

"Uh, no thanks," Nikki said first, and several other rejections followed.
"Awwh, too bad."

"Anyway," Odin said, asserting herself over the conversation for the moment. "This 'study group' only had this room booked for thirty out of the about-fifty minutes we've been here so far, and I know better than to keep this highly volatile mixture of people all in the same room for very long, so—we all need to get outta here. I guess you'll all find out how this 'prank' went soon enough, one way or the other. First—you need some clothes that fit," she concluded, gesturing Gene's way.

"Ohh, yeah..I didn't think about that," she said, an index finger coming up to tap her face just below her lips.

"Me either!" Perri interjected.

"Well, at least shopping should be fun!" Gene said, grinning again.

"Really?" The succubus seemed fairly surprised by this declaration. It was true that clothes shopping—or shopping in general, really—had never been a pastime of Gene's before.
"I mean, I'm looking forward to people reacting to the wings and stuff," she clarified. "Like, the looks on people's faces oughta be priceless, riiight?"
"Oh..sure, I guess. Come on, then."

Miraculously, Gene's wallet, phone, keys, and other effects had survived the blazing fire of her transformation, instead somehow moving themselves from the pockets of his pants to those of her new top. It was already going to be awkward enough to explain to her family how she'd become a dragon and a girl, so not having to add that her phone was now a small pile of ash was a relief.

It also meant she didn't have to beg Odin or anyone else to spot her some cash for the 'starter set' of girl clothes. The succubus evidently had it on good authority that—if and when she joined OZK—Rich would definitely be willing to help buy some more. Never mind that—if their plan really worked, then that red-eyed beauty would be begging to buy her all kinds of stuff as gifts! The idea of a rich person lavishing her with treasures made the new dragon even happier than it would have before, for some reason.

She let Odin lead the way on which shops to try first, as she'd already been through needing some outfits for a female body. It only occurred to her while browsing the shelves that her more unique traits were by far the bigger problem here—clothes that fit someone with a tail weren't that hard to find, but tops that wings could go through were an even bigger concern. Odin, however, had also dealt with that issue herself, and gently pointed Gene the right way. That had probably informed her choice of store, come to think of it. And she even had a few tips to share on getting a top past one's horns without poking holes in it. The dragon-girl was grateful yet again to have such a great friend!

Not needing to spend as much time finding clothes that she could wear gave Gene the opportunity to try and strategize. She wanted some comfortable clothes, sure, but also some outfits that showed off her figure or just looked sufficiently cute. When it was time to go talk to Rich, she wanted the best chance possible, and...even if she'd sworn up and down that she didn't care about appearances, Gene knew that everyone did care at least a little. Every little bit helped. That also meant she needed to come up with the best..way to approach this whole thing. Would she ask to join OZK, find excuses to hang out with their illustrious leader, and then ask her out? Try to forge a friendship somehow first, then join, then ask? Or...

Ultimately, she received inspiration for definitely the best plan from a very unexpected source. She was almost finished picking out and trying on outfits, asking Odin how the latest getup looked. And then...

"What do you think?" she asked, twirling around to show off a short skirt and camisole she was trying on. This top was great—its back was low enough to accommodate her wings without any special alterations needed.
"It looks good, I guess. And..it's getting looks, definitely."

"Perfect! Maybe I'll just wear this out, then."
"You're not gonna, wash it or anything?"

"I mean, I'm already wearing it, so if the problem was other people trying it on first..."
"It might shrink in the wash, though."

"Hmm, yeah. It'd just a be a little tighter then, right? Good."

Odin sighed slightly. "You are entirely too happy about this. But, do what you want."

While they waited in line to check out, something else occurred to her. "Oh, yeah! I was also thinking...Gerar, maybe?"
"Uh, what?"
"Like—as a 'dragon name'! Doesn't that sound cooler? Like—Ge-rawr, heheh!"

"Do you need to change your name?"
She shrugged. "No, but dragons do usually have fancier names, right? You can keep calling me Gene if you wanna. But, maybe I can try it as a nickname? I'm just thinking of introducing myself as a 'new' person to Rich rather than someone she's met before."
"Deceiving someone isn't really a good way to start out...anyway, you don't think she'd know within a couple of hours?"
"I don't have to lie, I can just—not mention it at first! And letting her figure it out would be part of the fun."

"You know what—from what I've heard, maybe Rich is crazy enough to think that way too."

Finally, they came to the cashier, and Gene paid. The moment of inspiration came as they were walking out. Odin said, "I think that should be everything you need, and enough outfits to manage. It's not like you can't put on your old shirts, too..."

The succubus trailed off as someone came running up to them: A brown-haired catgirl on the tall and curvy side, wearing a fairly loose shirt with the hem hanging far enough down to make the question of if she was wearing shorts undecidable. Her legs were bare from the mid-thighs down, anyway. It looked like she'd just started sprinting as soon as she saw them, and even though she seemed pretty fit, she needed a second to catch her breath. "Hff, hff, hi! Uh..!"
"Yes?" Odin asked, as she was clearly addressing her.

"I'm, York! Yes, right. And—we, kinda met before! Briefly," she said haltingly. "I was...shorter, then."

The succubus crossed her arms. "Uh-huh..?"

"I didn't really get a chance to say anything, at the time. And I just, um.." Her face flushed bright red, her tail flicking around excitedly behind her, as she seemed to have a hard time finding her words. Odin waited patiently for a few seconds while she put it together.

"You're—uh—the most beautiful girl I've ever seen! That's it," she said finally.
"Oh...yeah?" Odin's face maintained a neutral expression, but her cheeks reddened slightly. Gene had the distinct impression she enjoyed the compliment.
"And—will you, uh, do you want to..go, somewhere? For lunch? Or supper? Oorrrr.." The catgirl appeared be struggling to come up with the name for a fourth meal of the day.

Odin just shrugged. "Sure."

York's ears popped completely upright in surprise. "Oh! R-really!? I mean uh.

"S-sorry, it's just, I've asked a lot of people out before, and no one's ever just said yes right away before."

"Well, I've had girls asking me out since puberty and usually say no. So—I guess this is new for both of us," Odin said. "I recently...became a succubus, so it's...harder than it used to be, but you're the first one to ask since then too. So I guess you just got lucky."
"Oh! H-heheh.." York giggled nervously. "Um!" she then finally seemed to notice that Gene was present—or at least that the dragon-girl had been with Odin rather than just randomly standing nearby. "Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you," she said. "Are you—"
"Friends, yep! I'm Gerar," she introduced herself with a big grin. "We were just finishing up some shopping, is all~."
"Yeah. You can take care of yourself from here, right?" the demon-girl asked.

"Uh-huh. You go have fun!"
Odin's blush, which hadn't left since York's compliment, got slightly deeper. "Y-yeah...good luck with your thing."

She then walked off with the catgirl, starting to discuss where they were going to go and who would be paying. Gene—or maybe Gerar—silently thanked the catgirl for helping her decide what to do. After all, even though York had obviously been very nervous, and in fact expecting to be rejected, she'd been bold and come right out and asked anyway! And it had worked, even with someone as usually-unwilling as Odin. And that was it, just the inspiration the dragon-girl needed! She was a big, powerful, fire-breathing dragon now, after all, not some kind of subtle trickster fox or shy feline or whatever. So why waste any time doing anything but the most straightforward method possible? Anyway, that had nearly worked the first time—with Rich being surprised-slash-impressed at his boldness, and only rejecting him as 'not interesting enough'. She was definitely 'interesting enough' now, right? So it was straight back to the OZK dorm for her!

...After she put away the stuff she'd just bought, that was.

Her luck was positively unbelievable. There was no need to enter the "demon's lair" so-to-speak like last time; no sooner had the dragon-girl come within a few yards of OZK's front door than it opened up and her target walked right outside through it! So, steeling her nerves, she immediately raised her right arm, waved, and called out: "Heey cutie~!"

Rich seemed to look around briefly to try to figure out if there was someone else she was yelling at before turning back toward her and asking, at just a high enough volume to be heard at the distance between them: "'Cutie'? Are you, perhaps, referring to me?"

"Well duh," Gerar said, taking a couple of steps the other girl's way. "I mean, there's no one else around here as cute as you are, right?"

Rich took a moment to walk closer, to within proper conversational distance. The dragon-girl could now properly make ot an intrigued expression on her face..tinged with a faint but definitely present blush! Perfect. "Do you...know who you're speaking to?" she asked.

"Sure! Richard Tanner, right? Rich for short? Wealthy boss of the OZK?"

"Well—I wouldn't say 'boss' exactly, but..." she trailed off, taking one small step closer and leaning up slightly to more closely examine her. "Excuse me, but—are you an actual dragon?"

"Yep!" Gerar decided to turn her head off to the right and let out a puff of flame as proof. "Fire breath and everything!"

"Strange." Rich put an index finger up to her left cheek and tapped it periodically, a fairly adorable 'puzzling it out' kind of expression. "I wasn't aware of any dragons anywhere near our campus, and I'm usually pretty well-informed about that sort of thing."

"Well, then I guess there wasn't one, before today! I just 'awoke' or whatever this morning!" Gerar declared.

"I see..." Rich nodded, dropping her arm back to her side. "And, are you aware of your..needs as a dragon?"

That was a weird thing to bring up. The dragon-girl tilted her head slightly, trying to make sense of the question. "What, you mean like: Food, water, shelter—?"

"A pile of wealth to sleep on?" Rich interrupted her question with another one.

"A pile of what!?"

"Wealth...? You know. Gold, silver, jewels, enchanted artifacts?" This list sounded strangely attractive to Gerar..and hearing Rich say it even made her seem a little more appealing as well.

Gerar needed a second to get her head out of that line of thinking, and say: "I uh, wasn't aware that was a thing a person could need."

"Well, every dragon instinctively wants a hoard. Without one, they tend to get terribly restless, and may turn to stealing whatever catches their eye—or worse, taking it by force."

At this point—despite how much she enjoyed Rich's attention and seeming concern for her—the dragon-girl had the mild suspicion that she might be getting taken for a ride. The idea of someone needing a bunch of physical, material wealth just to sleep was utterly absurd. Yet Rich seemed absolutely serious, even if she was trying to manuever Gerar into something. So, she tried a fairly neutral response: "Wow, that uh..sucks?"

Rich smiled like she was getting what she wanted anyway. "Oh, but don't worry too much." It was a distractingly cute smile, though. "I wouldn't bring up a problem like that if I had no solution in mind." Maybe giving her what she wanted wasn't so bad? "I'd happily lend you a few treasures myself, just until you're established enough to properly build up a hoard of your own." Okay, that offer brought her focus back to the conversation! "Although—I don't imagine your present accommodations adequate to fit that all safely into. We've plenty of room in the OZK house, however—if you'd be willing to join?"

Oh..of course. Myla had said something before about Rich liking 'change' and 'the unusual'; the way that bit of conversation had gone made it almost sound like she wanted a 'collection' of unique individuals in OZK. She must have thought she had Gerar on the hook by now, but the dragon-girl had been planning to join all along..meaning it was Rich on her hook! But better to let her keep thinking otherwise.

She put her index finger back up to just under her lips again. "Hmm, yeah, maybe—since you're already being so generous and all." And then leaned in slightly, grinning and feeling her tail flick around excitedly behind her. Rich was a little bit shorter than her...just about the perfect height difference, it felt like! They could look in each other's faces easily, but...eventually, perhaps...it'd be easy to pick her up completely off her feet into a hug, too! "You wanna discuss it over lunch or something? I mean, I wanted your attention in the first place so I could ask you out!"

Rich seemed as surprised by this as she had the first time Gene had asked her out. "Me...really?"

"Yeah you!" the dragon-girl said, standing up straight again to wave both her arms at Rich. "Sooo, whaddaya say, cutie~?"

"Well...all right, then." Rich's faint blush from before came back. And was joined by that smile...! The combination of those two was just perfect! "Lead the way, miss..?"

"Oh, yeah—the name's Gerar! Nice to meet you, Rich!" she said, excitedly taking a small step forward, thinking of making some sort of physical contact—but she restrained herself to just placing her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder for a second.

Rich's blush got just a little bit brighter as she looked up in the bigger girl's face. "Err..likewise. Shall we...?" she gestured lightly in no particular direction, and Gerar let go of her shoulder in order to actually lead the way.

"Yeah, sure!"

The dragon-girl had a strong craving for meat, and was pretty sure she could get Rich to cover the cost, so she led the way toward the nearest steak-place at a medium-fast pace. Rich didn't necessarily look athletic, but she kept up quite easily without any sign of losing her breath.

After a little bit of quiet walking, Gerar said: "You knooow, you seemed weirdly surprised to be asked out at all."
"I am. You'll be...only the second one to ever do so, by my count."

"Really? I'd think someone as pretty and wealthy as you would've had suitors knocking down your door all week! Not to mention girls flirting at you before then."

Rich shrugged. "And yet it's true.

"I believe my usual demeanor, and the steps I've taken to achieve my goals, have earned me a somewhat strange reputation. People are often intimidated before even meeting me. I have—'followers', I suppose, aplenty, but precious few friends who don't feel the need to keep me at arm's length. I don't really regret this—rather, I tend to lean into that reputation quite often. People's reactions are often just too funny...and it has its uses besides."

"Huh. So—with just the downside that people don't wanna date you."

"Even that, is perhaps not such a downside. I would hope it filters out the cowardly, and anyone who isn't serious. I don't want my time wasted by such people in the first place. However...that apsect has only occurred to me quite recently. Until two days ago, I hadn't really imagined myself as the potential object of anyone's affections."

"Awwh, that's kinda sad, isn't it?"
"I can..see how it may sound that way. It's just that romance has never been a specific goal of mine."

"...Wait, is that why you did the whole 'let's be girls in a sorority' thing?! So you'd at least be surrounded by cute girls?"

Rich shook her head emphatically.

"Again—none of what I just said crossed my mind before Thursday. And I assure you my motivation wasn't nearly so shallow as that—though I will admit it's a fringe benefit."

"Well, at least you admit to that much. It'd be criminal not to even notice how many beauties are living in the same building as you right now.

"—Hey, we're here! Is this place good with you? And can you uh, get the check?"
Rich nodded. "Easily."

They went through the motions of getting a table and ordering before resuming conversation.

"So—why was it you wanted to do this whole thing in the first place? Something that big doesn't come outta nowhere at all, does it?"

"But of course not. First, it was perhaps my idea, but not my decision alone; it couldn't have been. The council, and some of the other members, were properly 'in on' this decision long before it was made. My—I should say, our goals—included instigating an unavoidably conspicuous prank on a large number of people and institutions, including the school—from top to bottom: Administrators, professors, students and their parents, and even many of our own members. What better way to shake people out of a complacent state than turning such a basic part of their world upside-down?" Rich grinned; there was a strange mixture of cuteness and confidence to it that Gerar rather liked. "Also some of us, including myself, also genuinely wanted to find out whether it's more fun on the other side of the fence."

"So—how're you liking that part so far? Uh, full disclosure, I'm in the same kinda 'boat' since my awakening included, y'know..this?" the dragon-girl said, gesturing at her own bosom as a shorthand for 'being a girl now'.
"I think results have been quite positive for most people...many more than I would've anticipated, really. I'm certainly not unhappy myself, as of yet. And yourself?"
"I like it, heheh. Although it's been less than a day so far, and there's some stuff I'm totally not looking forward to."

"Likewise. So, aside from those motives...well, I do have one personal reason the other council members probably don't share. Perhaps, I should say a little more about myself to help explain it.

"My parents, adoptive, are both Mammon—greed demons. Like many of their kind, they worship Ouroboros. Well—it's more of a philosophy, really, largely about the proper way to handle wealth. Ouroboros was a dragon like yourself, but he gathered power over a multitude of years and ascended to godhood as a result. In an effort to prevent his instincts from causing him to harm the world, he declared the entire world to be his hoard to protect. So anything that will harm the world he sees as theft from that hoard, and whatever will profit the whole world adds to it—thus aligning his instincts with his true motivations. Those who 'worship' him take up the same thought: 'the world is our treasury to enrich.'
"Under that lens, keeping vast amounts of capital tied up doing nothing is worse than destroying it. Better to spend, invest, or even give it away if necessary—though not randomly, but intelligently, with the goal of always generating more. 'Generosity is the best form of greed' is a slogan I grew up with. I don't necessarily love the old dragon myself, but I've seen how practical their way of handling money is, and do wish to do my best to imitate it."

Gerar listened intently, leaning slightly forward and feeling her tail move back and forth behind her. Was Ouroboros able to just, decide what his hoard was because he was super-powerful? Because he was a god? Or was that something any dragon could do, to some extent? Rich probably didn't know the answer, but it would be easy enough for her to test the waters...

She continued: "However, I really consider myself a follower of Azoth instead. Not that she really solicits or benefits from 'worship' as such either, but I have come to love her primary aspects, and admire their effects on our world ever since her ascension. In a stagnant life, one can be unhappy and not even know it. Forcing a little bit of—relatively harmless—change on people, at least gives them a new perspective to think about the world and themselves from. Even if you do decide to change back, you don't forget where and what you've been. And there's quite a gain of empathy when people really are put into each other's shoes. So—I wanted to experience a taste of that myself, and gift it to those I'm most fond of. And I'm more than happy to see it splashing out to people I didn't know before as well, such as yourself."

"Oh?" Gerar sat up slightly, putting on a somewhat coy expression. "What makes you think my awakening is related?"
"I'm not especially talented with magic, but I've learned a few basic spells, and some passive sensing. It takes a vast amount of power for someone to awaken as a dragon—enough that I should have noticed it if someone on campus possessed that much naturally. And I've gotten to know the 'scent' of Vade's power quite well, so I can tell she was involved."

"That's so neat! Is power sensing a thing you can teach someone?"
"Perhaps. I'm no expert, but it should be far easier for a dragon to do in the first place."

"And...when you were talking about your personal goals before. You sound way more together than me, or most people I know, really," the dragon-girl said. "Like you had your whole life mapped out before graduating high school. I know like, one person like that besides you." (Which was to say: Odin.) "So what is the big plan, anyway?"

"Well...most of my fellow members of OZK are well aware that I'm taking an art major, but far fewer know that I'm actually double majoring in business."
Gerar tilted her head slightly. "'Cause you wanna, sell your art?"
She shrugged. "Not really; I'd be happy giving mine away. But I do want to help others sell theirs. That is why I joined our sorority, and cultivated its membership in the way that I have. I already have plenty of connections with wealthy potential buyers through my parents, and wanted to get to know a number of talented, promising artists of all sorts. Not only painters, mind you—but also writers, musicians, actors, game developers—and it doesn't hurt to get to know people my age whose careers are likely to be lucrative as well. I'll help them sell, publish, or otherwise practice their craft as a living, taking a modest fee as a broker, publisher, advisor, agent—whatever you'd like to call it depending on the art form. I believe there's also a rapidly-building demand for enchanted items, which those talented with magic could produce. My parents and elder siblings are well aware of my plans, and have given me free access to a large amount of funds to invest in those connections now, with the hope that I will return that investment many-fold in the future."

"Hey, I got to meet some of the other OZK girls alongside Vade, and they seem like a ton of fun to be around. And just hilarious sometimes, riiight?"
"Oh, absolutely." Rich grinned again. "Yet another fringe benefit."

"But I gotta admit, I'm not really any of those things you sound like you're looking for in members. I'm just kindaaa, taking a math major 'cause it's what I'm good at. You still want me in?"

"I'm interested in you for other reasons." Rich put another smile, this one a bit gentler. "It's really almost enough on its own that you're the first person willing to ask me on a date, but another entirely that you're a dragon. I...wouldn't put it this way myself, but I have been accused of having a 'fetish' for the unique. I'd be excited to get to know a dragon—at least at first—if she were otherwise the laziest, most useless person imaginable."

Gerar picked up on one out-of-place word in all of that. "Hmmn, 'first'? I thought you said I was the second earlier."

"But you are the same person as 'Gene', aren't you?" she said, setting her right hand on the table to gently point its index finger across.

"Guilty as charged~! Heheh, I thought it'd be fun to make you guess, is all."
"An interesting puzzle, at least. But, I'm more impressed by your willingness to actually change so much, and risk irreversibly taking on some unpleasant new state, just to get this far with me."

"Well—" the dragon-girl could feel her own face heating up with a blush at this point. "I decided after our first meeting that it was worth it. You seemed really, just powerful and in control of things, and that made you even hotter in my eyes. Being rich and generous doesn't hurt, either."

"I've been told that dragons genuinely find wealthy people more attractive. Maybe that was your potential showing through." She shrugged. "Or it could be that the cause and effect are the other way around—perhaps you had potential to awaken as a dragon because you find wealth attractive?"

"If that's it, I have you to thank, and a lot to thank you for! Man, being a dragon is awesome!"

"Well, I'm glad you enjoy it..."

Once their food arrived, Gerar needed a lot more restraint than expected to not just pick up the entire steak, put part of it in her mouth, and tear it off with her teeth. She'd ordered it medium rare on something of a whim, instead of her usual medium well, and now felt like she'd have actually liked it better even less cooked. She also didn't feel as interested in the sides as usual (apart from the bacon in the potato), and wound up eating the entire huge slab of meat—not a typical feat for 'Gene'! All of this was probably more 'dragon stuff' she hadn't known about beforehand, but it didn't worry her too much.

After Rich paid, they went out into the parking lot. "I had a great time! Thanks again~," the dragon-girl said, stopping her walk to turn Rich's way, taking a last couple of steps mid-turn to wind up fairly close to the red-eyed girl.

"You're quite welcome. I..admit, I felt much freer than usual to share my inner thoughts. Especially with someone I've barely met before..." She trailed off at this point, noticing how close Gerar was standing. Her face reddened a bit. "..Yes?"

Gerar gave back a blush of her own, alongside hopeful grin. "Can weee...hug?"

"Oh. I.....don't see why not."
"Okay, hehehe~!"

She spred her arms wide and then picked up the shorter girl in her arms in a big, close bear hug, leaning her head over Rich's shoulders. The feeling of their chests pressing together was pretty nice, as well as feeling the red-eyed girl's hearbeat steadily pick up as she drew her arms slowly around Gerar, then leaned her head down onto her shoulder, finally returning the gesture in full. They stayed that way for a good minute or so before Rich started trying to let go, and—not really wanting it to end, but wanting to force things even less, the dragon-girl gently set her down again. Rich's face was adorably flushed from all that, and there was also a slight smile.

"That was wonderful...I feel like I'm beginning to understand what the others like so much."
"Heheh...well, I'm open to give you another anytime!" Gerar said. "It was pretty great on my end, too~." She'd made her decision by this point.

"If you don't mind..perhaps we could make our way back to OZK to get your membership sorted? There are some..formalities that need to be observed, such as getting the council's majority approval." Rich didn't know it yet, and she'd wait for the right time to tell her, but...
"Yeah, sure! I'm not busy." Gerar grabbed Rich's right hand in her left and started back the way they came. A blush that had just started to fade came back even stronger, its shade nearly matching her eyes, but she didn't actually object.

What use did a modern-day dragon have for a bunch of solid gold and jewels anyway? If Gerar had to have a hoard with her to sleep, then...a soft, cute girl—or even a handsome boy—who could buy her whatever she wanted? Someone she liked, who liked her back? That was the right thing for her! So she'd decided: One way or another, she was going to make Rich her hoard! She quietly giggled a little bit at the pun after actually thinking that.

---

Here we are, the final proper part of OZK! I do have an epilogue planned and largely written, consisting of a number of short snippets of how things go after these events; mostly I'm just uncertain whether I want to add a couple more. But I'm very happy with this as a finale, with how it involves a lot of "old" characters, coming full circle in a couple of ways, and also finally involving a dragon. I've had this image in mind for this story since it first began, and finally fully decided what to do with it around when Gene was first introduced.

I think this is now the longest story I've ever properly "finished", the epilogue notwithstanding. I know I've had plenty of fun writing it, so I hope if you've read this much of it that you've enjoyed it too. These characters, and OZK as an organization, aren't necessarily gone for good, anyway; there are plenty of opportunities for them to show up in captions or other stories.