The old school building, just across the field of the basketball court, was a monument to a strange, eerie era. When John A. Macdonald High School was called Prester John High School, 19 years ago.

Prester John High suffered from a string of disasters the moment the red ribbon was cut. A student fell to his death when a railing gave way. A teacher hung himself in front of his class. A mere year after its opening, Prester John closed. It took another 4 years before John A. Macdonald High was built next to it. Most of the old school buildings were demolished, except one.

Ranmaru had no idea why this one remained standing. But one of the rooms near the upper levels of this old school building had a comfortable connection to the school Wi-Fi, and so he came here often. The idea of a school heart-throb being this proficient was computers seemed like a downer on his prospects.

At least the old classroms had the courtesy to keep the chairs and tables. All high quality wood, so no rust to deal with. Even the termites didn't come here, and Ranmaru kept the place clean enough to stay in. When there wasn't any school left for the day, and home was dealing a lousy internet connection that his sister spent all her time watching yaoi hentai on, this was the place to be.

Ranmaru leaned back onto his chair and smiled. Another bitcoin mined. Purchasing computing power from other sources to mine bitcoins was certainly raking in cash. If he turned all of it in now, he'd be rich enough to fund his own university scholarship.

He smiled, and closed his eyes. His mind wandered to dreams and imaginations of money, and girls that came with the money. Some of them would be gold diggers, and a lot of them would just treat him as a pretty boy. He kind of preferred the latter.

A loud thud, of a box dropped onto the floor, shattered his idle dreams.

"Someone's here?" he whispered to himself. Seiichi was the only other guy who came here on a regular basis, though he never made much noise. That boy never put his good looks to use, thought Ranmaru.

His train of thought derailed again, when he stepped out of the abandoned classroom. There were people downstairs. 2 adult men standing around a 2 giant black crates. The moment Ranmaru saw one of them carry a gun, he ducked out of sight. Silenced pistols. These men were making a trade of something here.

"You got the goods?!" yelled out one of them.

Drugs? Firearms? Rare artifacts? Secret documents? Whatever was being traded was worth a lot, surmised Ranmaru. Just let them trade, and leave. If this was going to be a common occurrence over here, Ranmaru would prefer to head straight home.

Silently training next to the abandoned school building Seiichi was just trying to relax. All those girls trying to chase him around, sometimes it was very annoying to him. Really, he didn't understand why other guys were so overly jealous of his "luck" with the girls. Sure, there were a few of them, Seiichi would like to date, but he never really put any real thought into it.

Swinging his shinai around practicing his kendou forms, Seiichi noticed armed men heading into the lobby of the abandoned school building. Obviously they were in two groups standing opposite to each other with a black crate in their center.

Apparently at some point, an argument errupted and all of the sudden bullets started to flew everywhere. Quickly Seiichi dove behind something he judged as sturdy enough to keep him protected from ricochets. Sure enough after a while the shooting had stopped, but also all human noises had died down.
When Seiichi glanced over his cover, he could see the men retreating, obviously heavily wounded.

For most people a situation like this would more than utterly terrifying. Death just happened and Seiichi was as calm as he could be.
However he noticed the black crate, which, it seemed, was the reason for their altercation, was still sitting on one of the wooden tables.
Naturally curious he left his cover and spotted someone else equally curious, his classmate Ranmaru. A rather... flirtatious fellow and, as far as Seiichi could tell, also jealous of his "attractiveness". Since Seiichi knew him, he was always going around sharing pictures of his body and flirting with all kinds of girls. Especially the first one kind of disgusted him and it really made no sense to him, why one would do that, not voluntarily.

Putting all things aside, this was way more important now, so he waved at him. "Ran, did you see that? I wonder what is in this... crate thingy, don't you?"

Ranmaru spotted Seiichi, but glanced furtively at the area first. They were gone, but for how long? Sneaking towards him, Ranmaru took cover just beside the red-head.

"Yeah, I saw that," whispered Ranmaru. His eyes kept glancing back to the area where the two mysterious men fired upon each other. There was no sign of their return, but Ranmaru still felt uneasy.

He placed a hand on Seiichi's shoulder, and smiled nervously. "Let's just wait for—"

The other boy stood up, and Ranmaru watched him edge towards the crates. Was he so deathly curious of the object that he would risk the chance of being shot upon just to see whatever was inside? Ranmaru ducked below cover, his eyes following Seiichi's deliberate footsteps towards the crates. Even as the boy stood over one of the crates, Ranmaru took half a minute to even stand up.

With cat-like tread, Ranmaru walked to the other crate. It was black, and about the size of a briefcase if they were square and wooden. It looked strange.

Ranmaru gave Seiichi a nervous look, and mouthed: "Should we call the police?" He added in a few hand gestures, hoping that the red-head got the message.

In fact, the mentioned red-head did not "get the message" and proceeded to investigate the crates closer. "Hey, this one's got a button on it! I wonder what this button does..." In a fit of extreme curiosity and stupidity Seiichi actually pressed said button.
Immediately the door of both crates flung open and out of each crate a syringe launched at the boys and both hitting them dead center in the arms unloading their contents into their respective bloodstreams.

Seiichi shouted in pain and fell to the ground. "Shit, shit... sorry..." The pain, however, only got worse as the nanites started their work and soon it became so unbearable that slowly his vision faded and before long he passed out.

---

A long while had gone by and slowly but certain Seiichi's senses returned. Nevertheless he felt different than usual. Not different as in worse, but different as in actually better. For starters, he felt lighter and a bit giddy, too. He blinked a couple of times and stared at the ceiling. It was apparent he still lay in the same spot he passed out in. A loud sigh escaped his mouth and this made him gasp.

His voice was way too high to be his. "Uh, hello...?"
Yup, something definitely was wrong with his voice. It was all husky and rough, but also way too high pitched to be his old voice. "This is weird... talking to oneself is, too..."
Still this voice... Seiichi groaned and put a hand onto his head, only to find out that his muscular hand had shrunk to a petite, girlish one.
In slight awe his gaze wandered from his hand up his smaller, less muscular arm to his slim shoulders down to a slightly bulged chest, further down to a slim waist and wider hips covered by a pleated school uniform skirt.

"What the hell...? I look like a girl!" Seiichi exclaimed.
With one hand he flipped up the skirt just to be greeted by a white pair of panties and a suspiciously flat. He brought his hand to his groin and groped it...
Mnnnnnnoooopeee... no male organ present... and it felt very strange... and comfortable... which was kind of scary, actually.
"Frack... I'm a girl?"
Seiichi spotted a conveniently placed smartphone with camera, so he switched it on and took a picture of himself. Then he opened the picture.

He looked like a freaking cute girl! He even had two ribbons that bound his two new pigtails. Or was it she now? He looked at the picture again. Yup... she.

She took out her Student-ID-Card and looked at it. Back at her stared the same girl as on the selfie named "Sayuri Nakao"
"This day's gonna suck..."

When the needle shot out of crate and injected itself in Ranmaru's arm, he screamed. The sharp pain in his arm subsided almost instantly, but in its place was a chilling feeling. Ranmaru's last conscious thoughts compared it to the sensation of touching a steel bar left in a open-door freezer overnight.

The lights in his head turned off a second after that thought. Seiichi's last words went unnoticed, as little good they did.

---

"All systems functional. Reboot completed."

A strange, electronic voice uttered a single sentence in Ranmaru's mind. It sounded a bit like his own voice, except there was something off about it. It sounded a little bit higher pitched, but perhaps he was overthinking things.

Ranmaru opened his eyes, realising that he was face-down on the floor. He turned his head towards one of his hands, and wriggled his fingers. Everything felt like it was working as it should be, but why did he feel so weird? The needle must have done something to him, but it wasn't a feeling of sickness or unease. Well, it might have been unease, but there was something off about his body.

He heard Seiichi (or to him, a girl's voice) mutter something about being a girl. A weird thing for a girl to say, but he had no idea what a girl would be doing here. Ranmaru glanced up, at where he recalled Seiichi last stood, but only saw a red-haired girl in school uniform. She was petite and kind of adorable, but she was where Seiichi was.

Grinding his teeth, Ranmaru sat up and reached for his groin with his fingers. He rolled his eyes and groaned in annoyance when his fingers gently pressed against his crotch, finding none of his male parts there.

"If—" Ranmaru shut himself up, a little startled by the change in his voice. It was subtle, but he knew his voice sounded a bit more feminine. It was still quite a deep, low voice, but still quite recognisable as a female. "If that's you, Seiichi, we've just opened two Pandora's boxes at once and lost something rather important!"

Though if that girl was Seiichi, 'she' definitely was not wearing the girl's school uniform when Ranmaru first saw her. Did reality change to accommodate their sudden changes, and why wasn't Ranmaru wearing a skirt like Seiichi?

"This is great! Just great! All because of you, I've just become a girl through some weird magic—"

Ranmaru pointed his finger at Seiichi, but he stopped his sentence as he watched his hand do something weird. The flesh upon his fingers dissipated to reveal a steel metal facsimile, with the tip of the index finger opening up to form something like the barrel of a pistol. With his other hand, he gently poked his metal right hand. He felt the cold metal upon his left finger, but also the sensation of being poked in his other hand.

"Fuck. What the hell happened to me? To us?" muttered Ranmaru, staring nervously at his hand. It took him a moment to realise where he was pointing it, and he nervously shifted the direction of his pistol away from Seiichi. "Did I just become a cyborg?"

Sayuri, as this was her name now, apparently, looked to her side to spot Ranmaru on the ground. He didn't look too different, except for a few obvious pointers telling her, he hadn't stayed male either:

"Sorry, Ran... I didn't know this could happen." She still wasn't used to her new voice, but it surely sounded nice. Maybe she could finally sing, since she couldn't before.
"Pandora's boxes, eh?" Sayuri mumbled to herself.

Then all of the sudden a whirring sound came from Ranmaru and as Sayuri turned towards her, she almost got a heart attack.
"Fuuuuuuuuu....! What the heck?! Your finger's a gun?!"

Still a bit nervous when Ran pointed it away from her, she tried to answer her question. "I don't really know. All I know is, that we both are girls now and you have this weird gun thing going on. What's even crazier, look at my Student ID! Here!" She pointed at the picture and the few lines of text next to it. "Name: Sayuri Nakao, Gender: female! Something's totally not cool here..."

She stood up and suddenly realized, everything was way bigger than before. "Man... that sucks... I'm freaking tiny. It seems I'm, like, 160 or so."

Much to Sayuri's displeasure, another thing happened as she got more anxious by the second.
With a more or less silent "poof" a flame popped up in the palm of her left hand.
"Woah! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

Like stung by a bee Sayuri shook her hand to put out the fire, but nothing happened until she realized, nothing hurt. At all. So she stopped wildly shaking her hand and just stared at the fire dancing in her hand.
"This is crazy... it has to be some kind of dream..."

Ranmaru plucked out her own wallet as well when Sayuri mentioned the changes in her student ID. "Ranmaru Ooji. Female. Yeah, looks like everyone knows I'm a girl, but my name hasn't changed nor has much of my looks," she groaned.

While Sayuri seemed alarmed by her fire-creating abilities, Ranmaru could only sigh again. If Ranmaru became something a little less human, perhaps Seiichi, or rather, Sayuri's changes, was not limited to becoming Seiichi's little sister.

Ranmaru watched as her own hand transform back into a proper human hand, though not without her mental command.

"It looks like I'm now either a cyborg or a Cylon," Ranmaru paced around the area as she spoke. "And you can manipulate fi—"

She paused as one of her footsteps brought her a little closer to the basketball court. Ranmaru sensed something in the air, something that only her electronics used to care about.

"There is one available Wi-Fi network to connect to," muttered Ranmaru.

Connect to it, she commanded mentally.

Something in her mind clicked together, and her human eyes turned black, almost like the lens of a projector. A hologram (of a web browser) the size of a computer screen popped up in front of Ranmaru's face.

"Definitely robot," sighed Ranmaru. "I hope no one notices."

Her connection with the internet popped an idea in her mind. Without turning her head, she asked aloud: "Seii— Sayuri? I think you should try logging into Facebook or any sort of social media thing you use, just to see if everything's changed."

Sayuri shuddered a bit at the mention of her new name. "That's gonna take a while to get used to..."

She picked up the phone she took her picture with, apparently it was hers, and opened her Facebook account. Greeted she was by her new girl-face and the same name as on the student ID.

She scrolled down a bit more and discovered a picture of the girl's volleyball team. But in the team's center was a certian pigtailed, red-haired Japanese girl holding a golden championship cup with the caption.
"Provincial champions- Thanks for the support guys! ~Sayuri"

Surprised Sayuri exclaimed: "I'm in the in the volleyball team... and the swimming team... in very... compromising clothing..."
A long, red blush appeared on her face.

"I really look cute... really, especially in bloomers... also in bikinis, too..."

After saying this, she blushed even more and kind of urged Ran to look at it, too, so it wouldn't be so much embarrassing, she thought.

Ranmaru's eyes flickered back into human form, and she walked over to glance over Sayuri's shoulder. Glancing over Seiichi's shoulder was an exercise in masochism for Ranmaru previously, so any chance to do so now was quite eagerly taken up by her.

"Yeah, you look cute, Seiichi," giggled Ranmaru. Then the weird realisation crept into her mind. Whatever happened to them today, they were born male. No one else knew, but it was enough that they themselves did.

Plus, Ranmaru didn't want to flirt with a dude.

"I'm not okay with this being the new normal. You shouldn't be. " Ranmaru crossed her arms, a little glad that she didn't have anything there to block her hands. A little bit of pressure towards her chest made Ranmaru realise that she was definitely wearing some sort of chest support, but she was definitely flat-chested.

"The guy I knew that would assault me for looking over his shoulder doesn't just change his mindset! And I don't intend on changing for anyone."

While she was talking, another part of her mind browsed through her social media profile. Same name, almost exactly the same pictures. She was still in the Club of Gentlemen, in the same role. Her shirtless pictures were gone, but that had to be expected.

She saw a picture of herself, in a group photo, and smiled. The Club of Gentlemen's little escapade to the beach. There she was, in the exact same position, grinning with all the other boys. Ranmaru was wearing camisole swimwear, though. Guess Ranmaru wasn't into keeping her semi-feminine body a secret, even though the term 'ironing board' seemed appropriate to describe her chest.

"I'm looking through my own social media profiles now. Well, frankly, nothing much has changed about me. I'm still in the exact same role in the Club of Gentlemen, and everyone seems to know that I'm a girl."

Ranmaru smiled at Sayuri knowingly. "Though you'd be glad to hear that none of those shirtless pictures I had last time exist in this reality." She recalled hearing Seiichi complaining about it once.

Sayrui blushed even more at Ran's compliment, but immediately she was brought back to reality, the new one, by Ran's comment.
"I... I don't know... I don't want be okay with this, but somehow... somehow I feel the futility of any action... I mean, if even reality changed to fit our current bodies, we were, most likely, transported into a different dimension. There's no way we can return..."

Depressed Sayuri flopped down on the ground and stared up at Ran. She said, she was a robot of sorts, but from here, you couldn't notice it at all. Her body really seemed to be made out of flesh and not out of metal.
Suddenly Sayuri saw the pop-up in front of Ran's face.
"Ran? That's awesome! You can connect to the Wi-Fi and you don't even need your laptop. And yes... no more shirtless, or at least bra-less pictures for you."
Sayuri chuckled.
"And I guess, I should start to care more about my body, eh? It seems I have a lot of fans..."

She pointed at the comments on her volleyball in-action shots, in which students of her school pointed out their drooling over multiple parts of her body. Everything, except her chest.
Very lucky for her she also had a rather small bust, bigger than Ran's, and therefore noticeable, but not by much.

"Ey, Ran... look at the time. shouldn't we be back in class in, like... 10 minutes? Lunch time's over...", exclaimed a shocked Sayuri after she looked at the clock on her phone.
"We have to make it seem that nothing has changed with us. That we're the same girls our classmates know. Otherwise we'll raise a lot of suspicion."
Quickly she stood up and cleaned her uniform and straightened her skirt. "Why the heck do I have to wear this...ugh... so annoying..."

Without waiting for Ran's response, Sayuri took off towards the school building. On the way a classmate joined her, Matthew, one of the classmates she was rather good friends with before the change and now...? She really didn't know. But he also was scarily tall now. The small Sayuri only went up to his ribcage.

"Heyo, Sayu! You were with Ran again? Seriously, you could get almost every guy in class, but instead you seem to go for her." Matty shook his head.
"And you even insist that you're straight. Strange girl, strange girl."
He patted her head and winked.
"Oh, yeah, you look cute today, too."
With that, he waved and advanced faster.

Ranmaru turned off the hologram, and frowned at Sayuri's own social media profile. The world had changed around them, and they risked changing with the world. Admittedly, fitting into this new reality was more important than figuring out why this became their new living nightmare.

The girl part of Ranmaru was a little unnerving, but so long as she looked the same, she could find a way to accept that. It was the robot part that scared her. How did she avoid being found out, and did she have a master to report to?

Perhaps it was better to take things one at a time.

Ranmaru watched as Sayuri ran ahead, and decided to follow suit. With Wi-Fi off, she followed Sayuri. Everything about the school looked the same. The basketball court was still there, between the old school building and the new.

Even Arthur, who Ranmaru saw earlier in the court before the nanite incident, was still playing basketball. With a swift pass of the ball to another player, he waved his hand at Ranmaru and jogged up to her.

"Hey, Prince! How's my dearest boygirl?" he chirped.

Ranmaru held back a little twitch of an eyebrow. Arthur was the one in the Club of Gentlemen that lived upon ribbing on everyone else. Ranmaru wasn't spared when she was male, and she wasn't in this reality either.

She just felt like he was rubbing it in. Her recent transformation, but he wouldn't know anything. There was a better way to respond, though.

Ranmaru smiled back. "Arthur, remember the time you lost all your hair to Mitsunari and had to wear a wig?"

Arthur gasped sardonically, and clutched his heart. "Oh, dear Prince, you hath wounded my heart! Deliver me to an infirmary!"

"Go there yourself!" groaned Ranmaru, dragging Arthur by his arm away from the court. Arthur was annoying as usual to everyone that wasn't female or Ranmaru.

Lots of things changed, but it seemed like a lot remained the same.

Still a bit annoyed by Matt's stupid advances, Sayuri entered the classroom. Most had remained the same. The same teacher, the same classmates, the same seating.

And, of course, the same cool guys, guys like Takumi Ikeda. It was apparent that they were still good friends now by Takumi's high-fiving as Sayuri entered the class.
"Yo, Sayu! How's it goin'?", he asked.
Sayuri just buried her head into her desk.
"I want this day to be over as soon as possible..."

Takumi didn't respond verbally, he just laughed.
Sometimes, friends don't need to exchange words. This is something, Takumi taught her once... she couldn't remember, though, in which reality he did.
"Ah, yeah, Sayu, try to be careful. I've heard rumors that the 'Club of Gentlemen' plans to abduct you yet again to test their flirting techniques. If it works on you, it works on every girl."

Sayuri sighed a bit. She remembered from the old reality that the CoG would abduct a certain girl all the time to test out, how good they were at flirting. Somehow, though, she also remembered herself being that one girl. Never impressed, always deadpanning.

Of course, class wouldn't be complete without a residential jerk.
Alex had crept up on her while she was in thought and grabbed her chest sending unwanted sensations through Sayuri's body as he exclaimed:
"Seriously, Sayuri, you're cute and all, but your boobs need to grow. A lot. Otherwise you won't get anyone!"

A loud growl escaped Sayuri's mouth and she violently pushed him away.
"Shut the fuck up, you pervert! Do this again and you're gonna find yourself with the toxic waste!"
Sayuri spat out these words with as much vigor as she could and put on a hateful grimace.

An arm slung around her neck from behind calmed her down, surprisingly.
"Shhh, you know he's always like that. Don't let him get to you too much."
Takumi whispered with a friendly smile on his face.

"Oh, by the way, Sayu, you're really cute when you're all tsun tsun like that."
He chuckled and rubbed her head, turned her around and urged she to sit down, since the teacher did want to start the class.
Nevertheless, Sayuri couldn't avoid lighting up as red as a traffic light at his comment.

Oh, no! Am I... my body likes guys... does it? Holy crap... not what I need right now!

The lesson ended eventless, as most classes do, and so she stood, with the back towards the classroom door, in the hallway.

The club was the same, Ranmaru saw the moment she stepped in. It was still a place of relaxation for girls, in the presence of the Club. A gaggle of girls cooed in her direction as she walked past, and she blew a kiss in towards them.

"Always the charmer, Prince," whispered Arthur from behind, grinning.

She saw the girls giggle, and Ranmaru smiled at them. A lot of things changed, but she still had her charm.

A blonde-haired Japanese young man, wiping a glass, waved towards Ranmaru and Arthur. President of the Club of Gentlemen, Mitsuhide Kirijo. He founded the club a year ago with Ranmaru, Arthur and the vice-president of the club, Hansel. It was likely that things remained the same in this universe.

"Ran-kun!" yelled Mitsuhide, beckoning Ranmaru over. Blonde-haired Japanese men were rare, but Mitsuhide was one of those that dyed his hair. She was still a little pleased that he was still just as tall as herself. Ranmaru had already lost more than a few inches in a rather important region.

Ranmaru whipped out her hand and clasped Mitsuhide's free hand in a handshake. "Mitsuhide! Any problems?"

"Not much. Godwin's out looking for Sayuri, for the usual weekly event."

The phrases 'weekly event' and 'Sayuri' in the same sentence could turn a robot white with horror. The weekly event referred to abducting the 'toughest' girl in the school and using her as a testing ground for the CoG's styles.

Ranmaru gasped, staring in shock at Mitsuhide. "Isn't it normally Leona?"

"She was last week." Mitsuhide raised an eyebrow at Ranmaru. "Why, is there something wrong about Sayuri?"

Ranmaru sighed, but she said nothing. This reality had changed in another way she did not like.

While Sayuri was just standing in the middle of the hallway, a rather big, stoic guy approached her and simply, without saying anything shouldered the small girl.
A bit dumbfounded at first, Sayuri didn't struggle though. As if she was bored out of her mind, she just yawned as he carried her like Santa carries his sack.

Naturally, every student they passed just stared in awe, except for those who had seen this spectacle before.
Soon, they had arrived at the CoG's clubroom where Godwin, the guy carrying her, just opened the door and waltzed in.
To a blonde-haired Japanese he simply uttered. "Where to?" and waited for Mitsuhide's response.
When it came, he just dropped Sayrui onto a nearby couch, where she crossed her legs and arms, still very cool and not too emotional.
"What's on today's plan?"

Ranmaru went to a corner, Godwin following up by her side. The pair watched as Mitsuhide went on one knee in front of Sayuri, muttering something perhaps just cheesy enough for Sayuri to laugh. Mitsuhide treated Sayuri (or Leona, in the previous reality) as an opportunity to test the weirdest of methods, and after Hansel banned setting fire to inflatable sheep in the club, it was perhaps just 2 more weeks before Mitsuhide did something weirder than plain words.

Their eyes met right after the two of them rolled their eyes in the same moment, and they both held back a chuckle. Godwin used to be deathly afraid of girls, and it was Ranmaru's idea, in the previous reality, that he would overcome this fear through joining the CoG. It was probably the same in this world, too. Godwin was still bad at making girls feel loved, but he had the sultry, imposing and handsome figure that girls stared at from the distance.

Basically, he was a taller, sulkier Ranmaru with a male body, thought Ranmaru.

They saw Mitsuhide wander off, clearly pouting to whatever Sayuri said. Arthur went forward next. It was clear he said nothing, and his humorous intent was even clearly as he whipped out a hundred dollar note from his wallet and pushed it into Sayuri's face.

Both Ranmaru's and Godwin's palms hit their own faces in the same moment.

"Bloody hell..." muttered Ranmaru.

"Even I know that's a bad idea, Ran..." Godwin's tone told Ranmaru that he concurred.

Mitsuhide came towards her and knelt in front of Sayuri. Already his intentions were clearly visible in his facial gestures.
"Hey, were you a square in your previous life? Because you have all the right angles!"
At that attempt, Sayuri broke out into a fit of laughter.

"This was so bad, I bet someone, somewhere in the world just died from facepalming too hard..."
Sayuri chuckled at her own response and Mitsuhide walked off pouting.
This wasn't as gruesome as she initially had thought, no, she was actually enjoying turning down guys.

That was when Arthur came to her. Without saying anything he just pulled out a 100CAD bill and shoved it into her face. Literally.
In the background she heard facepalming, but Sayuri didn't care, she had money.

An evil look formed on her face and she chuckled.
"Power! Unlimited power!"
She laughed maniacally waving the note around.

Ranmaru crossed her arms and sighed. Sayuri seemed to be enjoying this, but even if she didn't know Seiichi that much, she'd have guessed that Seiichi might act diffferently under the same circumstances. The mind was a plaything of the body, and hopefully it wouldn't do in whatever was left of Sayuri's masculinity.

Godwin looked at Ranmaru, raising an eyebrow. "Do you want to have a shot?" he asked.

She sighed again. Maybe it was a way to find out if Sayuri wasn't just enjoying her role too much. It was time for Prince Ranmaru to shine. With a cocky grin that contrasted with her own nervousness, Ranmaru strode to the chair confidently. From the sparkling gaze that defined just about every girl paying attention to her, she could tell that still had it.

"Princess Sayuri, we can only hope to impress your pure, pure heart." Going down on one knee, Ranmaru held Sayuri's hand. It was soft, and smooth. It was just a month ago when she recalled her male, human self holding Seiichi's hand for a moment before being told off. It was rough.

Which led to her next point.

"Your hands feel so soft. I could hold onto it for the rest of eternity if I spend it with you." Her mind immediately regretted it after her lips touched the back of Sayuri's hand.

After that Ranmaru proceeded towards her.
In response to what Ran said, Sayuri started to feel heat in her face. "P....princess...?", she stammered.

Suddenly Ranmaru went on her knees and grabbed her hand softly stroking it.
"Your hands feel so soft. I could hold onto it for the rest of eternity if I spend it with you.", she had exclaimed and then, to Sayuri's utter shock, touched Sayuri's backhand with her lips.

"R...r...a....gg.....u...hh.....sssss...pplll.....nnnnnggg....hrr.....fff...sss."
It was as if Ranmaru had short circuited the poor ex-male. Her face as red as wine and as hot as lava, or at least it felt like it to her, she stuttered and stammered, but to no avail; No real words were able to escape her mouth.

Soon enough her deeply conflicted mind, which definitely saw Ran as a guy, but didn't want her to be one, because of obvious reasons related to her mind's past, simply shut down and she lost consciousness...

------

The old school building, just across the field of the basketball court, was a monument to a strange, eerie era. When John A. Macdonald High School was called Prester John High School, 19 years ago.

Prester John High suffered from a string of disasters the moment the red ribbon was cut. A student fell to his death when a railing gave way. A teacher hung himself in front of his class. A mere year after its opening, Prester John closed. It took another 4 years before John A. Macdonald High was built next to it. Most of the old school buildings were demolished, except one.

Gale came here sometimes. It was quiet, and Seiichi, the only other guy that came here on a consistent basis, kept himself busy and quiet with his kendo practice. The old classroms had the courtesy to keep the chairs and tables. All high quality wood, so no rust to deal with. A few cushions here and there, and Gale could nap in between classes. Pushing up one of the pillows he brought in, Gale closed his eyes and dreamed. His father wanted him to 'become a real man', but the meaning of that seemed so far away from him. He also told him never to ask another guy about what that meant, but whatever his father didn't know couldn't hurt him.

A loud thud, of a box dropped onto the floor, shattered his idle thoughts.

"Someone's here?" he whispered to himself. Seiichi never made that much noise, not even on special occasions.

His train of thought derailed again, when he stepped out of the abandoned classroom. There were people downstairs. 2 adult men standing around a 2 giant black crates. The moment Gale saw one of them carry a gun, he ducked out of sight. Silenced pistols. These men were making a trade of something here.

"You got the goods?!" yelled out one of them.

Gale clenched his teeth, poking his head out from behind his hiding spot. Two men, trenchcoats, armed with silenced weapons. If either of them died, or noticed Gale, no one would know until the scent of rotting flesh set in. It was a distressing thought, Gale had realised.

Silently training next to the abandoned school building Seiichi was just trying to relax. All those girls trying to chase him around, sometimes it was very annoying to him. Really, he didn't understand why other guys were so overly jealous of his "luck" with the girls. Sure, there were a few of them, Seiichi would like to date, but he never really put any real thought into it.

Swinging his shinai around practicing his kendou forms, Seiichi noticed armed men heading into the lobby of the abandoned school building. Obviously they were in two groups standing opposite to each other with a black crate in their center.

Apparently at some point, an argument errupted and all of the sudden bullets started to flew everywhere. Quickly Seiichi dove behind something he judged as sturdy enough to keep him protected from ricochets. Sure enough after a while the shooting had stopped, but also all human noises had died down.
When Seiichi glanced over his cover, he could see the men retreating, obviously heavily wounded.

For most people a situation like this would more than utterly terrifying. Death just happened and Seiichi was as calm as he could be.
However he noticed the black crate, which, it seemed, was the reason for their altercation, was still sitting on one of the wooden tables.
Naturally curious he left his cover and spotted someone else equally curious, his classmate Gale. A rather quiet guy, who, strangely enough, had even joined the so-called "Club of Gentlemen", a dubious club seeming to be a club founded just to pick up girls en masse.

Putting all things aside, this was way more important now, so he waved at him. "Gale, did you see that? I wonder what is in this... crate thingy, don't you?"