The New World: Intermission (Part Two)

We arrived at the Angel Transit, long after I'd finished my ice cream cone. My tail swayed between my feet as I looked around.

How the Angel Transit worked, was that after you brought a ticket, you equipped a pair of enchanted wings, designated by a conductor. You would then be put into the air in autopilot, and the wings would take you to your destination. It was called the Angel Transit because the wings were pure, shining white.

It was by far the quickest way to travel places, and was the way I got to this town from my hometown of Elmanar in the first place. I can understand Lilly wanting to use it to travel to a bigger mall in Mikaen, because from what I saw in Valeria (This town), the mall was… Rather small. I think Lilly wanted more variety.

I could only nod silently to the conductor as Lilly explained to him where we were headed. He smiled as Lilly paid, and then looked at both of us. I knew what was coming next.
He picked up a wand from the table, labelled with an "Mk"—probably shorthand for Mikaen. He then zapped the both of us with it, and I felt the familiar sensation of wings unfurling from my back. Before long, we shot up in the air, and found ourselves rocketing through a translucent iridescent highway, joining hundreds of other travellers. I smiled, enjoying the rush. I glanced beside me, and saw Lilly had her arms spread out wide, an expression of childish glee on her face as her bubblegum pink hair billowed in the wind. I wish I could have wings all the time—the feeling was so exhilarating, the adrenaline pumping through my veins…

'Ahh, wings… By my calculations, you'll be able to summon wings for two minutes when you reach two-tails! Permanently by six!' Illaena chimed in my head. I would have jumped in surprise, had I not been suspended in air by wings attached to my back, automatically propelling me to my destination.

'Are you SERIOUS?' I thought back, quickly.

'Perfectly. Wings are a handy spell to have. I know what you're thinking, and my answer is this: Perhaps when we are split, and you become a goddess, you will be able to turn male again… But for now, you're stuck. Full shapeshifting isn't available until you are nine-tailed. I'm sorry, Naema, but for the rest of the year? You're stuck as a girl.'

I swore. She'd read my mind. …Or did she just hear my thoughts, since she was a PART of my mind? Whatever the case may be, I grimaced.

'You'll grow to like being a girl. Trust me.'

'Like HELL I will. What do you know? You're just a voice inside my head!'

'Naema, Naema, Naema… ' Illaena sighed. 'Being a girl is not the worst thing that could happen to you. It is relatively tame. At least you are not turning into an ant.'

'Oh, fine… You have a point. That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.' I shot back, feeling a little pissed off.

'I was putting it in perspective. Becoming a girl is not a bad thing. It is a different thing. An unexpected thing. If you embrace it, you will save yourself a lot of pain.'
'Shut. Up.'

Illaena seemed to have gotten the message, and I received no more flak from her. Moments later, we arrived at the destination, and the wings vanished in a plume of light; the spell had ended. I walked forward a little, stretching. Lilly was already waiting for me—it seemed she'd gotten here faster.

"Why are you looking at me like that? I've only been here a couple seconds!" She frowned. "Why does everything have to be a competition with you, sheesh?"

"What? It isn't!" I retorted.

"Oh. Okay then!" She beamed, and began walking towards the mall. I rushed forward to catch up with her, and then walked beside her the rest of the way.

The mall was three stories large, made out of a very sturdy wood we call 'Lightwood'. It was a gift from the gods to the carpenters; a really, REALLY light wood, that was almost indestructible. It was what a lot of buildings were made out of—though, I hadn't seen many back home. Some places were a lot less developed than others.

Suddenly, Lilly snapped her fingers. "I got it! We gotta get you a swimsuit!"

I stared at her like she was crazy.

"…For the hot springs, dummy!"

"—oh. …Ohhhhhh." I said, quietly. "Wait—does this mean what I think it mea---" Before I could finish the sentence, Lilly grabbed me by the hand and had begun to drag me into the mall with her!

"S—Stop doing that!" I stammered.

"If I didn't, we'd be standing out here all day! You're so hard to move forward with this, it's like you're a boulder!"

"No SHIT! You would be too!"

"Yeah! But the daylight is wasting away and we gotta be back by five! It's already three—we only have TWO HOURS to get you everything you need!"

I grimaced. She had a point. I let her drag me to a woman's outlet, and she IMMEDIATLEY headed towards the swimsuit section. My ears twitched.

Every single swimsuit showed off skin. There wasn't one that covered anything beneath the thighs, or my arms. And MOST of them looked like they exposed a little of the chest. "Who the hell DESIGNED these?"

"A person with awesome taste." Lilly said, pulling out a swimsuit. It was deep blue. "Try it on. I wanna see you in it and make sure it fits."

I swallowed my pride, and nodded. There was no dissuading her. I hesitantly entered the changing room, and got changed into it as quickly as possible, looking the other way as I did so. This made it take a significantly longer amount of time, since I'd never put one of these damn things on before, but I couldn't bring myself to look down.

I checked myself out in the mirror once it was on. I couldn't stop myself from blushing as I did so. The suit was… It was tight, yet flexible. My chest was practically bursting out of my body, prominently so due to the nature of the swimsuit. It didn't FEEL uncomfortable—it just LOOKED uncomfortable. I didn't know if I'd be able to bear wearing this in a public hot springs.

I headed out of the changing room, and posed tentatively for Lilly.

I could practically see the admiration in her eyes. "Whoa, Naema… It looks good on you! Let's get it!"

"—Seriously? I mean--… It shows so much SKIN." I said, quietly, trembling a little, feeling light headed.

"That won't matter because you would be underwater the entire time!"

"Water is transparent."

"And your swimsuit is not. Buck up, Naema. Best way to adapt to being a woman is to start dressing like one!" She said, sternly, folding her arms.

I groaned, and cupped my hands around my head, feeling like I was going to scream. Then suddenly, a calming wave burst through my body.

'Naema. Get a grip on yourself.' I heard Illaena's voice scolding me.

'I—Have you SEEN this outfit?! Have you?!' I protested.

'I have. But remember what I said before? If you get too upset—accidents might happen.'

'…shit…' I realised, blinking a little. I lowered my hands, giving a resigned shrug. "I… Guess… This works…" I mumbled quietly.

Lilly beamed. "Great! That's the swimsuit sorted!" She giggled. "Get back in yer regular clothes. There are a few awesome dresses here I wanna see you in!"

"NO DRESSES." I said, raising my voice, and folding my arms.

"…Sorry… --I…I'm being insensitive again, aren't I?" Lilly said, glancing away, like a little kid being scolded by her parents.

"Yes. You are." I said, sternly.

"…Sorry. You're right. We shouldn't—put you in anything like that. …It's just—I never knew you as a guy, you know? It gets so easy to think of you as a regular girl, and I get carried away… Like with my other friends--! We do this stuff all the time and it's totally fun! I'm just not used to treating you like—like I should…" She lowered her head, sniffling a little.

"…It's okay… M-Mistakes happen." I wasn't sure if I should be replying like this, because I was afraid it'd just encourage the behaviour- but she did seem rather sincere.

She nodded. "Let's just pay for the swimsuit. And then—we could get you some extra outfits?" She suggested. I nodded.

The rest of the trip was quite uneventful. Lilly was silent throughout most of it, aside from the suggestions of clothing. If I didn't like something; there was no debate, she would just put it away. It seemed like my reaction had a deep impact on her. I couldn't help but feel a bit sad.

We took a break to get some afternoon tea, at the local burger restraint. Then, we caught the Angel Transit back home, and headed back to the dojo. I'd gotten a total of 7 new pairs of clothing, and 8 pairs of underwear. All of it wasn't that revealing—I'd intentionally strayed away from all those showing off the chest slightly, or legs—though Lilly did get me a pair of shorts that while they were small, I found too cool to pass up. They were these complete black leather jean-like shorts, with a belt. I got them for the plain simple reason that they just looked badass. Hey, I'm allowed to indulge myself at least a LITTLE, aren't I?

Lilly let me enter the dojo's living room first. I was wearing a simple set of black jeans, a white tee-shirt, and a dark brown leather jacket.

"—Vixen?" I heard a voice. I looked around and saw Rin, standing next to the couch, staring at me. I figure he'd stood up after hearing the door open. He looked a bit on the scruffy side, but worry was clear on his face.

"…Vixen? That's a TOTALLY AWESOME NICKNAME! I'm gonna call you that all the time now! Vixen!" I heard Lilly practically squee in delight.

"Um—Y…Yeah. It's me…" I said, shying away a little.

Rin walked up to me. "…Not bad. Not bad at all, kid." He said. "An easy… 7/10?" He said. I stared at him. And then I realised.

That was when I slapped him right on the cheek.

He stumbled back a little, caught off guard. "What, do you want me to give you a 10?!" He said, sounding offended. That was when I wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug.

"—V—Vixen?" He said quietly, hesitant to hug back at first, before returning the embrace.
"I was—I was so… So worried…." I sniffed, my head resting on his shoulder.

"…Worried about what?" He said back, quietly.

"About… About what you'd do when you saw me as a girl. …I was worried you'd run…"
"Tch… Don't be silly, Vixen! We're bro's. Even if you are a chick now. We're still bro's. Bro's don't abandon each other. Period. Okay?" Rin smirked, patting my back a little.

I nodded, trembling a little, before stepping back, smiling. I didn't realise that tears were running down my cheek before I felt wind brush against it. I quickly wiped them.

"Must be the hormones…" Lilly muttered.

"Well now! Shall we?" I heard a familiar, female voice say from the other side of the room. I turned my head towards it, and saw Janet, standing there.

"Shall we what?"

"The hot springs resort! I've got a car waiting outside for us! Rin and I already packed your stuff into the boot." She smiled. She didn't seem fazed at ALL by my appearance.

"Oh! Oh right. Yeah. Yeah, we should. I'll bring the clothes we brought with us. That is, if there's any room…" I managed to smile. Seeing people around me not really care about my transformation? It… It sort of felt a little freeing, you know? There's always the worry of how people would accept you once a change completes itself. In that respect, I'm GLAD they didn't care.

So, we piled all the remaining stuff into the boot, and got seated in the car. It was rather roomy, though the tail did make things a little awkward for me. You didn't really see cars all that much these days due to the increasing amount of changed folk.
Mike came to see us off.

"I trust you'll keep my brother's daughter safe?" He said to Lilly, a serious expression on his face. Lilly nodded. "You have my word, Mr. Kazehera." He nodded to himself, and then turned to address me.

"Don't do anything rash. Don't explore the forest. Don't leave the grounds. …Illaena is too important. YOU are too important." He then turned around—before looking back.

"Goodbye. Have fun!" He smiled a little, chuckling to himself, before heading back inside.

"…Your uncle is a weirdo." Janet remarked.

"That he is." I muttered under my breath.

We then began the long trip to the resort.