March 10, 1997
"I think..." A worried Saki Nikaidou looked at her then-boyfriend of three years as the two talked together in a park alone. "Well... Juuzou..."
A black-haired boy around the same age as Saki told her, "I know about what happened during the high-rank meet in Dazaifu. It hurts, but I'm not gonna let myself get angry." He wore the uniform of an allied biker gang, the Primal Crusaders, that was mostly male, as opposed to the all-female Dorami.
"Damn it," Saki replied as she wiped some tears her eyes and chuckled. "You do know..." She then kicked the ground in frustration. "Juuzou, I... I think I'm bisexual."
Juuzou sighed. "Saki, I think you need time to yourself to explore this. The hardest part is that most of it isn't even your fault." He then hugged his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. "I love you. Perhaps one day, our paths will cross again, but for now, this is goodbye."
"Wait," Saki stammered out. "Wha... What?!" She was shocked by his decision to break up.
"I was going to tell you this tomorrow," Juuzou replied to her as they split. "But I might as well tell you now." He then pulled out a letter he had gotten from a college. "I got accepted into my dream college in Osaka. Either way, we would probably have to say our goodbye's regardless of what happened in Dazaifu."
The leader of the Dorami gang was left speechless for almost half a minute. "I... I can't decide whether to be happy or to be sad. Juuzou, I won't hold you back." She then grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in for a final kiss. As their lips met, sparks flew one last time between them. Then, as they split, something in Saki's body kept trying to lure him back in, but she resisted it. "I love you." She then held his left hand, noting a ring on it. "Please, promise me that you will never take this ring off."
"I won't," Juuzou replied as he walked away to get on his bike. As he turned it on, he took his Primal Crusaders jacket off. "I want you to keep this. Consider it a final gift." Saki nodded and took the jacket from him, folding it up before he drove off into the sunset towards downtown Saga.
Saki only stared in the direction he traveled in, unsure of what to say as tears kept falling from her eyes. Then, she fell to her knees. "No... It wasn't supposed to end like this. I was going to be Yokota Saki one day, and we were going to spend years with each other. It feels like my heart is ripping itself apart." She then quietly sobbed into his jacket.
Earlier, February 26, 1997
"So," Juuzou said to Saki over a payphone. "Is everything all settled for the new school year? Successors for those graduating and leaving all chosen?"
"Yeah," Saki replied. "There wasn't much drama this year, thankfully." Her last word began to trail off as she looked over at a girl from a smaller allied gang that was considering a merger with Dorami. The girl was two years older than Saki, had gray-white hair, and wore a rather tight-fitting black jacket. "I may have to go. I'll call you back later." Saki could not stop admiring her body for some reason, and began to blush.
"It's fine," Juuzou replied. "Saki, I love you."
In a rare moment, she slightly hesitated. Then, she replied in turn, "I love you, too." As she hung up the phone, she asked the girl, "Hey... Um..."
The girl looked over at her and smiled. "I saw the way you looked at me, Nikaidou-san. Why don't we get a drink?" She then extended a hand to her.
"Sure," Saki replied, taking the older girl's hand. "Hey, um, are you a lesbian or something?"
"I am, as a matter of fact," the older girl replied. "Doesn't the leader of Dorami have a boyfriend?" The look in her eyes confirmed that she was looking for some "fun," and Saki wanted to see what it was like.
"I...," the leader replied, now sweating from worry. "I..."
"It's fine," the older girl reassured her. "If at any point you don't feel comfortable, I'll stop. Don't worry about a thing. I wouldn't hurt anyone in bed, especially someone new to sex with another girl or in general."
Saki then sighed and smiled. "Okay then... I guess we can do some stuff."
March 30, 1997
As Saki and Reiko rode through Saga, coming home from a meet, they both passed an alleyway near a small park and noticed a group of about 4-5 huddled in a circle. Reiko noticed first and used a hand signal to tell Saki to stop. As the two turned off their bikes and got off, they looked over. Reiko asked her friend, "Saki-chan, what's going on over there?"
One of the guys in the group was overheard saying, "You're not so tough, okama!" A punching sound was then heard, startling both of them.
Saki ran over and yelled, "Who the fuck gave you the right to come onto our turf?!" As one of the guys turned around to reply to her, she punched him in the nose, causing blood to start pouring out, before she grabbed him with both hands by the collar and threw him to the ground. As he got up and scampered off, Saki asked the other four guys, "Anyone else wanna get their asses kicked by a high-school girl?"
"Screw this," one of them, the possible ringleader, said as he ran off, followed by the other three. "This ain't worth it!"
Saki extended a hand to the victim of the group, saying, "Hey, c'mon, man. They won't bother you anymore." The victim appeared to be around 16 and had shoulder-length brown hair.
They reached out and were helped up by Saki. As Reiko looked over, she asked, "Hey, what's up with the dress, dude?" Both she and Saki were confused as to why what they thought was a boy with longer than usual hair had a skirt. shorts, and t-shirt on.
"Well," the person they helped replied. "Thing is... My name is Riko, but most people call me Reiji. It's not that I don't like the name Reiji, it's just that..."
"They called you 'okama,' right?" Saki began to put two and two together. "They beat you up because you're a cross-dresser?"
"I'm a bit more advanced than that," Riko replied to her. "You see, I'm actually a transsexual, male-to-female specifically. They beat me up for being that."
Reiko and Saki looked at each other and nodded. "Hey, Riko-chan, if you want to be protected, you can join us." Saki turned around and revealed the logo of Dorami on her coat. "We at Dorami will accept anyone. I myself am bisexual, and we even have some lesbians." As she turned back around, she continued, "We've never had a transsexual biker in the group, but that's not saying we can start. We'll call you 'he' or 'she' or whatever you want to be called, or '-kun' or '-chan' or whatever. Same goes for your first name. If you don't feel comfortable revealing yourself to other gang members yet, we can accept you in as a boy, and then you can choose to come out of the closet like I did at any time."
Riko looked at both of them and sighed. "Perhaps I need to learn to protect myself." She then shook both of their hands. "You can count me in. We'll discuss about my status later." She then chuckled as she wiped tears away from her eyes. "You don't mind a hug, right?"
"No," Reiko said. "Not at all." The three of them hugged it out as Riko cried. "There, there, let it all out. There's no shame in it. Screw anyone who says there is."
September 1, 2018
"So that's what it's called," Lily replied to Saki as she showed her a website on Koutarou's laptop. "There's actually a name for who I am..."
"There is," the leader of Franchouchou replied to her as she pointed out more details on the screen. "You're not alone, Lily. There are millions of transgender people out there just like you, and they're all valid, just like you."
The young girl sighed and rubbed her eyes and forehead. "For so long, I felt like I was on my own. I had no idea this was a thing other people had. I thought I was alone in being a girl who was born as a boy." She then hugged Saki, her heart beating at a slightly slower pace as she relaxed and calmed down. "Thank you, Saki-chan. Say, I wonder, why did you know so much?"
"I came out as bisexual half a year before I died," Saki explained to her. "I liked boys and girls the same. Soon after, me and a good friend of mine rescued a girl like you, though she was older. Some jerks tried to beat her up, and we put a stop to it and let her in our biker gang." As she chuckled, she recalled Riko's abilities. "Riko was her name. She was one of the best damn fighters in our group, and after having to knock some sense into some ignorant bikers from other gangs, nobody dared to call her a boy or by her old name of Reiji. Say, that reminds me." She then pulled out a ring from her pocket. It was burned and scratched, and it looked like it had not been worn in years.
"What is that?" Lily was intrigued by the ring.
"When I died the first time," Saki explained. "I was wearing this ring on my left hand. A dear friend and I gave each other rings, and we promised to never take them off. It must have become dislodged in the crash and gotten burned. I found it after I crashed the second time before I climbed back up." She then put the ring back on her left ring finger and sighed. "Lily, that friend was once my boyfriend, but... Things did not work out that way. Before we ended our relationship, he promised to never take his ring off, and I did the same. Now that I have it back, it's never coming off again."
Lily felt a pang of sadness for Franchouchou's leader. "You're being unusually open, Saki."
"I needed to get it off my chest," the girl explained. "My friend Reiko and I did some... Things..."
"Sex," Lily immediately replied with, startling Saki.
Saki was stunned. "How do you know that?"
"I was raised a boy for most of my life," Lily assured her. "Trust me, I heard about it before I died. You don't have to sugarcoat it just because I'm the youngest in the group."
"Yeah," Saki replied, getting back on topic. "Me and Reiko had sex several times before I died. Had I lived, we may have formally begun a relationship, but..."
July 27, 1997
After a long romp, Saki and Reiko relaxed in a bed together. As Saki turned over, Reiko noticed something off about her. "Hey, Saki-chan."
"Hm?" Saki turned back over.
"Is everything alright?"
Saki then got up from bed, not caring that she no longer had any clothes on, and sat down before Reiko knelt beside her. "Reiko... I enjoy doing this with you..."
"I do, too," Reiko replied as she smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"The thing is," Saki began. "It's not your fault, but..."
Reiko then sighed. "Saki-chan, is this about Juuzou?"
She nodded in response. "Reiko, I still wear the ring." She then showed her the ring on her left hand.
"Am I unable to replace him sexually or something?" Reiko was confused.
"It's not that. Reiko, I love doing this with you, and I haven't felt this good since the breakup, but... It feels like nobody can replace him fully." She then stood up. "Reiko, am I crazy for thinking this?"
Her friend paused as she collected her thoughts. "Saki-chan... You're not. I understand why you feel that way. You and him were close, almost like a married couple."
"In a way," she replied as she showed the ring off again. "We already were."
"Really," Saki replied to Lily in the present. "I do consider him my common-law husband in a way, when we were together. We exchanged the rings in 1996, and after that, I would write my name down as Yokota Saki occasionally. I wonder how he's doing now."
"Based on what I know," Lily comforted her a she patted her on the shoulder. "I think he's in a good place."
Saki smiled. "Thank you, Shrimpy." the two of them then laughed before they hugged. As they split, Saki noted, "On a lighter note, what were the odds concerning your old name?"
"I know, right?" The two then burst into more laughter. "'Righteous manly man?' Really? I mean, don't get me wrong, I am righteous." Lily then stood up and presented herself with confidence. "At least they got that part right. "And, you know, knowing what I know now... Eh, given my stress at the time, something would have happened anyway probably, facial hair or not." She then sighed. "On a serious note, I don't mind my family name of Go. I just didn't like the Masao part. I mean, it's too late now to change anything, so I'll stick with Hoshikawa Lily, but if I was able to, I think Go Lily would sound nice."
"It does sound nice," Saki notes to her. "Shrimpy, you can call yourself whatever you feel is most comfortable. We won't judge."
The two then continued to read several books in the library of the mansion throughout the night until the both fell asleep on the floor, books still in their hands. As Koutarou made his rounds, he noticed the two sleeping and smiled. "I'm glad Saki took her in in a way." He then kept walking past the library.
