Fai woke up early, wandered into the bathroom, and, half-asleep and yawning, not looking around him, dropped his sleeping robe. He went to step into the wonderful bath thing which was always piping hot; whether by magic or nature, he didn't know. As he stepped towards it, however, he caught his reflection in the full-length mirror out of the corner of his eye. Suddenly he was wide awake, gaping at his reflection, down the length of his body, and back.
He shrieked before he even realized he was going to. Not fear or horror or anything so negative...just surprise.
He...or rather she...stood staring at herself in the mirror in amazement and...delight.
His dream had come true...literally.
He closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of himself, concentrated on who and what he was. Familiar, familiar, familiar, and...he gasped. Not familiar. Different. His hands skimmed curiously over his body, registering new curves and dips and absences. A female body. It felt like...like the right thing.
"Is this your true desire?"
"I...I...Yes. Yes, I think it is."
Had the empress granted the wish she had encouraged him to acknowledge? Why?
"What now, idiot?"
"Kuro-sama, the world's gone mad!"
Gloriously mad.
His voice sounded softer, more feminine, and pretty darned pretty, even if he said so him...er, herself.
She and Kurogane both got a shock when she turned and remembered suddenly that she was naked. It gave her an insane urge to laugh like a little kid being tickled.
An auspicious new beginning indeed.
When Kurogane gruffly left, looking troubled, she was puzzled. What was wrong? Kurogane hadn't been interested in her male form: perhaps in her character, in the soul where gender was irrelevant, but not in the male body. So losing that body was unlikely to upset Kurogane. Perhaps the ninja was worried that a female would not be so good at fighting, or drinking, or any of those things they'd done together so well as males?
Well, sexist Kuro-sama, I'll teach you a woman can fight and get drunk just as well as a man.
Truthfully, though he had always been attracted to men, he hadn't been all that attracted to men as a man. His physical relationship with Ashura had been a best uncomfortable and at worst miserable. He couldn't seem to get used to it or take much pleasure in it. Perhaps this was partially due to his feelings of guilt at essentially selling himself in exchange for security, and perhaps partially because Ashura was often a bit rough; but whatever the case he didn't often physically enjoy the act. He often felt as if he should have been born a woman. After Syaoran had revealed how he had turned back time, and said that Yuui may not have even been born a twin if he had not, he had begun to wonder if, in that original form, before the warping of time, he had been born a girl. And if, when the time warped and changed, some part of him clung to that original existence. So, as far as he was concerned, this change was a definite improvement.
Now if only silly Kuro-sama would stop being a spoil-sport and share in the enjoyment.