Author's note: Well here we are again; I got to say I still was unable to wrap up the Dragon spirits business in this chapter. Don't get me wrong, I'm already writing the scene were that issue is finally being dealt with; the problem is that this chapter was not going to be ready this month if I focused on finishing that scene and I didn't wanted to wait to upload this chapter on February. So I had to split the work I had already done and upload the first part as a stand-alone chapter; of 17 pages that I have already written, here I you have the first 10. So the conclusion of this particular arc would still not come until the next chapter; luckily since I've already roughly have like half of the conclusion already written, I expect to finally upload the rest of the scene by next weekend. So I suppose it is a good thing that waiting times are cut shorter by implementing this measure, at least you're not going to have to wait long if some of you seem to be disappointed by this news.
Anyway, let's start with the chapter already…
Disclaimer: I own nothing; copyrights to the different series that appear in this fic belong to their respective owners.
Field Trip! Didn't See That Coming…
!
The mountain air blew refreshingly pleasant on her face; Pan surveyed above the thick canopy of trees from the edge of the small mountain path that she and the rest of her minions were traversing to soak on nature's beauty. They had been following Mikami's lead for several hours now, the Ghost-sweeper leading them away from Tokyo's metropolis and into the countryside. Narrow streets and tall cramped buildings giving way to vast rice fields and endless hills, brilliant and eye-blinding publicity billboards of a hundred colors being replaced for the vibrant green of the trees and the endless blue of the sky, a solemn peace and quiet that couldn't be hoped to be found anywhere among the constant noise and buzz of the city.
Pan was pulled out of her reverie by the huffing sounds of laborious breaths behind her; she turned to see her apprentices and the Kanto students struggling to catch up to her and the rest of the expert fighters, her minions standing at a few discreet paces from her to give her enough room to take on the sights at her leisure. The first of her apprentices to arrive was Kenichi, who looked as if about to faint at any moment now. He brought his hands to his knees to support himself in his weariness and tried to catch back his breath with long mouthfuls of air.
The rest of the young students didn't seem to be faring better. Nagi was practically crawling on the ground on all fours, unable to withstand anymore the weight of the heavy turtle-shell at his back, his limbs trembling frantically as if they were about to fail at any moment, long trail-marks being left on the ground behind him as he struggled to drag his body forward. Pan had declared that since their journey towards this so called sacred Dragon Mountain Myoushinzan appeared like it was going to be quite long, they might as well take the opportunity to get some training on the side. Most of the students had initially been ecstatic at the fact they were finally going to receive some training from her, only to later regret their wish as no one could have foreseen just how long the trip to the sacred dragon mountain would be. Twenty five kilometers later after leaving Tokyo and into the wilderness of the rest of the Kanto region, somewhere around near the border between the prefectures of Chiba and Ibaraki, and more or less halfway towards the city of Narita, almost all of the teenagers were near the point of collapsing of exhaustion by that point. The older experienced fighters unsurprisingly, were able to endure the rigors of the march much better than the young students, not a single voice of complaint being raised from their part. The only ones not actively participating in the training were the goddesses with the exception of Lind, who was actually reveling in all the exercise being done while carrying a turtle-shell of her own that was at least three times bigger than the rest, and Morrigan and the Daimakaicho for obvious reasons.
Nagi finally managed to reach his alien mentor, using the last vestiges of his strenght to catch up to her, before his arms finally gave out under him and he ended collapsing on the ground bonelessly. "Uck! This… (gasp) This is pretty harsh training…" The blonde boy wheezed as he lay totally spent on the dirt road. "I think I need a rest."
Pan just looked down at him imperiously with pitiless eyes. "You know, I would have expected such wailings against my training from someone like Kenichi instead of you Nagi. How can you expect me start teaching you how to do energy attacks if you can't even take a small walk into the countryside?" She scathingly pointed out, flicking a hand off in a gesture of dismissal. She then turned towards Kenichi, who seemed to be in much better shape despite his own obvious exhaustion, a suspicious look in her eyes. "How come you're not complaining too about the standards of my training? Knowing you, I can tell you're also not thrilled about walking around while dragging that hundred pounds turtle shell on you back for kilometers on end."
The brunette disciple didn't initially reply to the inquiry of the alien girl, taking his time catch his breath back first, behind him his sister Honoka was dragging her feet as she struggled with a smaller turtleshell of her own, raising her arms up in the air once she reached her dear brother with a cry of triumph of I did it!, before falling to the ground face first. She was naturally ignored by the two elder teens. "Well… This is not the first time I had to do a terribly extenuating training; at least for once I don't have to drag master Akisame around while he whips me in the back with an actual whip. I kind off like your training standards better." Kenichi commented with no small relief that could clearly be detected in his voice despite his long gasps for air. Pan and her minions simply gave him flat stares, mentally berating the idiocicy of Kenichi's former Masters for subjecting him to such recklessly stupid training regiments. They made their thoughts known by turning towards elder Furinji and giving the old grandmaster pointed looks.
"What!?"
Whatever comment the Saiyan teen was going to make, it was interrupted by Mikami who walked into the conversation, a frown of impatience in her attractive features. "Are you done taking on the sights? We still have a little bit more of trek before we arrive at Myoushinzan. I would like to get there before it gets dark and we are forced to make camp for the day." She stated as she brought a hand to her hips and stared down at Pan, as if she would be able to prompt the alien girl into action with her sight alone, Yokoshima clearly visible as he trailed after Mikami, barely able to take a step due to the tall tower of luggage upon his shoulders.
Pan didn't know whether to feel insulted or amused at Mikami for thinking she could force a Saiyain to do anything unless they felt like it, the glares of her own mother and grandmother were more impressive and terrifying than hers, not to mention the looks that uncle Vegeta and Gran-Gran Bardock can pull off that make you feel like an insignificant insect on their presence whose continual well-being depends solely of the fact if they consider it worthy enough to bother themselves with the effort of crushing you, which relies solely on how much of an annoyance you are to them. She had to accept Mikami's point though; they do need to keep moving. All these tired and exhausted teenagers were delaying them quite a bit.
"You heard it people!" She raised her voice, adressing everybody in general. "You better hurry up and get your asses moving if you don't want me to leave you all behind and force you to experience first-hand on how to survive alone in the wild!" A series of groans and tired whines answered Pan's declaration; the rest of the students that had just managed to catch up with her began to despair at the thought of keeping moving forward without rest.
Nagi was certainly not thrilled at the prospect. "Ah, give me a break! I'm tired of dragging around this damn turtle shell everywhere I go! We haven't stopped to catch our breaths a single time since we left Tokyo! I need a few minutes to rest, dammit!" He raged irately trying to sweep his limbs around to show his frustation, but only able to wiggle around akwardly due to the heavy weight pinning him down in the ground, his pitiful gestures making his ranting look like a childish tantrum.
Pan was not impressed by his protests. "So what!? You think you're the only who's tired of this little trip!? I too am tired of having to herd you all around and keep watch on you like little children! Everybody here has went through the same trial like you, we all have been walking all this time with a big heavy load on our backs, but you don't see us whining about it. So stop complaining and get moving!" She ordered with all the terrible authority that a super-powerful alien capable of destroying the earth could muster, her eyes boring upon Nagi's pitiful form.
Nagi turned his neck around, searching; trying to find something, anything, that would give him a good enough argument to convince the alien girl into giving them a moment's rest. His eyes bored into the seated form of Chuutatsu who was having her wheelchair being pushed by her lover Sousou, the young Toushi leader wheeling the thing around without a single grunt of complain despite the fact he too was carrying a turtle carapace of his own.
Nagi pointed a finger at them. "Then why aren't you having the paraplegic girl also wearing a turtle-shell and keep up with us on her own without help?" He asked, clearly not thinking what he was saying.
Pan just gave him a look. "Seriously!? Are you that much of an asshole as to complain when a handicapped person is being shown greater considerations than you? It's called decency, you stupid son of a bitch!" She said rather harshly, staring down at him with unkind eyes.
The exhausted blonde brawler glared at her through gritted teeth. "You know, I'm starting to resent you lording us around in this manner, especially when I don't see you dragging around a heavy turtleshell like us!" He berated in what could be considered a stupidly hot-headed move. If he had not been so frustrated, Nagi would have clearly remembered how inadvisable it was to address someone like Pan in such manner.
"Oh, you did not just went there…" The alien girl said slowly, a dreadful glimmer in her eyes. The atmosphere turned suddenly pretty tense and it seemed as if the temperature went down several degrees. The Grandmasters and experienced fighters behind her took a step back as precaution, wondering what the hell the blonde boy was thinking for daring to talk back to her like that.
Pan wordlessly brought her hands to the back of her head and began to undo the knot tying her bandana in place, her fingers tugging at the straps with slow deliberate movements. She shook her head to allow her hair to flow freely once she was done without taking her eyes from Nagi, and held the bandana in front of her for all to see, the cloth hanging limply between her fingers.
"Just so you know; the reason why I'm not wearing a turtleshell is because I moved past such basic training a long time ago." She explained markedly, making sure everybody was paying attention to the bandana in her hand. "Observe…" She lazily let go of the cloth, and the thing went crashing into the ground as if it was made of lead, impacting with such force as to break the earth underneath and ending up burrowed at least two and a half feet in the dirt, cracks spread all around in a ten centimeter diameter from the point of impact. Mikami and many of the students jumped back in surprise at the sudden unexpected crash, clearly having been caught off guard by the heavy weight of the bandana, the shock being so great as to cause Chou'un to actually open her eyes. Nagi could only stare with a look of awed disbelief, his eyes as big as dinner planets.
"WHAT THE HELL!" Juri exclaimed taken aback.
"Why not one of you tries to pick it up?" Pan said towards her students, ignoring everyone's reactions. The teenagers shared a look among themselves trying to decide who should step forward, their faces betraying their uneasiness.
It was Takayanagi who stepped forward. "I'll do it." He bent down on his knees to try to pick the bandana from the hole it had been burrowed, and found he was unable to lift the fabric without great struggle. "What is this thing… made of…?" He asked through gritted teeth, pulling with all his strenght to lift the cloth from the ground. He eventually was successful in his endeavor and managed to pull the fabric out of his hole, but it looked as if the garment was threatening to slip from his fingers at any moment, his knees shaking greatly by the effort, the veins of his neck thickening as his face turned red by the pressure. Unable to take the strain anymore, he slowly set the bandana back into the ground a few feet away from the hole it had created with its heavy impact, letting out a breath he was holding in relief once his arms were no longer struggling against their painful burden.
"That's almost eighty kilos right there." Pan simply said, looking at Takayanagi. Her words making her audience stare dumbfounded, even the goddesses were gaping. "Fourty on each of my gloves, sixty on each boot, and a hundred twenty on my shirt, that's four hundred kilos in total." She explained as she pointed at each piece of her outfit in turn. Her audience simply going flabbergasted at that information. "Those are the clothes I normally wear everyday, so that I might get some amount of training wherever I go regardless if I'm doing any physical activity or not. That's how the fighters in my family keep in shape when they are busy with other things and have no time to train."
Her minions were now looking at her openly in disbelief. "You mean to tell us you been walking around all this time while carrying that much weight!" Whip exclaimed with a face of pure astonishment. Pan was certainly full of surprises, just when they had begun to think that there was nothing more than the she could do that could make them raise an eyebrow, she pulls out such revelation from under her sleeve. To think she had been moving all this time with that much weight slowing her down…
The only response that Pan gave was an unconcerned shrug of her shoulders. She bent down to pick her bandana, lifting the garment with only the tip of her fingers as if it were a normal piece of cloth, and took a few moments to tie it back around her fore-head. She lowered her gaze down towards Nagi again. "Case in point, you better start moving your ass again if you know what is good for you. I don't want to be listening to any more of your protests." She said as she finished fastening her bandana, giving a last sharp tug with both hands to make sure the knot was properly in place.
Nagi just hanged his head to a side in defeat and groaned. "Fine…! You win, I'll stop complaining. But seriously though, I do need to take a moment because I really need to use the restroom. I've been trying to resist Nature's call for a while now."
Pan just gave him a sharp look as response. "You moron! If you're in so much need to go, why didn't you said so in the first place instead of whining about my training regiment and almost pissing me off!?" She exclaimed pretty incensed.
A blush blossomed in Nagis features and he turned his gaze away from her. "It's just that I simply didn't want to speak of such embarassing things and make everybofy think oddly of me." He said demurely trying to hide his embarassment, the blush on his cheeks burning brightly for a second.
Pan supressed the need to face-palm and brought a hand up to rub the bridge of her nose with two fingers, her frustration pretty evident. "…You are a fucking idiot… You know that, right!?"
Mikami barged in the conversation, attempting to bring it to a quick end so that they might continue on their way. "There's a service station a few hundreds meters up the road. If you all hurry, I might consider stopping there for a few minutes to let you all rest." She casually comented as she pointed at the distance in the direction where the road led.
Nagi was back on his feet in an instant after hearing that. "Why are we standing here for then? Let's move out everybody, we have no time to waste!" He said as he began to march forward, the present fighters just looked at him as he walked away with flat expressions.
Juri turned to adress Pan, utterly ignoring the blonde's antics. "Are we going to have to wear weighted clothing too?" She asked with piqued curiosity, the rest of the martial artists turning their attention to her conversation at her words.
The alien girl simply nodded in response. "Of course, that's the next step on my training regiment once you all get used to the heaviest turtle-shells available. I have to acquire enough materials in order to weave enough weighted clothes for all of you first, though. I've already had them ordered and paid for, but it will take some days for the materials to be delivered. After you get used to the weighted clothes, the next step is the gravity chamber. By then your bodies should be strong enough to withstand the increased G-forces that the chamber will inflict upon you…"
"Well, that seems fine to me." Mature mentioned, interjecting. "After you explained to Chun-Li about the dangers that sort of training could cause to you if you're not careful, I would certainly not want to try that chamber unless I'm truly ready for it."
Lind approached the group of fighters and walked in front of Pan. "I want my clothes to look just the same as the ones I'm wearing." She said neutrally, tugging at her vestments over her collar-bone. "I've grown quite fond of my uniform as commander of the Valkiryes; I simply cannot imagine myself wearing anything else."
"Of course Lind; all these clothes are custom made to match their wearer's preferences. We can speak more about designs once we all are back on the base. In the meantime, we should keep moving." The alien girl replied nonchalantly, flicking a strand of hair from her side-burns behind her ear with one hand.
The voice of little Honoka spoke up. "Why aren't your pants also weighted Pan-sama?" The cute pre-teen asked, being aided back up by Hakufu.
Pan spared her a glance before answering. "Because that would be very counter-productive if I ever have to take an opponent seriously, I can easily discard all the pieces of weighted clothing that I wear and fight without them without much trouble. Modesty aside, I think that having to take out your pants in order to fight a powerful opponent would be pretty awkward for both sides, not to mention distracting. Unless your strategy is centered on taking advantage of that same distraction, and you don't mind showing quite a bit of skin while walking around semi-naked, I wouldn't recommend wearing weighted-pants."
Many of the present male students began to blush after her explanation. "So you're saying that you would take your shirt off if you ever take an opponent seriously…" Kenichi asked timidly as he pressed his two index fingers together, his face red as a tomato.
Pan gave him a look that clearly told 'I know exactly what you're thinking, so you better stop right now if you don't want me breaking you in two'. "I'm wearing a sports bra, you pervert. So I don't have to worry about showing bits to my opponent by accident that I don't want him to see. Unlike most of the girls you are familiar with, I don't need to use my opponent's basic instincts against them; I am more than capable to defeat anyone that dares challenge me with my own strenght, thank you very much." She then turned to adress everybody in general. "Anyway, that's enough talking already! Get your asses moving again, I want to reach this Myoushinzan while there's still light, you all can take some minutes once we reach the next service station. So move!" She ordered with an authoritative yell. The tired students began to walk again at her command, protests and groans being suppressed for now at the promise of future rest.
Well, almost everybody but Ryuubi. "I understand that you want everyone who's a fighter to get some training to improve their combat strength, (huff) but why do I have to participate in this martyrdom too? Aren't we supposed to be here to try to find a cure for our condition? Won't will all this exercise end up benefiting my internal dragon and thus making it harder to get rid of it!?" The bespectacled girl complained as she kept trying to catch her breath, her chest heaving up and down by the effort as she visibly suffered under the weight of her own shell. Ryuubi certainly was not having a good time. This entire forced march had been hell for the usually timid brunette, her body simply wasn't made for physical efforts; most of her talents were centered on the mind skills after all. She would prefer to stay in her home reading a good book rather than doing any kind of exercise first, goddamit!
As expected, Pan wasn't moved by her pleads. If anything it simply irked her even more. "Ah, by my ancestors! You people can't just stop whining, isn't it!?" She exclaimed as she turned towards Ryuubi. "What the hell are you talking about, girl? You're not suffering from a terminal disease, so you're damn well able to walk on your own feet and get some exercise done! And I seriously doubt that doing a single training march would immediately benefit the dragon inside of you anyway, so quit yapping and start moving okay! Why can't you be like Genpou here who isn't complaining? Look he's even smiling despite all the exercise he's been doing." She said while pointing towards the young Toushi from Nanyo who was clearly sporting a visible grin despite his weariness, beads of sweat running down the sides of his face.
Hakufu's cousin, Koukin, turned towards his schoolmate with a look of confusion, both eyebrows raised in puzzlement. "Hey, that's true… Why are you so happy Genpou? You've been smiling the entire day ever since this morning."
The usually aloof Toushi turned towards Koukin with an unusual bright disposition, his toothing smile almost splitting his face in two. "Is just the feeling of being alive Koukin. To be able to breathe freely without the chains of destiny dragging you down, it's simply inspiring." He said as he took a moment to enjoy the view of the nearby forest, taking a long breath through his nose to smell the scent of the pine trees.
Koukin just stared at him with a pointed look, obvious confusion in his features. "I don't follow…"
Genpou kept grinning, a self-satisfied expression that told he knew something that Koukin didn't. "Before Pan decided to step into the region, the best option we Toushis had to break the chains of destiny that binded us, was to make sure Hakufu's dragon awakened early in order for her to become strong enough to survive past her intended death at the hands of Ukitsu. If the reencarnation of the leader that was considered the greatest of the three rulers of the ancient kingdoms would somehow managed to still be alive by the time the war between all the schools was fully in motion, and if she was able to gain control of her awakened dragon, then maybe it would had been possible to change the balance between the schools enough so that no one would be able to know what to expect anymore and finally break the hold that destiny had over us by having Hakufu coming on top of all the other leaders. To do that, I was prepared to sacrifice my own life to train your cousin and make sure she managed to gain total control over her dragon so that she would be strong enough to face Sousou. My plan was to use the Magatama of Shishi Ouin and let myself be possessed by the spirit within it, and then forcefully awaken Hakufu's dragon and absorb all of its negative energy within my body once she mastered the teachings of Chokou Sensei. Such an act would had surely guaranteed my demise since no human, other than the reeincarnations of the three great lords, could hope to contain such tainted evil energies within their bodies without it destroying them from the inside. But I was willing to give my life gladly if it meant the bonds of destiny would finally be broken, to think in the end that plan was not needed as Pan literally flew in and achieved in less than a week what generations of Toushis have been trying and failing to do for a thousand years… Well let's just say I'm quite pleased to know I will be able to enjoy our new-found freedom from destiny without having to die in the process." He explained, letting a tired but satisfied huff as he began to pick up the march again.
Pan just gave him a strange look from the corner of her eye. "That was a stupid, over-complicated and unnecessary plan, a true batman's gambit if I ever heard one. Your entire hope rested on this dimwitted girl having the necessary focus to train dilligently or have the drive to fight against the influence of her inner dragon." She pointed at Hakufu absent-mindedly. "And she isn't even able of standing still in a single place for more than a few seconds before she starts getting angsty and walks off to chase the first thing that draws her attention. Boy if that plan didn't suck, what the hell did you think it was going to happen...?" She commented, pointing out every single thing as to why Genpou's idea was a terrible one.
The Toushi in question just sweat-dropped, one of his eye-brows suddenly twitching, he decided to swallow his indignity and simply roll with it. "Be as it may… I am certainly grateful that you have freed us from the cycle we've been force to repeat through the centuries, and I'm certainly looking forward to a life were I can make my own decisions for myself instead of having to worry about stupid Dragon spirits trying to kill us all with their magics."
"Not to rain in your parade or anything." Pan retorted. "But we're still not out of the woods yet. We need to reach the sacred dragon mountain and speak with this Lady Shoryuki if we finally want to get rid of these dragon spirits. So if you want to show your gratitude just hurry up and keep walking so that we might get there sooner." She said as she began to walk again and continue with their journey, everybody starting to match their pace to catch with her.
"Finally!" Mikami said with a sigh as they got on their way once more.
As she began to walk again, Whip took notice of Chou'un eyes, still open after her shock caused by the revelation of Pan's weights, and turned to give one last look at the silver-haired Katana-wielding girl. "Hey, so you finally decided to open your eyes. Woah! They really look pretty wicked." She exclaimed with a cheeky grin at seeing Chou'un's golden, slit eyes like those of a reptile; her declaration being just loud enough for the fighters nearby to her to stop on their tracks and take a look.
"Oh? You seem to be right, they're certainly quite unique." Foxy said, looking behind her shoulders before turning around to better appreciate Chou'uns eyes, her head cocked to a side while she rubbed her chin with a single dainty finger.
More of the expert fighters began to turn in curiosity to look at the young Toshi's eyes, making Chou'un to become quite conscious of herself, her eyes have always being a touchy subject for her since most people tended to be freaked out by them. It was just her luck that she had to suddenly draw attention to herself and become the focus of everybody's interest, even Pan had stopped again and turned to see what was the matter now.
A faint blush began to flare on the usually collected and solemn swordgirl. "You're all not disturbed by the unnaturalness of my eyes…?" She inquired a little guarded.
Whip resisted the urge of rolling her own eyes. "Girl, no offense, but like we told Okinu, we've seen more impressive and frightful things in our short time with Pan than anything else in our entire lives; so whatever feature about you that may be out of the norm, can simply not hope to compete with what Pan has already showed us. Your eyes make you stand out that's true, but at this point is certainly nowhere near to the freakish things we've seen already, especially after what happened two days ago… In any case, I think you're also talking to the wrong kind of people about what is considered to be normal since none of us have the more conventional of backgrounds in the first place…" She explained, gesturing idly with one hand to the entire gathering of Pan's followers comprised of genetically enhanced super clone soldiers, expert assassins with ultimate killing styles, spies, mercenaries, cursed-lineage scions, Special Forces operatives, International law-enforcement officers, International wanted criminals and killers, psychics, spiritualists, actual ghosts, demons and divine beings, and famous martial artists, etc... –And that's just the people present- Certainly Pan's group was a colorful one.
Chou'un was left considering Whip's words. "I think you're right, most of my life I've been forced to hide my eyes due to how they made others feel uncomfortable when they looked at them… It's nice to be around people who don't seem to care about them one bit." She said with a nod of her pretty head, golden eyes glinting under the light of the sun.
Foxy assessed her fellow silverette for a moment (Well her hair is actually white due to her albinism instead of silver like Chou'un, but is the thought that counts). "It seems to me that your eyes are a touchy subject for you. We will not pry since it's not our business. So c'mon now, let's keep walking since we still have some ways to go. If anyone starts giving you flack about your eyes, feel free to come to us for assistance." She offered cordially before turning and walking away, her long tailcoats swiveling elegantly behind her under the breeze.
The gathered fighters moved on with their journey without further distractions.
!
He scratched his head in confusion, his mind unable to understand the weird situation he found himself in; he was not the only one. As promised by Mikami, there was a service station located further at the side of the road they were traveling. Once they reached the place, Pan gave everybody leave for a few minutes to either rest, buy some refreshments or empty their bladders. Nagi didn't waste any time and before the alien girl finished speaking, he was already off towards the nearest sanitaries, his feet leaving long trails of dust behind him, only to find his way for release hindered by this newest conundrum.
"What…?" It was the most intelligent thing that the blonde brawler could say at his current situation. For in front of him there were not the usual two signs to differentiate the respective restrooms used by men and women, but rather three. Nagi did not have time to ponder in the significance of this discovery since his intestines decided to remind him of his more pressing business.
Orrnnnnnnnnnnnnh!
A loud guttural sound was heard coming from his lower abdomen and Nagi suddenly found himself unable to contain the contents of his… ahem… rectum.
"Goddammit!" He yelled in distress and he hurried inside the door marked for men and locked it, the sound of hands scrambling over the metal bolt being heard, followed by a loud click.
…
After his business was done, Nagi stepped out of the men's room, a look of total relief on his face as the sound of a flushing toilet was heard from behind him. He found many of his fellow students and several of Pan's followers standing in front of the restrooms and staring intently at their doors; they too seemed to have taken notice of the same oddity as him and were trying to discern its meaning. Not much luck on that department for what it appeared.
"I don't understand it…" Said Angel with a shake of her pretty head; her eyes betraying her confusion as she gestured with her hands to show her bafflement. "What's a Hideyoshi…?" She asked in complete puzzlement. For indeed that was the great mystery that had everybody scratching their heads, as where there should be only two restrooms marked for men and women, the gathered fighters had found three instead: One for men, one for women, and a third one marked for a… Hideyoshi…? The present fighters didn't know what to think about this.
K' had to lift his glasses from his eyes for a moment to make sure he was seeing right, a finger scratching the top of his left eyebrow in puzzlement. "I don't know… Maybe is one of those new trends that tend to crop up from time to time. Remember that one about couples licking the eyes of each other with their tongues to show their affection?" He said with a clueless shrug of his shoulders, believing this was simply one of those oddities that tend to happen only in Japan.
Pan walked into the scene, followed by the rest of her crew and Mikami, the two NOB representatives at her side as it appeared she had been in some kind of discussion with them. "What are you fools up to now?" She asked with an underlying tired tone. She was starting to get fed up of all the stupid distractions her minions tended to get side-tracked on.
The wall of students and followers parted to let her see for herself. Pan frowned. "What the hell is a Hideyoshi…?" Her closests followers couldn't give her a straight answer, but only blink in confusion, Juri mouthing under her breath 'The fuck I am seeing?'
Before Pan and the rest could start wondering what the meaning of what they were seeing was, the door of the restroom for Hideyoshis opened, and an attractive buxom girl stepped out. She was a long dark-haired beauty with part of her hair covering her right eye and side of her face, long toned legs, thin waist, curvy figure and impressive eye-bulging "assets". The girl was dressed in a high school uniform emblazoned with the coat of the swan academy.
The girl seemed surprised for a moment at seeing so many people waiting outside of the restrooms, her only visible eye widening in wonderment. The girl could only raise a hand and offer an awkard greeting. "Hi…"
"Who are you girl?" Vice asked plainly without preamble, wanting to get to the bottom of this issue soon.
The girl acknowledged her speaker with a tilt of her head, a cute look on her face. "My name is Rentarou Taki."
Dazai perked up at hearing that. "Hey, I know that name!" He pointed at Taki. "He's the president of Swan Academy wrestling club, the same club that girl Tamako is part of and that Mukoda ordered us to attack."
That declaration seemed specific enough, however, what almost everybody paid attention was only one thing. "Did you just said she's a he…!?" Kenichi turned at Dazai, a look of baffled disbelief on his face.
The eye-patch wearing fighter just nodded. "Yeah… I know how you feel… I was the same the first time Mukoda explained that to me and showed me a picture of this dude. Do not let his appearance fool you, he is a man…"
Taki simply smiled to everybody, his only visible eye closing in the form of a happy U. "That I am!"
The gathered martial artists just stared with mounting dread, looks of horror on their faces. "But he has breasts!" Said a gob-smacked Whip; the shock on her face pretty evident as the hairs on the back of her neck and head stood on end. "And an hour-glass figure with curvy hips and thin waist!"
Rentarou just limited him(her?)self to lift his/her skirt to show the visible bulge in his/her panties, the eyes of every single one of his witnesses threatened to pop put of their sockets at that action, the impression being great enough that many jumped a step back in shock. Their expressions being so over the top that the Daimakaicho began to laugh at all of them, Morrigan joining her with her own giggles, even Urd was looking green.
"The Fuck! You're a tranny!" Juri exclaimed with the least amount of subtlety ever, Taki unsurprisingly, seemed to take offense of her words.
"I would appreciate if you didn't use derogatory terms like tranny to adress me… I will not allow anyone that I've just met to call me such, no matter who you are…" He said scathingly with harsh eyes.
"Juri, mind your manners." Pan said decidedly, putting an end to the growing confrontation with a gesture after seeing the rising defiance in the eyes of the Korean woman. She turned towards the female-undistinguishable boy. "Sorry about that, we were just wondering why there was a third restroom labeled Hideyoshi, and we were trying to figure out what kind of gender was that?" She explained courteously, trying to avoid a useless fight over such inane subject as sexual orientation.
Taki simply nodded, accepting her apologies. "Well, that's actually pretty easy to explain. Hideyoshi is a new term that has started to pop up, mostly around Tokyo's metropolis but it's been spreading pretty fast to other nearby regions, and refers usually to those male young boys who are so androgynous and effeminate in appearance, as to make them visually impossible to differentiate them from actual girls. However, the staple of a true Hideyoshi is not just only his androgynous looks, but the fact that they can be so remarkable pretty and cute as to make other heterosexual men not care about their true gender and prefer them over real women." He explained nonchalantly with a carefree air.
Pan began to frown, and her followers had such a constipated look that it seemed as if they had ate something that had given them stones in their innards. "You mean to tell me that a Hideyoshi is an androgynous boy that is so pretty as to make people gay!?" She asked with the most flabbergasted look ever.
"I don't believe that shit…!" Aya Natsume said with a look of gob-smacked disbelief on her face.
The corners of Taki's mouth tugged upwards in a devilish smirk that made the Daimakaicho herself feel proud, before bending his body forwards, making sure to display the big mounds he had in the front, and bringing his hands to his knees as he struck such a sensual and tempting pose that Morrigan herself approved, before finalizing by puckering his lips and blowing a kiss to his audience. The reaction was immediate; all women present went jaw-slacked, while all the males acquired the looks of men who were about to face the shooting squad. It seemed Rentarou had been telling the truth, it was practically impossible to differentiate him from a real woman at first sight, which began to cause to all the males in the group untold suffering since they tried unnaturally hard to keep their bodies from reacting to such sight, knowing exactly what the true gender of the unbelievable pretty feminine boy was. To say that all the straight people present were scared out of their minds was putting it mildly.
Yokoshima began to wail, an annoying grating sound that got no reaction from the rest of the group because everybody was still unresponsive by the shock. "Noooooooo! I like women! I like women! I like breasts! And big butts! I like clams! Not rods!" He all but yelled in pathetic desperation that caused the Daimakaicho to laugh even harder.
Taki seemed to enjoy his reaction as he playfully brought a finger to his lips in fake cluelessness. "I don't know about the clam, but I assure you I am well equipped in all the other aspects…" He said as he turned around to show his back to the group and perked his butt up for all to see, moving it around in slow circular motions. He finalized by swinging an arm down and smacking one of his buttocks, giving a conspirational wink to a very distressed Yokoshima.
That seemed to get a reaction out of the rest of the group, every single one of the people present rearing back in shock, sour expressions on their faces as if they had swallowed a whole lemon. Hild was ecstatic.
"Ok, that's enough!" Pan exclaimed with a gesture, having already more than enough filled her quota of weirdness for the day. "We get what a Hideyoshi is already! So stop flashing the goods around, it's disturbing…"
Morrigan seemed dissapointed by that declaration. "Awwwww…! But I was really enjoying all this delightful exhibitionism! I was just about to join him into giving you all a sexy peep show." She said with a cute pout, everybody just gave her flat looks.
Pan decided to ignore that comment and took a moment to collect herself. Normally there wasn't much that could faze her, as being part of a family like hers meant she was going to be exposed to weird and strange things in a regular basis. But damn if things weren't turning pretty bizarre for even her tastes. She addressed Taki again. "Anyway, I'm not sure if separating and marking bathrooms for androgynous transvestites is discriminatory or not…?" She asked, getting serious all of a sudden. "Hell, why is it that they're calling those that share the same sexual orientation as you Hideyoshis in the first place?"
Taki just shrugged without a care. "That's actually pretty easy to answer; the rumors say the name Hideyoshi was coined in honor of a boy named Hideyoshi Kinoshita, a student from Fumizuki Academy back in Tokyo. Word on the streets is that he's a well-known popular fem-boy for some time now; that is so feminine in looks that people decided to give him his own gender and start addressing others like him by using his name to honor him."
"You don't say…" Pan commented with her arms crossed, making a mental note of paying a visit to this Fumizuki Academy in the future.
Rentarou continued speaking. "As four your first question… Maybe it would be discriminatory if we were in any other country, but this is Japan. Weird things like this happen all the time. I for one am okay with having a separate bathroom, at least in this way I will not have to deal with other people's stares every time I need to take a piss." He explained shamelessly.
That sentence caused the minds of the present fighters to conjure images of the unbelievable feminine boy standing in front of a urinal, skirt lifted, panties down and both hands cupped over his crotch. Their stony expressions of horror were like a panacea for the Daimakaicho's black soul. They shook their heads wildly to get rid of the horrible vision, their mettle having taken a heavy blow. Even Maxima was feeling jittery, and he no longer had organic 'nerves' per se.
The women too seemed to have thought the same image as the males, as their skins acquired an extreme ivory coloration, their faces however turning a sickly green. By their expressions, it was clear that they were having quite a deal of trouble in keeping their lunchs inside their stomachs, even Pan was nauseated.
"Okay, I think that's our signal to leave… Nice metting you, but we are in a hurry so have a nice day and goodbye for now! Oh? And if you and your friends ever want some training, go pay me a visit at my headquarters." Pan said a little to quickly.
"Oh, okay…" Taki answered with a nod. "That's actually the reason why I'm here since my old coach's training grounds are located around these parts. But with him gone, I and my Kohais of the Swan academy wrestling club are going to need a new place where to continue our training."
"Your old coach?" The alien girl asked; having a distinct feeling of what the feminine boy was about to say.
Taki was not aware of her suspicions, however, and just made a carefree dismissive gesture. "I don't believe you will know of him, his name was Tondemon Higashi."
Pan remained quiet for a moment, so too most of her minions, and pursed her lips in thought. "Actually… I think we have heard of him…" She said, remembering Diego Carlo's explanation.
Taki raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You do? Well that's a surprise; I guess my old coach's reputation must still precede him in some places… Anyway, thanks for the invitation, I might decide to take you up on it in the future. But as it is, I too have other things to do, so if you excuse me?" The lines of fighters parted to let him through, and he simply walked away after waving goodbye, the gathered martial artists following him with their eyes until he disappeared at a turn in the road.
Mature leaned over to Pan's ear. "Mistress, don't take this wrong… But, why did you offered him training if you were just as distressed by his appearance as us?" She asked intently, evident confusion in her pretty clear blue eyes.
Pan answered with an unreadable expression, showing no kind of reaction to her inquiry. "Other people's preferences or sexual orientation is not something we Saiyans care to waste time thinking about. I only invited him so I could gauge for myself just how strong he truly is despite his looks, as Dazai's obvious deference towards him makes me wonder he might be a boon to my forces. Anyway, it really doesn't matter how he likes to dress himself in the end. If he is strong enough, then he can do whatever he might like and not care about the complaints of those weaker than him…" She turned her gaze back towards the road, her eyes towards the destination they must follow. "But enough about this subject, we have places to be."
With that the conversation was brought to an end, and the group of students and martial artist went back on their way.
So that's it for now, as always leave a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter, recommend this story to your friends or people that you know and such.
So here we have a little more pieces of information, turns out that the Kanto region is a much bigger place than I first expected, comprised of seven prefectures (which would be the equivalent of states for us western countries) among then the great Tokyo metropolitan area alongside all of its wards (each ward being the equivalent of a city, as they have their own municipalities). Anyway, so it's a lot of space were the Kanto schools can be located, and I'm not exactly sure where since it is never given an exact location in the manga other than them being in the Kanto area. The same goes for the exact location of the Ishiyama School from Beelzebub, the manga just say it's located in the North of the Kanto region, so it's either Gunma, Tochigi or Ibaraki since they are the prefectures located in the North of the region. Anyway, is not something you people should put much stock on, I'm just trying to give the series an exact location to make sure none of them end up stepping on each other toes, since as you know, I'm dividing the series by turfs.
But whatever; now some of you may have been uncomfortable with the transvestite scene on this chapter, but if you've seen anime, you well know that Japanese tend to use androgynous effeminate male characters, and the awkward situations that tend to revolve around them, as a source of comedy. So we're gonna have to deal with this stuff from time to time, otherwise it would not be a complete anime crossover if I don't include this particular trends of the genre.
And to finalize, even though this story will mostly focus in the mangas of this series, with the exception of those who started with their franchises on an anime first like Tenchi-Muyo, I'm not above including certain aspects from the animes if I particularly like them, that's why I included that little bit of the Hideyoshi bathrooms from Baka to Test since the first time I saw that shit I simply couldn't stop laughing.
Anyway, that's all I have to say about the subject, just leave your comments and I'll read you all next time.