Disclaimer: Hasn't changed since last chapter.

Totsuzen: Chapter Two

By A Girl Named Goo

"Hmm...if we could just..."

"Hevn!"

Hevn backed away from Ban, who held his (her?) shirt closed, glaring at her. As his glasses had refused to stay in their proper place, he'd had to forgo them. At least, until he could find a pair with a smaller nosepiece that would stay on the bridge of his nose.

Hevn sighed, looking him up and down. "Honestly, Ban-kun, this isn't a big deal. That's nothing I don't see every day in the mirror."

"Obviously!" Ban snapped back. "I just don't feel like getting manhandled by you!"

"How the hell am I supposed to help dress you from the other side of the room?!" Hevn shot back.

Ban was wearing a pair of tight jeans from Hevn's closet (obviously she hadn't worn them in quite a while, if she ever had, judging from the fact that they were stiff and hardly broken in), and his own white shirt. Unfortunately, Hevn's search for a bra had proven fruitless, so she had promised to show him one of her many fashion tricks that negated the need for one. That is, if he'd let her touch him.

"You can just tell me," Ban told her, not releasing his shirt. Hevn sighed and strode up to him, yanking his arms down (his grip on his shirt was surprisingly loose) and seized the tails at the bottom. Ban met her eyes, but not in a way that suggested he was going to use his Jagan to get her to back away. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I've lost my snake bite."

"I didn't say you did," Hevn muttered, holding the shirt open for a moment before tying the bottom tails together. There. Breasts covered and supported. And rather fashionably so, Hevn decided, as she moved around behind Ban and began to pin up the back of his shirt. "This is a good look."

"Nice to know I make a good dressmaker's dummy," Ban shot back, unamused but at least glad for the support. "If you like it so much, use it for yourself."

Hevn accidentally-on-purpose jabbed a pin into his lower back. "I'm doing you a favor. Now shut up so I can work." Although she had to admit: if Ban were still her male client, she wouldn't talk to him like this. Then again, it was easier to charm male Ban into doing what she wanted. Female Ban needed to be forced every step of the way.

Most of Ban's midriff was exposed, and as the jeans rode low on his hips it left nothing to the imagination in the way of his midsection. Only the bare minimum of his torso was covered: his new breasts, his shoulders, and part of his back. Hevn stepped away, walking around him and examining her handiwork. "Hmm...not bad. Not bad at all."

Ban quirked an eyebrow skeptically, but walked over to the medicine cabinet, backing away slowly to examine himself. At first he looked appreciative, but that look melted away. "I look like a tramp."

"This is the last time I do you a favor," Hevn said, turning to leave the room.

"I guess I should have known better than to let you dress me if I wanted to be even half-way demure," Ban snapped back, sitting down heavily on the bed. He hadn't left the back room of the Honky Tonk since he'd woken up. After some coaxing just to get him near the door, Ginji had agreed to take Himiko over to the restroom so she could dress.

"What are you implying?" Hevn asked, grabbing Ban's arm only to have it wrenched from her hand.

"I mean you dress like a streetwalker," Ban said bluntly. "And thanks to you, I'm dressed like one, too!"

"Honestly, you try to do a favor for someone..." Hevn muttered, opening the door and stepping out. Ginji was sitting in a booth, and Paul was leaning against the wall behind the counter, reading his newspaper. The latter looked remarkably unruffled despite the recent turn of events. Ginji looked like he could use a drink.

"Is he dressed?" Ginji asked weakly.

Hevn made a "hmph" sound and walked out of the café. Ban stuck his head out into the open area for a moment, then pulled it back into the room and slammed the door.

"Ban-chan!" Ginji cried, running over to the door. "We can't find a way to get you back to normal if you or Himiko-chan won't come out!"

"I don't care! I'm not coming out!" Ban shouted from the other side. It sounded suspiciously like he was pouting.

Paul chuckled slightly, lowering his newspaper momentarily. "Hm...never thought I'd see the day when Midou Ban would rather stay locked in a room pouting than getting back something important that was taken from himself." He made a big show of putting the newspaper on the counter and taking a familiar coffee mug out from where he kept the others. "I guess I can get rid of this cup, if the owner can't live up to the claim on it..."

The door to the back room burst open, nearly flying off it's hinges. Ban stomped out (and thanked whatever deities existed that Hevn had supplied him with tennis shoes. She had threatened to bring him heels), walking up to the counter and grabbing the cup with the glued-on handle and familiar boastful claim. "I'm not just going to stand around, dammit! The Get Backers will get back my manhood and Himiko's womanhood!" He brought the cup crashing down onto the counter. The handle broke off, and Ban just looked at it for a moment. Paul sighed and went to find the glue.

"Himiko-chan, did you hear that?" Ginji asked. He walked over to the door when he got no response and knocked on it. "Himiko-chan?"

"Just a minute!" Himiko snapped. Everyone in the café sweatdropped.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Leather looked over the campus of the all-girl school for a moment. Lace was in there. That fact gave him chills. Sighing, he leaned against the gates and pushed his eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose. His hair was in a ponytail, and he was wearing a white button-up shirt and black dress pants. Just another teacher. Nothing to see here, move along.

Tossing another glance at the campus, he reached into the pocket of his dress pants and pulled out a square of red paper, using the wall that surrounded the school to smooth it out. He folded a small, neat star and rolled it through the gates. The star tumbled merrily, then shot up into the air like a flare, making it about three meters before it popped like a firework. If that didn't get Lace's attention, he was leaving, orders be damned.

"Hi!"

Leather must have jumped a foot into the air. He turned around and glared at Lace, standing before him wearing a green schoolgirl uniform. He was sans sunglasses, making the fact that there was something odd about his eyes that Leather couldn't quite place all the more obvious.

"Don't do that!" Leather cried out, reaching into his pocket and taking out a white piece of paper.

"Aww, I scared oniisan! I'm sorry!" Lace said, with genuine apology in his voice. But the effect was ruined as he dissolved into giggles.

"Don't call me that! You're older than me, dammit. That's just creepy," Leather ordered. He was folding a little bird. "Did you get it?"

"No," Lace said.

Leather stopped folding the paper. "What do you mean 'no'?"

"Iie. No. Non. Nyet. Nein," Lace prattled off, his cute little girl façade slipping slightly in his own annoyance. He picked it back up almost immediately. "I went in and I saw it but I couldn't get it. So I am going to get it after school." He beamed. "It's lunchtime now!"

Leather put his forehead into his hand and sighed. "If you don't get that in seventy-two hours the male and female essences will fade and the spell will never work. We'll have to leave the country to find another male and female witch, and I highly doubt Ishida-sama will give us another chance."

Lace shrugged. "I'm trying. I'll get it."

With that, he turned on his heel and walked away. Leather put his forehead on the cool stone, unfolded the bird in his hand, and stuck the paper into his pocket. As soon as he had regained his composure he opened the gate and stepped onto the campus, although it would be easier for him to work if he didn't have to think about Lace sitting with a group of ninth grade girls pretending he didn't know algebra…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the three years since Ban had acquired his beloved car, he had never had to adjust the seat after the first time. He was certain if he did he'd never find that "sweet spot" that was ideal for hitting all of the various controls and yet comfortable enough for him to lean back and light a cigarette if he wanted to. It had taken him several tries to find his "sweet spot", something he was mumbling about as he angrily slid the seat forward and backward, trying to find some semblance of it for his female body.

"If these damn things weren't in the way…" he growled, trying to move said unwanted accoutrements to one side only to have them bounce back into their original place. The shirt also threatened to come open, so he left them alone, sliding the seat all the way back.

"Hey, watch it!" Himiko cried from the back seat as the driver's seat collided with her knees. She couldn't wear her usual spandex (comfortable and practical as it was for work), and had settled on black jeans, a loose white T-shirt, and a black jacket. She'd also put on a baseball cap and a bandage over the star on her face, claiming she didn't want anyone to recognize her like this.

Himiko reflected on that for a moment. Ban had told her that no one could tell the difference, anyway. She'd raised her hand to slap him, but Ginji said that it wasn't good for boys to hit girls. Then they had both turned and hit him. Ginji was now remarkably quiet in his place in the passenger seat, as if afraid anything he said would set his two volatile companions off. And he was probably right.

Ban finally stopped adjusting the seat, although the way he fidgeted suggested this wasn't a real "sweet spot" for him. He pulled the little car out into traffic, pausing at a stop light just a few metres away.

"Where are we going, Ban-chan?" Ginji asked rather meekly. He wasn't entirely sure what would or wouldn't set off his friends, and he was taking a gamble with just that question.

"I don't know," Ban said, taking his pack of cigarettes out of the glove compartment and lighting one. He nearly groped Ginji reaching over, and his best friend shrank back from the touch. "Probably to the park." He threw his lighter into the glove compartment with the cigarettes and slammed it shut, taking his frustration out on the little car. Better it than Ginji, anyway. It was bad enough he couldn't even take his usual place behind the wheel, but the outfit Hevn had fashioned for him had left no pockets deep enough for his nicotine fix.

"The park? Why there?" Himiko asked. She was fidgeting in the back seat, as if she couldn't get comfortable. Ginji watched this for a few moments in the rear view mirror, then turned his attention to the window. Some small part of him wished that he had changed as well, simply because the fact that he hadn't made him an easy target for their rage.

Ban shrugged. "Do you have any other ideas? That's where it happened. Maybe we can get find a clue." Ban turned his head to Ginji. "Say, do you have any of that money from last night?"

"Huh?" Ginji asked. He'd been staring out the window to keep from having to face his companions, and when he whirled around he blushed when he realized he had to look up to see Ban's annoyed face. How had his gaze dropped so low, anyway? "Yeah, a few." Ginji began to dig through his pockets. It was a good thing that in his panic he forgot to throw out the seemingly enchanted yen notes or hadn't accidentally used them to buy something. He finally came up successful, offering Ban three star-shaped one hundred yen notes.

"I'm not touching them again," Ban said, pulling out into traffic. "Last time Himiko and I did we were knocked out. There's probably some kind of spell on them that you're immune to for whatever reason."

"Spell?" Ginji asked. He unfolded one of the notes and began to look it over. Tiny black markings were on the corner of it, and he had to turn it sideways to look at them. They seemed incorrect unless seen vertically, although Ginji could neither read them nor recognize the language. "Here's something."

Ban pulled over, not touching the bill but looking at it curiously. He was quiet for a long time, and Himiko leaned forward to look as well. "What is it?" she finally asked, reaching out to touch it. Ban grabbed her hand to keep her from doing so. Something about being male seemed to have removed a good portion of her common sense.

"It's a spell," Ban nearly growled. "Probably a sleeping spell. Either you're immune to spells, Ginji- and I am almost certain you aren't- or the spell on that was individualized to us. Someone would have to be really good to pull that off, though, unless it zeroed in a certain trait…" Ban trailed off, his eyes fixed on the road.

"What is it, Ban-chan?" Ginji asked. Ban finally took the note, not passing out as he grabbed it.

"Son of a bitch…" he muttered, looking over the entire note. "It's a spell for witches. Someone knew one or both of us had witch blood."

Himiko snatched the note, although she didn't know what she was looking for. "What? So why doesn't the spell work anymore? Did they take our witch blood, too, or something?"

Ban shook his head, resting his forehead on the steering wheel. "The first fold to make the yen square concealed the unactivated spell. The spell was made by a magician or a priest, not a witch."

"What's the difference, though?" Himiko asked, looking over the yen note some more. She folded over the spell and realized the yen was now a perfect square, ideal for origami.

Ban shook his head, then began to pull the car back out into traffic. "Magicians steal magic. Real magicians do, anyway. They usually have one spell that they can use and that helps them steal other spells. But their written spells, which are the most powerful next to potions, can't be exposed to daylight or they are deactivated. Priests rely on faith magic, which varies depending on their religion. Ofuda and other Shinto written spells only work once, and some of the trickier ones need to be concealed to work." He was suddenly very glad he'd listened to what his grandmother and Maria had had to say about various types of magic.

"So they did take your witch's blood?" Ginji asked, unfolding another of the yen notes. Sure enough, another spell was written on it.

Ban shook his head. "I don't know. That wouldn't change our sexes, and I don't think you can take that someone is a witch. Just take the abilities that come from it. Magicians do some pretty weird things, but to change someone's physical being you need a potion. Neither magicians nor priests can make potions."

Ban turned the car around suddenly in an illegal U-turn. Several people began to honk, and Ginji and Himiko gripped the "oh shit" handles for dear life.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Himiko shrieked after they were in the other lane.

"We are going to see Maria," Ban said. "She will probably know what kind of magic this is." Although he was loathe to let his former guardian see him in this form. She already liked to tease him about his past encounters with witchcraft and other forms of magic, not to mention just tease him in general. He'd never hear the end of this.

Sirens began to wail behind them, and all three people in the car sweatdropped. "Right after I get this traffic ticket…" Ban added.

The police officer approached the vehicle with the pad of tickets out already, looking in the driver's seat. "Women have no clue how to drive…" her muttered.

Ginji had to physically restrain Ban to prevent him getting arrested for assaulting a police officer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Natsumi sighed and looked up at the clock. She was sitting in history class, the last class of the day, and she was anxious to get out of the school and get to work. Between the flares that had erupted on the quad and the strange new girl who had practically begged to hang out with her after class, she wanted to be somewhere…well, not normal, but normal enough for her.

Many of the girls were staring at the teacher, giving him their undivided attention although it wasn't his lesson on feudal Japan that held their interest. Occasionally they would sigh dreamily, and behind her Natsumi heard one girl whisper to another "I wonder if Yoshimiya-sensei would let me earn some 'extra credit'", causing both girls to collapse into a fit of giggles.

Their history teacher was attractive. He was tall and thin, pale with waist-length straight black hair swept into a ponytail and keen dark gray eyes that were protected by his glasses. His face was angular, suggesting he was of some noble line, but he didn't carry himself like an aristocrat. Far from it: Natsumi had had him as her history teacher for two years now, and he always struck her as being…neurotic. He had a nervous habit of folding the squares of paper he kept in his desk into little origami figures that the other girls collected like prizes, even if it meant taking them out of the trash or off his desk, and often glanced either over his shoulder or toward the door. When someone said something that he apparently disliked he would lose his temper easily. For Natsumi, no matter how lovely he was he just wasn't crush-worthy.

"So as the main noble families grew to be too large, the heads of the family would often parcel out lands on their estates to start a new sub-family, which still maintained the favor of the shogun and the emperor and still benefited from the main family while still seeming independent. Today many of these smaller families have become their own notable family lines," Yoshimiya explained.

The bell rang, and Natsumi closed the notebook she was taking notes in. She would have stood up, but with all the girls still watching the teacher dreamily it would have been apparent she was in a hurry to leave. Honestly, did no one else see or feel how strange this man was? Could a pretty face and deep voice really cause this kind of shallow hypnotic effect on them?

"Go over pages two hundred to two-fifty in your text and try to find at least one example of a noble family that originated from another noble family. The library should have information about that," Yoshimiya announced. "And you're dismissed."

As the students filed out, the delicate white paper figures disappeared with the girls. Although there was a little frog left on the desk as she passed, Natsumi didn't take it. The girl behind her greedily snatched it and pushed past her to leave the classroom. There was something seriously unnerving about this teacher…

End of Chapter Two