Chapter 3: A New Identity

When they get back inside the front door of the Hinata Inn, the other tenants were waiting, as they had not moved while the three women had gone shopping.

Su leaps up, tackling Keitaro full-out. "MODELING TIME!" she shouts.

Everyone but Su sighs exasperatedly. Su looks around wondering why they all did that. "What?" she asks.

Keitaro convinces Su to not press the issue of modeling clothes, and Su reluctantly gives in. Spending an hour in her room to think about what to do next, she steps back into the hall, looking for the Molmol princess.

"Su?" she calls, and Su answers with a flying dropkick to the head. "Hiya! Want to model the clothes?" she says.

Keitaro shakes her head, and replies, "I need your help. You're the only one here who might be able to pull it off, so I'm wondering if you can help me get a new identity."

Su tilts her head and says, "Why would you want to do that?"

Keitaro sighs, a vein popping out on her forehead in uncharacteristic frustration. She indicates her body, and Su nods. "OH!"

Five minutes later, they are sitting in Su's forested room in front of her computer. Su starts it up and waits for the Windows XP® to load up. After a second or two, it does, and she logs into MSN Messenger® and clicks on one of the contacts. It pops up, the avatar a picture of a small, brown, scruffy dog with fox-like ears and wide bottomless eyes. She begins typing…

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: hi ed (Yes, it's THAT Ed.)

Woohoososeksah: hi!

Woohoososeksah: hi!

Woohoososeksah: hi!

Su giggles a bit, looking at Keitaro, who sits in her chair with her arms crossed. Su sighs happily, and continues to type.

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: my rm had a sex change and needs new id stuff

Keitaro does a doubletake. "I did NOT!"

Sue looks at Keitaro, and shrugs, "In a way it's true. Besides, it's gotta be a secret, right? This is the quickest way around it. Plus it's more fun this way!"

Keitaro scratches the back of her head, and gives in. "Fine…"

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: can u do it

Woohoososeksah: whats the name he wants to go by

Keitaro, reading this, says, "Kei Urashima." She spells it out for Su to type. Su hums a nameless tune as she does so…

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: Kei Urashima

Woohoososeksah: k

Woohoososeksah: hold on a sec

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: kk

Woohoososeksah: u owe meh 4 this

Woohoososeksah: i need info for birth certificate

Su giggles a bit, exchanging glances with Keitaro.

Keitaro says, "Cousin of Keitaro by adoption."

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: cousin to himself by adoption

Woohoososeksah: does he have names for teh mother

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: nope

Woohoososeksah: what about teh fathers dna records

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: better make it anonymous

Woohoososeksah: k one sec

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: kk

After a couple of minutes, a window pops up. Su clicks on it, and a screenshot of the new birth certificate pops up.

Woohoososeksah: printing out the new birth certificate now

Woohoososeksah: i changed the credit card info 2 so he can keep using his credit and debit cards

Woohoososeksah: their database has useless firewalls

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: i know :p

Woohoososeksah: need a new pic for school id and state id before i change their databases

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: kk one sec

Su turns to Keitaro, picking up a digital camera that is hooked up to the computer while turning on the lights to her room via remote. She aims the camera at her and takes a couple of pictures, then fiddles with the computer some more.

Keitaro rubs her eyes, trying to get the spots to go away.

Molmol-luvs-da-moon sends Woohoososeksah manwoman.gif

Transferring…

Transfer complete.

Molmol-luvs-da-moon sends Woohoososeksah sheneedslongerhair.gif

Transferring…

Transfer complete.

Woohoososeksah: wow pretty lady docs did a gj lol i agree she should grow out her hair

Su laughs at that, Keitaro groaning in a voice of growing irritance.

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: is everything set

Woohoososeksah: yeppers printing out the ids now

Woohoososeksah: im gonna send them in the mail first class overnight

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: kk ill let her kno thx again i will pay u back

Woohoososeksah: k cya later then

Molmol-luvs-da-moon: ya cya

Woohoososeksah appears to be busy and may not reply.

Su sits back in her chair, and looks at Keitaro. "There you go Kei!"

Keitaro sighs and pats Su on the head as she gets up. "Good job, Su, thank you very much for helping." Su smiles happily, and begins fiddling with her computer more. Keitaro pads out of Su's room, and slips quietly outside and into the hall to bump into Motoko.

Motoko places her hand on the hilt of her sword, slowly beginning to draw it. "What were you doing?"

Keitaro back away, hands already up in surrender. "Su helped me change my identification records, that's all, I swear!"

Motoko stops drawing her sword, and clicks it back into the sheath. "Fine. Don't let me catch you doing anything you shouldn't, stupid retard…" She turns around and walks away. She calls over her shoulder, "Just because you're not a man doesn't mean you don't have to do your duties as RM, so get to work."

Keitaro sighs, and walks to her room to change into work-clothes. After a while, she steps back out with a handkerchief tied around her head, a white tank top, cutoff shorts, and an empty bucket with a dent in the side courtesy of Naru's temper from the previous day. Getting to work, she begins to wash the floor.

Hours later, having finished her work, she smells Shinobu's cooking, walks back to her room to change, then walks downstairs to the kitchen.

Sitting down quietly, they all begin to eat. Keitaro, having lost her appetite since changing, does not finish her meal. Su, typical to her nature, immediately grabs Keitaro's plate and eats what is left.

Kitsune notices this, and nods approvingly. "It's good that you're not eating as much, Keitaro, otherwise you'd lose your girlish figure," she giggles.

Keitaro shakes her head and replies, "That's not why but whatever. I need to study some more tonight before it's bedtime."

Gathering up all the dishes, Keitaro washes them and walks up to Naru's room. Knocking on it before she enters, she finds that Naru is not there. "Ehm…" She sees the board that covers the hole has been moved, so she walks into Naru's room and peers down through it.

Naru, having just dropped down into Keitaro's room, looks up at her. "There you are! I want to talk to you about your clothes before we study." She waves a black turtleneck at Keitaro pointedly.

Keitaro sighs, wondering just why Naru would want to do that, and drops through the hole. Landing next to Naru, she straightens up and gazes at her questioningly.

Naru points at Keitaro's dresser, a pair of panties and matching nylons with garters resting on the top with a note from Kitsune. "What is that?" Her face shows an expression of barely suppressed anger.

Keitaro shrugs, refusing to actually look at the undergarments a second time. "Well, Kitsune brought them in, obviously. I don't plan on wearing anything like that if that's why you're about to hit me." She looks idly at Naru, expecting the blow.

True to Keitaro's prediction, Naru decks Keitaro, shouting, "You're thinking it! Pervert!"

Keitaro rubs her face and stands back up, a temper she never knew she had flaring up. Eyes blazing, she rounds on Naru. She hisses in a seething voice, "I tell you and I tell you but you never ever listen, do you? I-am-not-a-pervert! I must be talking to a ROCK. You seem to be taking my problem really well, too. Kitsune does, Su does, Motoko does, Haruka does, even Shinobu does! NONE of you stop to think about what is going on in my mind!" She closes the distance to Naru with hands on her hips, leaning into Naru's face. Naru blinks in complete surprise, leaning backwards because Keitaro's entrance into her personal space has made her very uncomfortable. Keitaro continues with clenched teeth, "And since you don't seem to care, maybe you should start ACTING the PART!" Sighing a bit and calming down, she rubs her face again where Naru struck her. "I'm sorry, Naru… Let's just study for a while, okay?"

Naru, totally flabbergasted, nods in hushed silence. "That is completely new," Naru thinks to herself. They climb back up the hole into Naru's room, and begin to study half-hazardly. After a while, they stop to take a break. Naru watches Keitaro again, and notices that she doesn't seem to be at all angry like she was a while ago. In fact, Keitaro appears to be acting like it never happened.

"Umm… Keitaro, about what happened in your room a little while ago," she ventures quietly.

Keitaro straightens up, and looks at Naru, completely calm and collected. "What about it?"

"You're acting like nothing happened, like you didn't get angry."

"It's on my mind often enough, it just never used to get to me like it has started to. Besides, I have a headache," Keitaro shrugs and leans on the table. "Plus, being your punching bag for so long isn't a good feeling."

Naru's face flushes in indignant shock, her temper rising again. She stands up and sneers, "Well, if you weren't such a pervert…!"

Keitaro looks up at her, noticing that she's about to get violent, and sighs, "I never mean to end up in the situations that happen – Oh here we go again, how far will I fly today?"

Naru, not missing a beat, executes a graceful pirouette as she spin-kicks Keitaro towards the hole that joins their rooms together. Keitaro cracks her head on the floor loudly as she hits the floor and rolls backwards over and over. Reaching the hole but not falling through, she sits back up and rubs her head, "That one hurt." Looking around Naru's room, Keitaro shrugs. "I think I've done enough studying tonight, I'm going to bed," she says, smiling faintly at Naru, putting a hand to her own head, wincing, and then she drops out of sight.

That night, Keitaro has a strange dream.

She's still a woman. She's sitting up on her bed, and the angelic Wish Granter is standing next to her. "Who… Wha…" Keitaro does not recognize any of this, none of it has any familiarity. (I.E. This is just a weird dream to Keitaro. She doesn't recognize the Wish Granter, because she doesn't not remember that event.) The features of winged creature's face are empty, as if it had no face at all. It mumbles something, forms a magic seal with its hands, and an unseen power radiates outwards to fill the room. A male Keitaro slides open the door of the room and enters, smiling, and in a metallic shriek, cracks into millions of shards that get swept away by the force of the power. Keitaro flinches at the sudden loud noise, and then the Wish Granter reaches out with clawed hands to grab Keitaro's face, screaming. Its face looks like its covered in flesh-covered rubber, indentations where the eyes and mouth should be, but it is screaming loudly anyway, a high-pitched girlish scream that wakes Keitaro up in a cold sweat. She looks around, wondering where the scream was coming from, and realizes that it was herself. Scratching her head, she goes back to sleep, mumbling, "What was that about…?"