"Do you really think that a simple examination will reveal the cause of such a drastic transformation?" Akabane asked, unconvinced as the girl led him to a room in the far back and closed the door. "It seems to be a very complex issue."

"It's necessary. Don't you want to know if all the organs are there, or just some of them?" Ren asked, giving him a critical look over.

He hadn't thought of that. It was possible that he had only the external appearance of a woman and none of the internal parts. That was a question he figured he would like the answer to. Reluctantly and cautiously, he surrendered to her inquiry and sat down on the table present in the room.

"Don't sit down. You're not dressed properly for this," she grinned. He didn't like that grin. It reminded him of his own grin, and that was not a good sign. She gleefully held up what essentially amounted to a rectangular sheet of paper with shoulder straps on it.

"What is that?" Akabane asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Your examination robe," she said, her ear-to-ear grin conveying a taste of sadism.

"That can not possibly be the robe. That would not cover anything." He looked at her, noticing that she continued to grin victoriously. "You seem to be taking a lot of joy in inflicting this on a fellow female."

"I heard you talking, and I know that you're actually male under there. Now you get to see what we have to go through. After all, I keep hearing all my guy friends talking about how much worse they have it. I've always wanted to prove them wrong."

"You are quite the jaded little child," Akabane observed, very reluctantly turning his back to her and putting on the paper robe she'd offered.

"It comes with the territory," she answered. He figured that the territory she was referring to was the harsh reality of the Infinite Castle. Perhaps she was referring to the world of the Infinite Castle without the Thunder Emperor, he thought when she turned her back to him and he caught a glimpse of the logo on the back of her leather jacket.

"So… is your grandfather going to be doing this examination?" he asked, sitting on the table and uncomfortably trying to keep the robe closed.

"Nope!" she answered brightly. "I am!" She took off her jacket and started putting on a lab coat.

Akabane blinked. "You're just a girl…"

"My grandfather trained me to handle these things. It's an easy enough exam, and the female patients usually feel more at ease when a girl does it." She snapped her gloves. "Those that are not actually men, that is."

Akabane suddenly felt very, very nervous. The examination progressed with a bit of pain, Akabane attempting to act as though he were not feeling the pain, and Ren smirking at the fact that he was pretending not to feel the pain. It was also… well, to put it bluntly, it was rather embarrassing. Humiliating was perhaps even a better word for it.

"Yep, it's all there. Congratulations, you seem to be fully female," Ren informed him, looking up from between his slightly damaged vital organs. Truth be told, it hurt physically, but he was certain that his pride had taken most of the blow.

"I could have told you that," he answered, trying not to reveal any pain or weakness as he sat up. "So far, nothing but bad things have happened to me since I turned female. Are there not any benefits to being a woman?" he asked.

She handed the robe back. "Of course there are," she answered, turning her eyes away. He didn't see much of a purpose in her giving him modesty while he changed, considering as how she'd essentially seen all of his nude body by that point. He adjusted the robe over his chest, wincing. The pain would go away soon enough, as he was an amazingly fast healer, but that didn't help things at the moment.

She turned back, studying him a moment before giving her answer. "Higher pain tolerance," she answered, voice completely deadpan.

"That is not a very convincing argument," he responded, leaving the room.

Ban and Ginji were still in the other room, as Ban was only beginning to become conscious enough to talk again. He glared up when Akabane re-entered the room. "Where are my car keys?" he asked, but since he was still half-drugged, it came out as "Wha at mah cah kays?"

"They were with my clothes, which the girl took."

"They're here in the desk," Ren answered. "We emptied the pockets and sent all your clothes down to be dried. They should be back all nice and warm in a few minutes." She looked at her grandfather. "I didn't find anything. He's a perfectly normal, healthy young woman," she said, casting him a bit of a sideways smirk.

Akabane looked over at the girl and her grandfather. "After all that, you came up with absolutely nothing that will help me get my male body back?" he asked, his voice distinctly unhappy.

Ren shrugged. The drugged Ban, however, launched instinctively into his sales pitch. "Weda Get Backers. Get anything back. Nearly hundrah perchant success rate!" he said, words still slurred.

Ginji hated the way Akabane's head turned to face them slowly, like a creature out of the Exorcist. A grin graced his face, and his eyes were dark. "Well then, perhaps I can offer you a job." He ran one hand across his chest in a way that was intended to tantalize poor Ginji. "Get back my real gender."

"Wesh can do aaaaaaaany job!" the anesthetic-high Ban answered.

"Ban-chan… I don't think you should…" Ginji began to whimper. He had intended to finish his sentence with 'take a job from Akabane,' but Akabane was faster than he was, and had wrapped his arms around Ginji's head and shoved Ginji's head into his female chest. "Will you not accept my job?" he asked, playing with a strand of hair on top of Ginji's very red face.

Ginji, from his vantage point, could see inside Akabane's robe. Somewhere, in his conscious mind, he knew who that nipple was attached to. He knew he should be horrified rather than delighted and blushing. He knew he should be screaming and running away rather staring. However, he knew all these things in his brain, and the moment, Ginji distinctly was NOT thinking with the head attached to his shoulders.

"Wed take any job!" Ban cried again, waving his arms.

"If you disagree, Ginji-kun, you should say something," he purred, pulling Ginji in tighter. Ginji made a few little burble noises, trying to summon up the word no, but it just wouldn't come out.

"I think he accepts," Akabane smiled, grabbing Ban's hand and shaking it. "We have a deal now. I would hate to see what would happen to someone who goes back on a contract signed with me," Akabane smiled, letting Ginji go. Ginji fell over in the chair, deflated like a beach ball that had just rolled across a lawn of tacks. Somewhere, deep inside the part of Ginji that was still thinking, he realized he was now in big trouble. Akabane, however, just grinned over at Ren. "I believe I have found an advantage to being female," he smiled.

Ren scoffed. "You're surprisingly good at that for someone who supposedly only grew those boobs a few nights ago. Are you sure you haven't done this before?

"What can I say? I have had very manipulative cohorts in my time," he shrugged. Right then, their dry clothes arrived back. Akabane excused himself to the back of the room to change, while Ginji and Gen set to assisting the still loopy Ban in getting dressed.

In back, Akabane discovered a terrible problem. His pants, it seemed, shrunk in the wash. They hadn't shrunk much, maybe three centimeters at the most, but since the pants had barely fit him in the first place… he couldn't get them back on, no matter how hard he yanked and pulled.

This was bad. It wasn't as if his underwear offered any sort of actual coverage on top of the pants not fitting. He could get them on everywhere except the hips, where the buttons just absolutely refused to go back together. He had to do something, though. He couldn't just walk around with his pants hanging open…

He peered out from behind the curtain. "Ren, was it? Do you happen to have safety pins I could borrow? Large ones?"

Ren gave him an odd look. "I do," she said, offering them over. "Why do you need them?"

"Costume malfunction," he answered, disappearing back behind the curtain.

"Costume… malfunction?" she asked, confusion written on her face.

Akabane tried pinning up the front of his pants, but the pins gapped open and showed more than he cared to expose to the world. What to do now? There had to be something…

He looked down at his pants once more, then sighed and slit open the side of each leg at the hip, pulling them up and then safety-pinning them up the sides. It was less obvious if the sides of his pants were open than the front, after all. No one could see the sides anyway because of the way his coat hung.

By the time he emerged, Ginji was fully dressed. The woozy Ban was slung over his shoulders. Gen was giving him a talk about what Ban should and shouldn't do on his medications. When Gen was done, Akabane smiled at Ginji. "Do not forget our agreement, Ginji-kun. I would, as I said, hate to see what would happen to someone who broke a contract with me. When Ban-chan is ready, I will be waiting for you in the hallway. After all, he is still in no shape to drive."

Ginji trembled, trying his hardest not to turn tare and drop Ban in the floor in the process. "Scary," he muttered as Akabane pushed past him, sashaying out into the hallway. "Are you sure you didn't see anything that would help us figure out what happened, Ren-chan? Anything? He's too scary to disappoint…"

"I didn't notice anything right away, but if I think of something, I'll let you know right away," she answered earnestly.

Akabane leaned against a wall and attempted to light a cigarette. After that mess, he really needed one, although he generally disliked smoking in public. He considered it unbecoming of the image he liked to keep up, although at the moment the very way he already looked ruined his image.

Damn it, what was wrong with his lighter? It just wouldn't spark. It seemed to have gotten too wet in the storm to be useable, which frustrated Akabane. At this point, he really needed that cigarette.

A small something glinted in front of his face, causing the end of his cigarette to light. Akabane jumped, dodging the attack that immediately followed. He followed up his dodge with a scalpel counter attack, piercing through an array of small mirrors. "Kagami Kyoji-kun," Akabane smiled. "To what do I owe the pleasure of fighting you today?"

"I came down here because I had to test you. I was afraid that you might have gotten soft, what with the sex change and all," Kagami answered, pulling a scalpel out of the mirror piece right next to his head.

Kagami seemed relatively casual about seeing his enemy switch genders for no apparent reason. Akabane didn't know if he should ponder that, or if it was just part of the way Kagami was. "Tsk. If Lady Poison could hear you now, she would damage some of your internal organs swiftly."

"She would, wouldn't she?" Kagami sighed romantically. Then, returning back to his normal expressionless face, he turned his attentions back to Akabane. "I'm glad to say you're just as fast and lethal as you ever were, perhaps even slightly faster. The smaller body frame is probably responsible for that," he smirked. "You've adjusted very quickly to that female body, faster than I would have expected. Then again, you are the infamous Doctor Jackal…"

Akabane returned Kagami's smirk. "Such glowing praise, Kyoji-kun. I will treasure them long after you are gone." With those words he ejected scalpels out of both hands, lunging forward at Kagami.

Before he could take more than a single step, however, Ginji swung the pharmacy door open directly in his path, blocking Akabane's view of Kagami. "Ano… Akabane-san, can I bother you to- gerk!" he cried as Akabane pushed him out of the way, leaping around the side of the door. By the time he got there, however, Kagami was long gone. He made a disgruntled noise deep in his throat. "I would like to fight him just once without him running away."

"Huh?" the injured Ginji asked, looking all around.

"Never mind," Akabane shrugged. "You were going to ask me something?"

"Yes!" Ginji said, snapping to attention. "Would you drive us home?"

Akabane looked at the singing Ban, still draped over Ginji's shoulders. "He's still out of it?" Akabane asked.

"Still out of it," Ginji replied, a sweat drop gracing his head.

"But still conscious enough to want to know who has his car keys," Akabane noted, referencing the fact that the song Ban had just made up seemed to focus on singing about said car keys.

The rain had thankfully reduced itself to a drizzle by the time they departed, Akabane walking slightly ahead of Ginji. It was not his usual habit, but he was enjoying glancing over his shoulder to see Ginji trying not to look at his butt or swaying hips.

They settled Ban into the back seat, where Ban finally gave up and collapsed into a deep sleep. It was too bad really. Without the sound of the rain or Ban's drug-induced songs the car was as quiet as a coffin. Although, Ginji would have considered that a very bad analogy.

It was too quiet for Ginji. He had been uncomfortable being alone with Akabane in the space of a hallway, or the width of a boat. To be practically alone with him in the confines of Ban's little car was far worse. Ginji could only pray that Akabane hadn't noticed his cold sweat yet. "Park here, Akabane-san," Ginji said finally, breaking the silence.

"Here?" Akabane asked, disbelieving. It seemed to be a grocery store parking lot.

"This store doesn't mind if we park the car here for a long time," Ginji explained nervously.

Akabane did as instructed. He turned off the engine and tossed Ginji the keys, stepping lightly out of the vehicle. "I suppose I will see you next for an update on my retrieval project, then?" he asked.

"You're going to walk home, Akabane-san? But it's dark and late and-"

"You were never concerned with my safety before."

"Well, it's just that…" Ginji let his voice trail off, nervously rubbing his spiked blonde hair.

"I am a girl?" Akabane asked, raising an eyebrow. "How quaintly chauvinistic of you, Ginji-kun. Are you volunteering to see my safely on my way?"

That wasn't what Ginji had meant to imply. "I just meant that it might be safer to take a taxi!" Ginji stammered, throwing up his arms.

"It is not far, and I prefer the exercise. Goodnight, Ginji-kun."

Ginji paused. Even if it was Akabane, his sense of chivalry wouldn't let him let a woman walk alone through Shinjuku at that time of night-becoming-morning. He took a deep breath. This is what it means to be a self-sacrificing hero, he guessed. "Wait, Akabane-san! I can walk home with you!"

Akabane shrugged. "Do as you will."

Ginji took a deep breath, swallowed his fear, and fell into step behind Akabane.

6-6

The last thing you wanted to see here is a to be continued. Admit it!

As a second note, this is the "PG-13" edit of this chapter. A more graphic version (read: higher rating) of this chapter and some of the later chapters does exist, but I have not posted it anywhere yet. I intend to put it up somewhere… eventually.

Any chapter which has an alternate version will contain a note at the end marking it as the PG-13 edit.

Oh, and the robe is a joke on the ending of the Resident Evil movie. We all looked at it and went "What hospital uses THAT gown?"