Chapter Two: Fujiko Suzume
And Fuji, completely out of character, screamed, and screamed, and screamed, until two first year boys peeked in to check the commotion but immediately withdrew after hearing Fuji scream, and scream, and scream, and, well, scream. You could say it was utterly unexpected and devastating. Wouldn't you scream too if you suddenly found yourself of the opposite gender? Well, you might faint too, but that's not the point!

"Inui!" Fuji hissed dangerously. His voice was more or less the same, though a bit higher in pitch. "EXPLAIN!"

"Uh, well, you see…" Inui began as he plunged into a full and very detailed explanation of how the Magical Inui Juice Remix Deluxe 3.8, Limited Edition Golden Version came to be. Fuji twitched harder and harder with each sentence until he finally snapped.

"Well, I hope you have the remedy for during this!" Fuji fumed, jabbing at his chest. Inui sort of inched towards the left, for he knew that when Fuji, boy or girl for that matter, had that flame blazing in his icy eyes meant that somebody was going to get hurt.

"Fuji, calm down, this isn't like you at all!" Eiji reasoned. The Fuji he knew rarely got angry off court, and was usually smiling, but this Fuji in front of him looked ready to send everyone on the earth to hell. If Fuji had such powers, Eiji was sure he'd use them now.

"This isn't me!" Fuji screeched. The usually calm and collected prodigy was now throwing a frantic fit, which was very out of character for him. "How do you expect me to explain this to my family? My teachers? The rest of the tennis club!"

"Fuji-" Eiji began, but was cut off by a spazzed out Fuji.

"And what about-"

"Fuji-"

"Or how about-"

"Fuji-"

"And-" And Fuji Syusuke was knocked out cold.

"Thanks, Inui," Eiji sighed, glad that Fuji wasn't screeching his vocal chords off. Inui lifted his math notebook from Fuji's head. "But what are we going to do about… uh… her?"

Inui shrugged as the two just simply stood there staring at the knocked-out Fuji, still trying to digest what had happened. It just simply didn't process.

"Chance of this happening… zero percent," Inui said calmly. "But then how could this have happened then? It's like magic, but that's illogical…"

"Magic?" Eiji supplied. "That Magical Chemical 3.8 sounded sort of strange."

"Perhaps," Inui mused. More silence, staring, and digesting continued.

"So, like you was saying, Eiji, what are we going to do about, uh, her?"

"Well… eh… good question." (From now on I'll refer to Fuji as 'she' since it sort of makes more sense in this situation.)

Fuji never really woke up from that state. It was sort of like she bolted up, stared at Eiji and Inui for a couple of seconds, then preceded to have the worst mental breakdown any person could possibly have.

"Why… was it because I did something wrong?" Fuji said blankly to herself between some psychotic giggles, having completely lost it. "Was it because I was bad and enjoyed seeing my friends and family getting crushed by rage and humiliation?" The thought of calming the teen immediately were slashed out of Eiji and Inui's minds as they heard those words spoken.

"Fuji, uh, for starters, I think you should put this on," Inui told her, showing Fuji a girl's uniform that Eiji had found in some old closet. It was a little wrinkled and such, but it looked like it would fit Fuji at least.

"What?" Fuji said, immediately leaving mental breakdown mode, which caused the two boys to think she was actually faking it for the most part. "I'm not wearing that!"

"Come on, Fuji! If you don't wear it, someone might recognize you and-" Eiji was again, cut off.

"NO! NEVER!" Fuji screeched as she snatched the uniform, kicked the two guys out and proceeded to change her clothes. It was possibly the hardest thing she had ever done.

"That's odd…"Oishi commented. "Eiji, Fuji, and Inui aren't here yet." Scanning the courts to see if his words proved him wrong, Oishi was disappointed as no trace of his three teammates could be seen.

"I saw them during lunch, so they should be here," Momo said as Oishi cast a very concerned look to no one in particular.

"Do you think something happened?" Oishi gasped, millions of horrible and painful situations filled Oishi's mind as what could have happened to the three. "What if they're all hurt? I'll go search for them!"

"Tell the three of them to run a hundred laps when you find them," Tezuka mumbled as Oishi dashed off. Everyone else shrugged and continued their practice.

Meanwhile, in Inui's lab/classroom, the two boys, haven gotten Fuji into a girl's uniform, were staring at the girl with wonder. Thankfully, she seemed to have regained some composure and some of that calmness she possessed when she was uh… a he.

"Nya! Fuji, it's still you, right?" Eiji asked slowly as Fuji smoothed out wrinkles and tried to get her bow tied. The ribbon was large, and pink, and nothing like the thin white laces she tied on her shoes, so naturally, it turned out to be all uneven and sort of twisted.

"Who else would and could I possibly be?" Fuji hissed. Turning to Inui, he demanded again. "Inui, you better have the cure."

"Well… no, but effects should only last about…" Inui started, but was afraid to finish.

"About…" Fuji encouraged, a forced smile on her face.

"About a week."

A tense silence followed, and Eiji thought for sure Fuji would break out into another screaming fit, but instead, the girl just sighed and smiled, as if nothing was wrong. But since it was coming from Fuji, the two knew there was definitely something wrong.

"Great, perfect," Fuji said curtly, much to the surprise of the other two. "I'm stuck as a girl for a week, and Inui here doesn't have any sort of remedy that could cure it sooner. Wonderful." Getting up Fuji grabbed his things and pushed the two boys out of the way and headed for the door, despite pleas to stop. The only thing on Fuji's mind at that moment were four letters that spelt the word doom.

"Eh?" Oishi wondered as he stopped short to listen in on a conversation that was being taken behind a closed door. He could make out Eiji's voice immediately, and then after a few seconds, Inui's. He immediately lit up. Fuji must be with them also then, so he had found all three of them unharmed! Or so he thought…

The violent opening of the classroom door interrupted his thoughts.

Fuji rarely panicked, but now was one of those times. She just wanted to go to some place where she could be alone to somehow… assess her situation, maybe scream at and hurt someone, but as soon as she had opened the door, she came face to face with Oishi.

"Nya! This is terrible!" Eiji sighed as he hopped up followed quickly by Inui. "Fuji's going to be humiliated for the rest of his life if everyone finds out!"

"Uh… hi. Is Eiji here?" Oishi asked. The girl seemed so vaguely familiar…

"Uh-"

"Oh, Oishi!" Eiji said quickly, shoving Fuji to one side. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Oishi, aren't you suppose to be at practice?" Inui asked, shoving Fuji out of Oishi's sight.

"Uh… I was searching for you two and Fuji. Is he here?"

"Um, uh… Fuji got a really bad headache and had to go home," Eiji thought up quickly.

"Is he alright?" Oishi gasped, feeling ashamed that he didn't know that one of his teammates had been sick.

"Yeah, just needed a little rest," Inui supplied with a nervous laugh. Percentage of Oishi not asking about who that girl was… five percent.

And ask he did. "Oh, that's a relief. Eiji, who was that girl?"

Silence…

"Eiji?"

Silence…

"Inui?"

Silence…

"I'm new!" Fuji said with a forced smile as she squeezed between Eiji and Inui. She couldn't hide her current state forever. As long as no one finds out that she was actually who she was suppose to be, might as well try to play along, right? It was going to be a painful week for sure.

"Yeah, she's Fu… uh… Fu… Fujiko!" Eiji said lamely, nearly letting it slip as Fuji twitched in the background.

"Yeah, Fujiko S…S… uh, Suzume!" Inui choked out. Fuji slapped her forehead in defeat. Indeed, it was the lamest name the two could supply, but it wasn't like she could do any better.

"He, I mean, uh, she, uh… transferred in uh, today, and we're uh… showing her around, yeah! That's why we're late for practice, ehehehe…" Eiji lied, hoping Oishi wouldn't see through it. Luckily he didn't.

"Oh, I'm sure Tezuka would understand that and wouldn't make you two run that one hundred laps. (Eiji: -twitch- one hundred laps?) Hello, Fujiko-san, please to meet you," Oishi went on politely as he extended a hand which Fuji took. Her hand was twitching like mad though.

"Yeah, please to meet you too," Fuji croaked as she continued twitching. You could have easily mistaken it for a seizure if she had twitched some more.

It's doom for you, Syusuke, doom… Fuji thought painfully.