Excuse the lateness and the brisk nature of this piece as always.

Chapter Fourteen: The Joys of Womanhood

Rikkai Dai, Fuji noted, was a very pretty school. Flowers were blooming, birds were chirping, the grass was lush and green, and the school itself was a beauty. And the best part was that the rumors haven't (yet) reached this tranquil school. If for not the fact that nearly everyone had as much personality as a rock, it would have been quite a pleasant place to-

BOOM!

Well, the word 'nearly' doesn't account for 'all', does it?

Fuji, like everyone else in the class, momentarily abandoned their chemical solution as their inquiring heads snapped to a figure looking quite lost and surprised as shards of glass fell to the ground. A sigh could be heard escaping his lab partner's lips, and a disapproving look could be seen radiating off of the less than amused teacher's face. The boy could only sheepishly grin.

"How man times do I have to tell you that sodium and water do not mix!" Yagyuu hissed as Niou hurried himself to pick up the broken pieces of glass.

"They don't," Niou replied with a smirk, tossing shards of glass into the trashcan. "They explode." Yagyuu could only sigh. Thank goodness that it was only a tiny bit else… well, let's not go there.

Fuji cringed as she turned back to her own project. The objective was… what was the objective again? Fuji really wasn't paying much attention as her lab partner was doing nearly everything and didn't seem to give a dandy if Fuji was doing anything or not. The lab had given her a tingling sense of déjà vu, which wasn't very surprising seeing that less than a week ago she had undergone a horrible experience gone wrong in lab much like this one. However, the real reason her mind was not as focused as it should be was due to the constant cramping of her lower abdomen. Fuji had suspected it was probably caused by something she ate that morning, but rarely do these incidents occur, and it was such a pain, both literally and figuratively.

"We're done," Fuji's lab partner called just as the bell sounded for lunch. Fuji muttered a quick thank you before dashing out the door, anxious to do some mingling with selected people.

Kirihara briskly sauntered down the hall from his sempai's personal lab, pondering on the thought as to why his sempai would create such a horrific thing. (See chapter nine's omake for more reference.) I mean, honestly, what's the use of being able to control the twenty-third pair of human chromosomes anyways? Heck, what are chromosomes anyhow? Kirihara could only guess that they were some kind of thing that determined your gender by the way Yanagi had said 'turn you into a girl'. But who would be stupid enough to drink –BANG— …it…

"Oh, sorry, I…" Kirihara trailed off as he found himself staring at a slightly flustered and surprised Fuji. "Y-YOU!"

"Oh, it's you," Fuji frowned as she picked herself off and placed her hands on her hips in a very 'girlish' fashion. Kirihara could only gape. Now, contrary to have been influenced by endless video games of horror, violence, and bloodshed, Kirihara was actually quite an intelligent boy, and putting two and two together (the first two being his sempai's new formula, and the second two being that he threw it away) he was quickly able to realize just who was standing in front of him, looking very wrong and awkward in a skirt.

"You didn't… you…" Kirihara stammered as sudden footsteps appeared behind the boy.

"Akaya, it's not polite to stare," Yanagi scolded him as he helped the boy up. Kirihara could honestly care less as he pointed a shaky finger at Fuji, who was now smirking with delight.

"S-Sempai…!" Kirihara wailed. Yanagi could only sigh as he made Kirihara stop performing rude gestures at other before looking at the girl that stood in front of him. It was then that Yanagi felt an unusual fluttery feeling inside of him, much like the ones he gets when he had won a match or have just accomplished something massive.

"Success!" Yanagi gasped as he left Kirihara's side and proceeded over to Fuji. "I had thrown away the only remaining sample in hopes that Sadaharu might fish it out and use it in one of his juices, and you must be the subject of his and my experiment!"

Normally Fuji wouldn't have minded such a person who was usually so calm, cool, and collected as Yanagi to be acting so out of character, but for her to be called a 'subject' was just plain insulting to her stature. Not only that, but she was missing lunch, and Fuji liked lunch because it could possibly be a lack of food causing her constant cramping.

"Come, I must present you to my fellow teammates," Yanagi exclaimed as he caught Fuji by the wrist with one hand and Kirihara with the other and lead both of them down the hall in a hasted trot.

"Excuse me?" Fuji asked, bewildered. "You made that… thing?"

"Yes, yes I did," Yanagi nodded. Oh, he was so proud of his accomplishment! "Of course, I should be reporting this to the world, but I had yet to learn the true aspects of its effects."

"You mean it does other things than alter people's genders?" Fuji inquired as the three clambered outside.

"Possibly… I'm not sure of the extent of its true potentials, actually," Yanagi admitted sadly. "I would need more test subjects to research on."

Kirihara paled as Yanagi gave him 'a look' and quickly turned away. There was no way he was going to be turned into a girl, no way. Then he caught Yanagi looking at Sanada with the same 'look' and nearly died. What was the world coming to?

"Renji, who is she?" Sanada asked suspiciously as the three sat down.

"You don't know?" Kirihara exclaimed.

"Am I suppose to, Akaya?" Sanada inquired. Kirihara opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it and promptly shut it again with much displeasure.

"This is my aunt's stepchild," Yanagi said, and had they known about the massive Fuji Family Tree, they probably would've been flipping out like everyone else was. However, Rikkai was an uptight school with zero-tolerance towards such a thing such as rumors, so no such 'flipping out' occurred.

"I'm Fujiko Suzume, pleasure to meet all of you," Fuji said politely. She was returned with a murmur of greetings as well.

"You know, you look very familiar," Niou noted as he leaned forward to examine her. "Haven't I seen you before?"

"She's in our class, Niou," Yagyuu offered.

Niou just shrugged as he turned to his lunch, only to find it missing. He blinked twice before his eyes traveled towards his left and landed on the sight of Marui polishing off the last of it.

"What?" the boy pouted. "You couldn't possibly have eaten it all!"

"You're right," Niou replied knowingly. "Because you ate it all!"

There wasn't much to say about the rest of lunch save that Marui kept swiping everybody's lunch. Actually, most of the 'interesting' things took place after school during tennis practice and a bit beyond that.

"You want to play against Akaya?"

Bored by not haven been able to so much as touch a racket for the past week, Fuji had deliberately invited herself to the Rikkai Dai practice. Of course, Yanagi had insisted she come either way, for he wanted to 'thoroughly study his subject in action in order to analyze the effects of the Magical Chemical 3.8'.

"Yes. Is that acceptable?" Fuji asked in the politest voice she could possibly muster. Sanada was about to reply when Yanagi suddenly appeared behind the boy, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, I think that would be a wise idea, Genichirou," Yanagi started. "She's a very good player. It would do Akaya good, believe me."

"Well…"

"Best of one set match, Fujiko to serve."

The Rikkai Dai regulars watched with mild amusement as Fuji gracefully served the ball and Kirihara return it without fail.

"Why is Kirihara playing Yanagi's aunt's stepchild?" Niou asked with an air of interest and mockery. "Is it even safe to let Kirihara play against a girl? What if he ends up-"

"Enough, Niou," Yagyuu hushed him before he could go on. Niou just flashed him a cheeky grin before going back to watching the match quietly like everyone else.

"But why did you let Kirihara play against a girl?" Marui asked, picking off where Niou left. "I mean, what if he accidentally ends up-"

"Enough, Marui," Jackal told him in much the same manner as Yagyuu.

"Why did I agree?" Sanada muttered loud enough so only Yanagi could here. The boy gave a soft smile before answering:

"Enough, Genichirou. Just watch."

"Hey, wait!"

Fuji half scowled, half smirked as she swiveled around on her heels to see a panting Kirihara desperately trying to catch up to her. It was quite sad, actually, the match that is. They had gotten past three games before her cramps really started acting up again and she had to literally drop her racket and dash out of the court clutching her stomach. Fuji honestly had no idea to the root of the problem, though she sort of hoped it was only minor food poisoning due to the possible 'side effects' of the Magical Chemical 3.8, which so far included extremely icky tasting and gender swapping.

"Why did you take off like that? We're not finished! I wanted to beat you, even if you are a girl!" Kirihara complained as he marched up to her, eyes bloodshot of blazing.

"I don't feel well," Fuji said dryly, completely serious with all honesty, a rarity this past week. "Bye."

The girl turned around to leave again, possibly to a nearby restroom or something, but Kirihara, not having believed a word of it, easily jolted in front of her, blocking her path. Fuji frowned.

"Please get out of my way," Fuji said in a dangerously low voice as her cerulean eyes glared at the boy intensely.

"Let's finish our match first," Kirihara insisted, not backing down or the least intimidated.

"No."

"Yes."

Fuji sighed, squeezing close her eyes as she clenched her fists. "Move, or-"

However, right then, something very, very strange and unexpected happened, completely blanking out Fuji. Her eyes opened again, this time in shock as her face paled and her lips began trembling. Kirihara stared at the girl with confusion.

"Hello?" Kirihara asked. "Why are you-"

Those words were never finished as Fuji suddenly let out a small yelp and began tearing down the street, leaving Kirihara standing perplexed at the curb, gazing after her running figure, until he got the good idea to wake up and follow her.

"Hey! Wait! I still want to finish that match!"

"Renji, what happened?"

"According to my data, the experiment was more of a success than I had originally anticipated."

"… That was Seigaku's Fuji Syusuke, wasn't it?"

"Very good observation skills, Niou."

"Renji, just what did you create?"

"You'll see, Genichirou, you'll all see."

"Okay, what is wrong with you!" Kirihara shouted from outside of the women's restroom. It was embarrassing, true, but anyone that so much as cast him a look got the evil eye in return. The match was just that much more important.

"I'm fine! Perfectly all right! Nothing is wrong with me!" Fuji snapped back. Kirihara could hear an awful lot of flushing and scrambling around, and he knew that the girl was definitely not all right.

"Can you hurry it up with whatever it is?" Kirihara returned. "I still want to finish. I was in the lead too."

Kirihara awaited an answer from the girl, but it never came, only more flustered flushing and the sound of toilet paper being ripped. The boy was getting shifty and uncomfortable, and his competitive nature has completely been deflated.

"Are you done yet?" He called impatiently.

No reply.

"Hello? Fuji-san?"

Still no reply.

Kirihara sighed exasperatedly. "If you're not coming out, then I'm coming in to drag you out!"

Fuji remained silent still.

Cursing the word and quickly looking around to see if anyone was around, Kirihara muttered more curses as he cautiously pushed the door open and slipped inside. The match was more important, and he'd do anything to finish it, even if it did mean… trespassing in the women's restroom.

"Damn. It's so clean!" He muttered. Shaking his head and focusing on the task at hand, (trying to blush to death in the meanwhile) Kirihara quickly scanned the outrageously clean restroom until he found the lone stall that was closed and emitting constant flushing noises from it.

"I can't believe you actually came in here," Fuji laughed bitterly. "You know this is against your school rules, right?"

Kirihara scoffed. "I don't care. All I care is that we finish our match."

"Right, about that…" Fuji trailed off, however, leaving Kirihara hanging. After three seconds of waiting, the boy's thin patience had finally worn down.

"Just what is going on with you! Are you experiencing food poisoning or something? Because I don't hear you throwing up!" he said. Fuji's humorless laughter could be heard returning that statement, but quickly died down.

"Kirihara," Fuji began. Kirihara sighed. So she finally decided to respond.

"What?"

"I… I need you to buy me a sanitary napkin."

"WHAT!"