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Author: Jun-I
Chapter 1: The Lady and the Mechanic
Pairings: female Heihachi - female Kyuzo, Shichiroji/Kanbei (later), Kambei - Kyuuzou (female)
Warnings:
- characters undergo sex change (Heihachi and Kyuzo are women), yaoi/yuri
- spoilers within. Written with the assumption that readers have already seen the anime.
Notes:
- I've always wanted to write a female Kyuuzou fic after learning that the original design for the anime character was female. (They changed 'her' back to a man though). Anyway, my friend who watched S7 without knowing that Kyuuzou was originally female was also of the opinion that Kyuuzou's character was never convincingly male. 'He' had very strong feminine aspects.
- Kyuuzou's femininity might be obvious, but casting Heihachi as a girl is a little more tricky. Nevertheless, there is some 'supporting evidence'. 'He' is very short for a man, for starters. In the scene in which Heihachi falls over when Gorobei asks 'him' if 'he' was interested in hacking 40 Nobuseri, Heihachi's butt looks a little too round to be a guy's. Plus 'he' wears exactly the kind of clothes that could hide a woman's figure. And then there's that whole stereotype of the 'lesbian mechanic'. ;-)
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Her shining princess, she called her. Golden-haired and ruby-eyed. A stunning enchantress in a long red gown. Heihachi had heard of her even before she first laid eyes on her. After Gorobei had talked her into signing up for the Kanna Project, he mentioned a strange red samurai who had challenged Kanbei earlier. A woman who was a better fighter than their formidable leader? The lesbian mechanic was intrigued. Heihachi was an above-average swordfighter, but during the five years she had to survive as a lone wanderer after leaving the army, she did not have the confidence to live openly as a woman. It was just too risky. Her somewhat androgynous appearance allowed her to pass for a young man, and a man was what Gorobei thought he got when he brought the happy-go-lucky woodcutter to meet the rest of the team.
Heihachi's new friend turned out to be an incurable gossip. Gorobei retold the story Kanbei and Kyuuzou's match with dramatic flair. He laughed about how the stoic Kanbei had rather uncharacteristically expressed his attraction to the deadly female fighter. Heihachi wanted to meet this mysterious woman. She did later catch a few glimpses of the crimson-clad samurai among their pursuers, but she never got a close look at her.
The tomboy mechanic finally got her wish on the day her ronin band escaped from the Shikimori territory. The crimson warrior had come to them at the right time, switching sides in an unequal battle. Heihachi lost her heart completely after watching the other woman kill two Raiden single-handedly. If Kanbei was attracted, Heihachi was infatuated. Both were helpless moths drawn to Kyuuzou's cold flame.
After Kanbei had invited Kyuuzou to join the team, Heihachi fell into step beside her. "That was so awesome!" The boyish mechanic gushed, bowing enthusiastically to the elegant woman, "You're such a role model to female kind!"
Kyuuzou did not even look at her. "I live for myself, not for the aspirations of my entire sex," the tall woman had said rather dispassionately.
Heihachi was mortified. How foolish she must seem to this superior and sophisticated lady, projecting her own ideals onto a stranger's actions. She felt almost relieved when the two female samurai were split into different teams for the rest of the journey to Kanna. Perhaps by the time they got to the village, Kyuuzou would have forgotten how silly she sounded.