Chapter Two
"Melanie" landed heavily on the branch of a tree with a particularly wide trunk. There was a soft "oof" as the impact jarred "him" more than was intended.
"Still getting used to this new 'demonic' body," he mumbled to himself. "But still,"
He looked down at the ground that was several yards below him. "I didn't think that it entailed THIS."
The wind gently swished through the trees, giving the forest a soft whisper of a voice.
The first few days of the "trial period" had gone by rather quickly and uneventfully. With the exception of being stronger, it felt as if nothing had changed. Even body height had barely changed (if not a smidge or two shorter).
There was a small shock when a bird had managed to scratch and mar the pale, smooth skin, giving way to bright red droplets that dripped down his forearm and onto the grass.
The bird was quickly (but thoughtfully) dispatched before attention could be given to the scratch. Lamenting the loss of antibiotics, "Melanie" licked at the scratch and was surprised that the scratch had already healed into a thin pink line.
Movement near his feet had him jumping back a little.
There was nothing there except the drops of blood glistening on blades of grass.
Thinking he was going insane, he shook his head and grabbed the bird by the neck, making the short trek back to where he had set up camp. The bird was stripped of feathers and stuck in the coals of a dying fire.
"So I have healing powers. I guess that means that I don't have to get too worried over being injured."
As promised, the static voice appeared in "Melanie's" dream the night the "trial period" ended.
"So? How was it? Want to keep going?" the voice chirped.
"It's... fun," Melanie admitted. "I feel so alive. More alive than... before."
"Then does that mean you'll do it?" the voice asked, sounding giddy.
"...sure."
"Fantastic! Well, then I'll have to inform you of your other powers-"
"I have OTHER powers?"
"You honestly didn't think I would just give you a body without SOME sort of interesting power." The static seemed offended.
"I thought that the power-up was... y'know what? Nevermind. I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Atta girl. Boy. Whatever. Anyway, as I was saying, you have two other powers, depending on which form you take. In male form, you control your own blood. In female form, you control other people's blood. In your neutral form, you can use both, but they won't be nearly as powerful as they are on their own. Got everything so far?"
A nod.
"Good. Now, for my entertainment-"
"You'll come to me in my dreams and tell me what to do. It's my choice to decide whether or not I want to do it."
"Right. However, in this one case, you have to follow my directions. Tomorrow, head North and you'll come across a town. Nothing big, but big enough for you to get some new clothes. Get some for both forms. After that, get used to your powers. You'll have one and half months. At the end of that time, I'll come to you again. You will head South and come across a team of four demons. Do whatever you have to to join them. You'll get on a boat to Hanging Neck Island. On it will be held a tournament sponsored by some wealthy humans. After that, do what you want. Fight or not, but you must stay on the island for the duration of the tournament."
"That is a lot to process, but ok." Melanie nodded.
"Now for your new name."
"New name?"
"You can't very well go about with 'Melanie' as your name. Pick something. Something ambiguous if you can help it."
"Um. Ok... Sage?"
"No."
"Well that was the only one that I know of," Melanie sniffed.
"FINE. I'll rattle off some names and you'll pick."
A reluctant nod.
"Shiro."
"Eh..."
"Yu."
"Me?"
"Ugh. Akira."
"Why do these sound consistently Japanese?"
"Because you're in Japan," the static replied. "Ayumu."
"No. Wait, I thought you said I was in a different universe."
"You are. A parallel universe. Mako."
"No. A parallel universe? Why was this not brought up when I first met you?"
"Don't get your undies in a knot. It wasn't all that important. Sora."
"Not important?! I'm sorry, in case you hadn't noticed, I DON'T SPEAK JAPANESE. No."
"That won't be a problem. Iori."
"How? And no."
"I did some fiddling. That body will automatically translate whatever language you hear to what you understand. If you want to speak in another language though, is another matter. Japanese is already ingrained in the body so that one is already done. Yuki."
"Oh. And I kind of like Yuki..."
"Then Yuki it is!" the static cheered, sounding farther away than normal.
"Wait, why do you sound so faint?" Melanie asked.
"You're waking up, that's why. Like I told you! Head North! Buy some clothes! Train!" the voice was getting fainter and fainter with each word.
"I don't have any money!" Melanie yelled. "How am I going to buy anything!"
The voice yelled something that was too faint for her to hear.
Yuki woke with a jolt. Morning light had just begun streaming through the leaves and lighting up the otherwise dark forest.
He let a soft groan and covered his eyes with his hands. "Head North. Which way is North?"
"Ok. Ok. Calm down. The sun rises in the... west...? No, east. Yeah, east." He looked up at the sky.
"I can't see anything... I'll have to get above the trees to see anything properly."
As Yuki rose to his feet, he heard and felt the familiar crinkle of plastic underneath his bare feet. Plastic? Looking down, he found that he had steeped on a plastic bag filled with money. A lot of money. There was also a pair of beat up sneakers next to the bag.
Picking it up and opening it, he found that there was two bundles of money that were as thick as his fist together. The bundles had bills with 1000, 5000, and 10000 written on them.
"I don't know the conversion system for dollars to yen, but that is a lot of money," he mumbled, flicking through the bills, counting up how much he had.
"About 50,000 yen... that's enough to get me through half a day," was his sarcastic remark. "Where did this even come from?"
Yuki had arrived at the town within an hour or so of traveling. He quickly spotted a clothing shop and rushed inside, wanting to leave the smelly human populated area as soon as possible.
The shop was filled to the brim with the latest fashion. Which consisted of a lot of black and bright offending colors.
"Hello, ma'am, can I help you find something today?" a female worker approached Yuki with a pleasant smile. He was surprised to find that he understood what she was saying,
"Um, yeah, where's the men's section?" Yuki asked, hesitant to speak.
"Looking for something for your boyfriend?"
Yuki shook his head. "For...me."
"Oh! I'm so sorry, sir! I didn't realize-" the woman turned red with embarrassment and started to bow as an apology.
"No, no, it's ok just..."
"Of course!" the woman quickly hurried off, Yuki following close behind. She picked out some black shirts, a jacket, some pants, and some boots.
She gestured for Yuki to enter a changing room and then handed him a shirt, a jacket, pants, and a pair of boots.
It had taken at least several hours to find something that Yuki both liked, and could move around in. Which was basically two black sweaters, a pair of sweatpants, a pair of jeans (jeans were always something of a necessity to going out for Melanie since she wouldn't go out in sweats), and a pair of unremarkable dark brown hiking boots. After all, the voice had said something about fighting. Now was the task of finding something for his female self.
Luckily, Melanie had always had a liking for the Harajuku style, with its frills and pastel goth tones. Hopefully, there was something similar in this parallel universe.
Yuki hadn't had to look far before he came across a store with the name "Pastel Cavity" in bright blocky letters.
Quickly looking around, he concentrated on focusing becoming female. Breasts began to form and protest against the tight black sweater Yuki was wearing.
"Oh. I forgot underwear."
To say that Yuki was in Heaven was an understatement. The store, filled with bright pastel colors, was playing a peppy pop song in the background. The worker who had walked up to her was wearing a cute store uniform consisting of a white button-up shirt, a frilly multicolored bow, and a skirt with cookie prints and the store name.
She had introduced herself as "Ayame-chan desu!" in a chipper and high pitched voice that Melanie would have adored and fawned over. Yuki, however, simply grimaced slightly at the grating sound assaulting her ears.
Yuki was given multiple dresses to try on, most of them were pastel colored and frilly. Some were had more muted tones; coffee brown, black, and varying shades of blue. Within 30 minutes, she was being fawned over by several staff members of the store who had come to learn more about "the white haired girl with pale skin that looked like a doll."
Yuki finally settled for a black and white dress with frills, and a set of clothes consisting of a tank top with a sweets print, a pair of shorts, and a skirt that alternated between cream and coffee colors. With slight embarrassment that almost gave way to anxiety, she even bought two sets of underwear. Both were more frilly than she had ever thought bras and panties could be. And they were the least frilly thing in the store.
As Yuki towed her bags out the door, Ayame waved goodbye and threw a "Arigatou-gozaimasu!" out after the pale girl.
"FINALLY," she sighed.
"Where on Earth am I going to store these clothes without them getting dirty or something?!" Yuki yelled, scaring the birds out of their trees. "And I even have to start training! I live in the WOODS, for crying out loud!"
WOOT WOOT CHAPTER 2! Anyway, sorry for the lack of Yu Yu Hakusho characters. THEY'RE COMING. I PROMISE. I'm actually debating if Yuki should grow out his/her hair and wear it in a ponytail as a guy and let it down as a girl. I just think it'd be nice since I can't imagine female Yuki with short hair like a guy's. But I CAN imagine male Yuki with a ponytail. I guess you'll find out next time on ̶̶D̶r̶a̶g̶o̶n̶B̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶Z̶!
NEXT TIME: TRAINING, TRAINING, AND A BOAT RIDE
DFTBA!