In which Riddle is a Kitsune-type youkai who was forced to live as a human until he joined the NRC.
There was a girl in Heartsabyl. This was noteworthy in itself, but what made it even more awkward was the fact that the girl in question looked almost exactly like their tyrannical housewarden.
Cater couldn't help but stare, but then Trey noticed the light on and came to investigate.
He could feel the wince without having to look. The girl, hearing the footsteps flinched when she saw Cater, but brightened up when she saw Trey.
"Hey Alyssa," said Trey calmly, as if this was perfectly normal.
"Hi nii-san," she said cheerfully.
Cater was utterly confused by this point.
Trey calmly, but discreetly, convinced "Alyssa" back to 'her' room, where they soon heard hear snoring.
"Trey. What the actual fuck," said Cater. That was clearly Riddle, but female.
Trey winced, but waited until they were in his room before he explained.
"Alyssa is...complicated."
Cater stared him down. Trey did his best not to sigh.
"Alyssa is Riddle's escape mechanism, for when the world becomes too much. He barely remembers any of it when they switch, and Alyssa is more...emotional...than Riddle. However both of them have a fiery temper and bossy attitude."
"So Alyssa is a more emotional, tsundere version of Riddle then?" said Cater.
Trey snickered at that.
"Well, I suppose Alyssa might have been upgraded to a Himedere, but it still fits," said Trey amused.
"So what exactly causes the switch?" asked Cater. He was fine with Riddle being gender-fluid, but having some warning would be nice.
"We haven't really figured out the trigger. It was usually random and we only picked up on it by accident. Riddle's mom becomes even more of a Gothel whenever it happens," said Trey frowning. "We do our best to hide it, but whenever she realizes that Riddle switched to Alyssa, it's never pretty."
"How bad are we talking about?" asked Cater.
"Even more restricted diets, punishments over nothing, and a dangerously strict magical training regimens that left Riddle almost comatose."
Cater stared at Trey, absolutely horrified.
"So you're saying she took an extreme reaction to Riddle becoming Alyssa?"
"We would have said something to the adults, but Riddle became so closed off after the last time that no one would believe us that he could switch at all," said Trey, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"How do you want to handle this?" asked Cater.
"Riddle should switch back by morning. Just treat Alyssa as if you would him for now," said Trey tiredly.
Cater found it very telling that Riddle acted like he was walking on eggshells for the next three days, before relaxing.
Three weeks later...
Trey didn't know what Riddle's "mother" used to suppress Alyssa, but it was wearing off. Either that or Alyssa felt safe enough to come out more, with that woman's influence so weakened.
Either way it took him several seconds to register the fact Alyssa was out in full view of the dorm at breakfast and not Riddle.
"Is everything alright?" asked Trey.
"Everyone thinks they're hallucinating," said Cater, who was enjoying this a bit too much.
Trey watched as one of the third years nearly walked into a wall upon registering the fact their housewarden had breasts. It was rather hilarious.
"Did you explain what's going on?"
"Nah, thought I'd save it for you. You know more than me anyway," said Cater, who hadn't lowered his phone once.
"...You're totally recording this train wreck, aren't you?"
"Absolutely!" said Cater grinning. "Three people have walked into walls, one crashed into the table and four of them have crashed into another student! This is comedy gold!"
"Share the video with me later. I'm going to distract her with food before I explain what's going on."
Cater gave him a thumb's up.
The look of relief on the other Heartsabyl students learning there wasn't some sort of mass hallucination going on was rather comedic, in Trey's opinion.
"So the housewarden is gender-fluid?" asked one brave rabbit beastkin.
"If you don't know which pronoun to use, stick with the neutral ones. Riddle has very little memory of what happens whenever he becomes Alyssa, however they are still the housewarden."
Trey hated the way Riddle's mother reacted whenever they became Alyssa. Perhaps this would allow his friend to finally come to terms with his feminine side once and for all.
Either way, the dorm created an unspoken rule that they were not to mention Alyssa outside of Heartsabyl.
Some time later...
Cater had to smile seeing Alyssa wandering around the dorm. She had been rather tense the first few times, but now most of the students had accepted Riddle's odd ability to switch genders, mostly on a whim.
He still didn't recall most of what happened whenever he turned into Alyssa, but the fact he felt comfortable enough to let her out like this was a good sign. From what he could tell, this was acting as some sort of therapy for the poor kid.
Though Cater was being rather quiet on the fact that he had created a private server on MagiCam where they could all share pics of "Alyssa-Hime" whenever she was out. The others were more than game to keep quiet on when their housewarden switched genders provided that they didn't find out about the candid photos they were taking.
Her himedere personality was surprisingly charming, since she wasn't a complete bitch about it. While she was ridiculously strict about following the Queen's rules, it was perfectly in line with the house's mentality and thus accepted. And unlike her male persona, Alyssa only saved her signature spell for major offenses or repeat offenders.
Cater had a bit of a crush on Vil, but his new favorite hobby became taking candid photos of Alyssa. Any pictures he could take without her noticing would be swiftly uploaded to the new internal server exclusively for current Heartsabyl students.
He knew for a fact several of the students now had a picture of Alyssa-hime as their wallpaper on their phones.
Trey was clear once alerted to the server that Riddle not know about the photos. He was heavily traumatized by the fact Alyssa sometimes came out, purely because of how his mother would react.
Cater had to blink when he stumbled across Riddle calmly snoring against a student from the rival school on the other side of the island. The beastkin had purple hair and a long fluffy tail. A tail, Cater was bemused to note, that Riddle was aggressively cuddling with.
The most amusing fact was that it was Riddle, not the 'softer' Alyssa who was cuddling with the tail.
"Who are you?" asked Cater, his voice low so as not to wake up Riddle. The kid had a stressful week and this would keep his temper on a more even keel later.
The beastkin grinned at him, but kept his voice low for the same reason Cater had.
"The name's Che'nya. I'm Trey and Riddle's friend."
Cater blinked, before vaguely recalling Trey had mentioned a third party that knew about Alyssa prior to Riddle coming to NRC.
He took one look at the way Riddle was cuddling against the catkin's tail and grinned. He held up his camera, which had Che'nya grinning.
On an unrelated note, Che'nya was cheerfully added to the "secret server", and was absolutely delighted to finally have a place to share his few pictures of chibi Riddle/Alyssa.
Officially they had to chase him out whenever he visited, especially during Unbirthday parties.
In reality Cater usually left a plate or two of food and drink in an discreet place for Che'nya to have, since it would be rude to allow a guest to leave without any. Even if technically he wasn't invited.
It was Che'nya who let slip an important clue as to why Riddle was able to switch genders so easily.
"No way...Riddle has ears and a tail? I didn't know beast kin could hide those!" said Cater in a hushed whisper.
There was no telling who was listening after all. Riddle was currently distracted by a housewarden meeting, so at least he was safe from that.
"Normally we can't...but," started Che'nya, before double checking no one was within earshot and that the privacy spells they had up were fully active. "There are some beastkin who have the ability to hide as humans. They're extremely rare, and most of the ones that live among humans are both intelligent and powerful."
"Why would they want to hide?" asked Cater, confused.
"It's not really spoken about. But there are old stories of beastkin who could not only hide themselves as humans, but do a complete animal transformation," said Che'nya.
"And you think Riddle is one of them?"
Che'nya quietly nodded.
"His guardians is human. Riddle's scent is not," said Che'nya. "And I've only met his 'dad' once, and his scent was wrong too. Plus I know for a fact that his dad didn't die in an accident."
Cater winced. The implications were pretty damning, but it wasn't his business. At least, not at the moment.
He had enough on his hands keeping the teapot tyrant happy when he was Riddle. Alyssa was a bit calmer and easier to manage, but most of the time they were acting as Riddle. The only time they became Alyssa was when they were in the dorm and didn't intend to leave it for the day.
Cater was minding his own business when he found himself confronted by Vil, of all people.
"Diamond, a word," said Vil.
Cater kept his cheerful smile, though he was confused as to why Vil wanted a quiet chat with him.
"What do you need?" he asked.
"You seem to have a firm grasp on the inner workings of your dorm," said Vil. "Lately I've noticed an odd fan club forming over a female idol...one that seems to be centered in Heartsabyl."
Cater thought about how to deal with this, before he settled on the one path least likely to royally piss off his housewarden.
"It's complicated," said Cater. "However I will say it involves our housewarden's personal life and that we're trying to keep it as discreet as possible due to his mother."
"His mother?" said Vil, raising an eyebrow.
"Complete Gothel of the highest order, in all the worst ways. If she found out what we were doing, she would almost certainly retaliate in a way that would traumatize Riddle for life."
Vil's eyebrows went up at that. That...was a pretty serious claim, and Cater was not the sort to say something like that lightly.
"How bad are we talking about here?"
Cater winced, as he had asked Trey about what happened last time Riddle's mother learned Alyssa had been out, however briefly.
"As in if his mother finds out what Riddle's been doing, he's not likely to survive her reaction," said Cater.
The last time Riddle's mother busted Alyssa being out, she had kept him more or less confined to the home for a month and when Trey saw him again it looked like he had been tortured extensively. He could never get any proof, and attempting to get the adults to interfere had done nothing the last few times.
The only thing they could do was have Che'nya sneak into his home at night when his mother was asleep and let Riddle cuddle with him. For some reason, his scent seemed to help just a bit and allowed the poor kid to relax.
Something about 'rose-scented fur' being one of the few things that could calm him down.
"What's this about a 'secret server'?" asked Vil.
"It's mostly so we have a place to share candid photos without Riddle's mother finding out," said Cater immediately. "Though if Riddle knew about it, he'd definitely blow a gasket."
Cater wasn't sure if Riddle knew about his 'feminine' side, but Trey was very firm on not telling him about the server.
Cater decided now was the best time to shift the conversation to something else. He would return to the dorm armed with a list of rose-scented products for Alyssa to try out and see which ones suited her.
She was rather fond of the roses after all.
Riddle was very confused by the new products in his shower, but didn't argue after Cater made a comment about showing the other dorms that Heartsabyl took the image of the Queen of Hearts very seriously, and that meant making sure that their housewarden looked his best.
Alyssa certainly seemed to appreciate the new products at least.
