21. In Pursuit of Greatness
I’m so siked, I’m ready to burst!
Close on Katsumi’s heels, I slink through the shadows all stealthily and shit. Rin was lighting up my phone like crazy with, ‘Hikari you were right!’
Duh! Of course! I’m awesome, thank you. And you people are so blind, sorry.
I may have made a total miscalculation when I speculated that Mr. Hashimoto was a demon, but I’m usually so spot on with stuff, it’s spooky.
Rin caught a glimpse of Katsumi in a dress when the whole ‘demon at the mall’ mess was going on a few days ago, which is like, so unfair that Rin got to see my Katsumi out of disguise before me! I couldn’t even get Rin to give me a good description! She was so angry. That woman needs to chill for real.
But, no worries, tonight I get my fix.
Katsumi obviously is dropping her boy-act whenever she is out and about with her friends. Which I so get, because shit must be exhausting. I admire her for the dedication she brings but it’s clearly taking a toll on her.
I, expert sleuth that I am, cracked the case wide open. I got Rin to spill the deets on Katsumi’s family, because home girl isn’t talking about them at all. She always shuts down when I try to pry. Anyway, got all the info I need from Rin.
Katsumi comes from this super prestigious family who have been revered demon-hunters for generations and shit, actually warrior clan stuff. They own like, half the valley where she's from.
She has three older siblings, a sister and two brothers. Her father and brothers are all accomplished demon-hunters, but neither her mother nor sister are hunters.
Bullshit misogynistic warrior clan rules, that’s what’s at play here. It explains everything. I bet only the men of the family are allowed to be hunters. And Katsumi always dreamed about becoming a hunter, Rin told me all about it. It’s what Katsumi and Tarō bonded over first year of high school before they had their falling out. Katsumi was probably told by her family she couldn’t be a hunter as a girl, so she started going to school as a boy, trying to appease her father and to adhere to these shitty rules. But it didn’t work. And yet she's still fighting, cast aside, disowned and stuck with male graduation papers and with that a male identity she loathes.
Oh my tragic prince.
I understand your plight, to be incapable of living up to the expectations placed on you because they're literally impossible and yet you tried.
I’m glad you've become more open with me regardless, even a little.
Today, Katsumi let slip that a friend of hers was picking her up later and they’d go hunting together. So I took my chance.
I’m following her.
If my assumptions are correct she’ll stop crossdressing for this.
Oh we’re here already?
She does live close to the konbini, but it’s a rather sad affair. That’s some poor looking apartment block, barebones, cheap and dimly lit. Tall fall for our rich girl. Must not have been easy to acclimate to. And to then live off a konbini salary? No wonder she lightened up at the whole demon-hunter stuff. Following her dream, helping others and additional income? Of course it makes her happy.
She's running up the stairs, better wait on her in this dark spot at the crossing. If I continue to follow her I’ll get caught for sure.
I stay and observe the building.
Girl sure takes her time.
30 minutes…
I’m getting anxious.
From my little dark vantage point I see a female figure emerge. The shadows obscure her face at first, and she has a different hair, but no that's Katsumi! Oh my gosh she's doing cosplay! She's totally dressed like one of those bad-ass demon-hunter priestess. How fucking cool is that! She has such a different aura! Like, a total change of presence, and the way she moves! No wonder it took me a second to recognize her. She's so elegant!
She walks further along with me in pursuit, keeping out of sight.
As she reaches the main road the light of the street lamps fully illuminate her, and I finally get a good look. Straight people are the worst! Rin you blind idiot, how could you give such inadequate description?
Katsumi in her full glory is divine. Her boyish features remain but with the incredibly good makeup and the hairstyle that like, so suits her. It makes her strikingly beautiful. Pretty in a handsome way. Refined. It could make any girl faint. Long legs and a slender, slightly athletic build. She's so amazing! I’m burning up merely looking at her.
She glances around, waiting on someone.
I catch a perfect frame of her eyes passing over me in the shadows without taking notice, and the strands of her hair flow with her turn.
Oh gosh, she is so pretty and cute!!!
I’m going to pass out.
I feel so blessed I get to see this.
I want to run over and kiss her already.
It’s no use, I have to come up with a strategy… I need another date with her, but one made for her not me. Where she can be at ease and doesn’t feel the pressure to perform. Let’s not even call it a date, just two girls spending some time together.
Maybe she discovered her sexuality recently and it still has her confused and frightened? Pretending to be man for so long must come with so many odd experiences, shit must be so overwhelming. And then she has to be vigilant all the time. No wonder she's like, a total ball of anxiety underneath her mask.
A girl on a scooter halts next to Katsumi. There is a hesitant hug and then Katsumi takes the helm the other girl hands her and they drive off.
How cruel.
I so wanted bask some more in the glory that is girl-Katsumi!
■ ■ ■
This is so fucking stupid!
The hero of this world taken off the board because a crossdresser from another world was too nice to him?
I did suspect that I might have ruined Tarō’s original 'story' but I thought for the better. Not having an obnoxious bully show up to gloat and boast every other chapter should’ve improved his journey, not turned him into a wet noodle.
Also this is kind of embarrassing for Tarō, that I, the crossdresser from another world who wants to turn himself into a girl for real, is like, totally more accomplished than he is, the literal male hero. What a loser.
According to Chie, he has four F-class demons and one D-class to his license together with Rin and all that in a bit over a month. I’ve killed more minor demons on my own in a single night! How is he this pathetic? The world bends over backwards for him with opportunities and that’s what he does with it? Wasn’t being a demon-hunter his big dream? He couldn’t shut up talking about it when we were kids, that’s for sure.
We…
I really am pretty boy now, aren’t I? Took a while to fully get there, but I think I've settled. His life is mine now, or he's dead and I get to continue his 'save-file' or whatever.
Having his memories would be a real boon tho, working of my hazy recollections of a novel is rather insufficient.
But it also isn’t completely useless.
The past nights, instead of going out to hunt, I was creating a detailed list of all the demons I remembered from the original story—the ones Tarō was supposed to have taken care of—at least those I could vaguely map out on the timeline up to now. I then got Chie to show me how to navigate the Hunter’s Guild database and kill-registry and I was thankfully able to find most of them in there.
The ‘hero’ not even needed. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Like, I guess those weren’t the big scary demons only a ‘protagonist’ could vanquish but still.
What I wasn’t able to find, is a kill entry for the powerful demon at the abandoned waterpark, which comes, if I’m being honest, as no surprise. In the original story no-one cared to investigate the mysterious disappearances. Only pure-of-heart Tarō puts it together that they’re linked to the waterpark and that all of those people were devoured by a demon. A demon that is definitely still out there in this timeline and we can’t count on wet noodle Tarō to do his part that much is clear.
So it’s better left to the gang and me. We’ll take care of it before it kills more people.
Two problems tho, there are three abandoned waterparks in the greater metropolitan area and I have no clue which one it is.
And secondly I have to make a solid case for us to investigate, so I need to gather some intel. I can’t very well tell the gang that I got reincarnated from another world and that this one is like a mediocre light novel in my former.
Furthermore, I should come up with an plan on how to warn the Guild about the coming calamity demons in a way they’ll take it serious, because so far I have none.
Thankfully I have time. It’s like over half a year before they arrive.
I’m certain something will come to me.
In the meantime, I should tell the gang that they should cool it with the honorary girl thing, because now Rin thinks I’m a girl!
What were they thinking!?
It’s such a mess.
Also Rin is going to tell Tarō, that’s a given.
And then what will he do, if he believes his old school friend-turned-merciless-bully was a girl all along?
I hope he just leaves me in peace and builds his harem or whatever he is up to these days.
Wait! I hope he doesn’t try to add me to his harem because of this!
Oh no! I already see someone mapping me onto the childhood friend archetype!!
Ew! No! I must think positive, that’s not going to happen!!!
It’s not!
Also, as fantastic and exhilarating that trip with my friends to the mall was before the demon attack, I really, really have to stop crossdressing, for real this time, because my ride home was the worst. So many men were leering at me and I mean I get it, I know how I looked. They all thought I was a girl and it was a somewhat flashy outfit, but come on it wasn’t like, revealing or anything. They actually tried to touch me and said all those vile disgusting things. Men are such pigs!
I felt like taking ten showers afterwards.
So no more crossdressing unless it’s like tonight, where Hotaru picks me up with her scooter and I don’t have to be around others or talk to strangers, merely a mysterious shrine maiden hunting demons under the moon light.
As I always intended.
Hotaru is waiting at the foot of the hill.
Tonight is my big fight, D-class, all on my own. Chie got me the tip. Apparently some local B-rank hunter called it in, but couldn’t be bothered to fight such a low class mob. It’s a denial demon, who feeds of denying people the usage of this path through the forest come sundown.
My arrangement with Hotaru is that I’ll send her a message when I enter the forest and then after I’ve vanquished the demon. And, should anything go wrong I’m instructed to run and call for her. If more than 15 minutes elapsed without an all clear sign from me, Hotaru will come looking from me. So we are doing this about as safe as possible.
We talked a bit about personal stuff too, because my nipples are all puffy and the whole area is super sensitive and that’s like, actually distracting. Hotaru told me I’ve started developing breasts and I should probably start wearing simple fabric bras against the chafing, which came as a shock. I get that the pills are giving me a girl-puberty, Hotaru told me. It's nice, I want that. It’s a valuable experience. If I turn myself into a girl it would be kinda awkward if never experienced a girl-puberty, so this is really helpful.
Hotaru got totally concerned for me and said all stern, that if it made me uncomfortable I could stop at any time, but I don’t want to! I absolutely don’t want to! I want this, I want this experience and to have breasts and an actual girl’s body and not this thing I’m stuck with—who wants something like this, this male thing? Girls' bodies are so much nicer. I was just momentarily startled because it means things are getting real.
It means I’ll have to see this through till the end and turn myself into a girl or I’ll end up as a guy with tits and wouldn’t that be embarrassing.
Not that I have any doubts. I’ve never felt so determined in my life.
People have a duty to fulfill their role in society. I know that, and I really don’t want to disappoint anyone anymore. I gave it my best, I tried being a man, but it just doesn’t work.
It doesn’t!
If they had just made me a girl everything would be fine, I’m sure. Everytime I do some girl-training it goes really well and I feel fantastic.
Like, yes, I’m super nervous and kinda awkward and not very good in the beginning but that’s how it is when you learn something. Everyone has to start as a novice. That’s not different from any other girl, they only got a head start.
So this more my path, I just have to change my fate for it, so my fate is 'girl' not 'boy'.
After ascending the hill doted with the small homes of this residential neighborhood, I've finally reached the edge of the forest. I take off my backpack and pull out the gear I bought from the Hunter’s Guild. A tiny, yet guaranteed to be very sturdy and bright, LED camping lantern. I was told I could affix it with a belt to my waist. Ideal for fighting demons in unlit places when you need both your hands free. They also said it’s really popular with girls while giving me a very obvious expression. Yes, yes, always making fun of the crossdresser I get it. As long as they don’t leer I can take it.
The second thing I bought is a blessed hand-held bell-tree. The demon I’m after likes to camouflage itself and wait until it’s hungry again, so I have to draw it out. Don’t want to leave empty handed because it’s still full from its last meal or get ambushed. These bells might sound pleasant and lovely to regular spirits, but it’s said demons find them downright repulsive. It wouldn’t be able to remain hidden hearing them.
Well prepared like this, I send a message to Hotaru and summon my sword.
In I go.