Trouble Becomes Him
Prologue
Yami nibbled upon a piece of custard-filled taiyaki while she watched a television show that had caught her interest. On the couch beside her sat Mikan, who was indulging her friend's thirst for knowledge. However, despite the show of expanding interest for the medium, at the moment Yami appeared to be more interested in being entertained... Although the expression on her face (or lack of one) would have said otherwise, unless one knew her well enough.
The show in question featured the pulling of pranks on unsuspecting, everyday people. The pranks often ranged between drawing people into outrageous circumstances to simply catching them by surprise. At the moment the latter was the case, as someone tried to scare people from inside of a fake vending machine.
Taking note of a possible parallel between a part of the show and her friend, Mikan turned to Yami and asked, "Are you able to use your transformation ability to take a form as elaborate as that?"
Yami, her eyes still focused on the television, took her time in saying, "Maybe."
"Maybe...?" Questioned Mikan in response, with a confused expression on her face.
"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." Yami replied, who casually proceeded to take a bite out of her taiyaki.
Catching the hint, Mikan smiled reservedly and said, "Ah... I see."
Mikan had enough time to imagine a vending machine-formed Yami giving her a fright before Lala entered the room and stood beside the couch. Mikan had been ready to greet her warmly, but she paused when she noticed the pensive look on her face. She appeared to be focused on the television, but she doubted that she noticed anything happening on the screen. Was she even all that aware of her surroundings?
"Lala? Is something the matter?"
Hearing someone address her by name, Lala broke out of her reverie and appeared to realize her surroundings. Showing some embarrassment, she said, "No... I was just thinking."
Since she wasn't about to be fooled that easily, Mikan gave her a significant look and stated, "Just thought I'd ask..."
Lala pursed her lips and furrowed her brow as she considered Mikan's invitation. She had been thinking about Haruna and herself in relation to Rito, and considering the right course of action to take. They were both interested in him, and yet, even if she did manage to make more progress with Rito, she didn't enjoy the thought of denying him to Haruna, her good friend. Neither could she deny herself Rito, of course; it just didn't feel right to give up on someone as special as she considered him to be.
In the end she decided to be silent on the matter. Aside from the fact that she had promised to keep Haruna's feelings for Rito a secret, she didn't really think that sharing the problem with others would resolve such a complicated issue. But she also wanted to take away a reason for Mikan to be concerned, so she felt that she had to come up with something that would give her a reason to not feel that way. It was just a matter of figuring out what to tell her... Perhaps if she said something that Mikan might expect? Something that wouldn't hint at any change in her situation, since it was the fundamental reason for why she continued to live with the Yuuki family, on Earth.
Then it occurred to her, once she considered how things used to be, before she knew of Haruna's feelings for Rito. She figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask a question that she had once been asking herself.
Pretending to have reservations about what she had decided to share, she finally said, "Well... I have been wondering about something..."
"What is that?" Mikan prodded with interest.
"You and Yami became friends so fast, and compared to the progress that I've made with Rito... I wish I understood him better, so he'd share the same feelings for me, as I do for him."
By the end she blushed a bit, despite herself. There was no changing the fact that she loved Rito, but the thought of him returning the same feelings was too nice to suppress.
With an indulgent grin, Mikan said, "I've been wondering if you'd ever get around to asking me something like that."
To herself she thought, "Maybe that explains her behavior as of late. She could have moved out of Rito's closet and restrained herself from being too intimate with him as a new tactic, in order to get his attention."
As if she were a scholar on the subject, she sat up and confidently told Lala, "Well, to begin with, Yami and I are girls. Becoming friends usually isn't that complicated for us; or for two guys, for that matter. The same usually can't be said for a guy and a girl, however. Rito happens to be the kind of guy who's too shy and indecisive, so he's not as receptive as many other guys would be to a girl."
"It's just a guy thing, basically, so..." She shrugged. "It can't really be helped."
"A guy thing, huh..." Was Lala's thoughtful response, as she folded her arms and considered the ceiling with a critical eye.
Then, after raising her eyebrows in realization, she regarded Mikan, then Yami, before happily exclaiming, "Of course! It's a
guy thing!"
And, with that said, she sprinted away. Then, a second later, she returned and gave Mikan a hug from across the back of the couch.
"Thank you, Mikan!" Lala gushed, who then praised her with, "You're a genius!"
She retreated from the room again, and the lack of footsteps on the staircase suggested that she had been in enough of a hurry to jump over it. Mikan was left to wonder what conclusion Lala had come to, considering what she had told her.
"I have the feeling that Rito isn't going to like what she has in mind for him." Mikan said as she settled back into a comfortable sitting position.
From beside her, Yami, whose attention still appeared to be focused on the television show, said, "This is an interesting development."
Mikan couldn't tell if that comment had been meant for the situation, or for the television show. Although she did note that, in regard to the latter, people were now being jet skied out of porta potties and pulled across a lake, on a toilet, with their pants down.
Interesting, indeed...
Later that night Rito found himself on his way home from the apartment where his father worked. He had just finished helping his father finish a new chapter for one of his manga series, since Zastin had been called away to his spaceship earlier in the evening. He was just glad that his father hadn't been close to a deadline, or else he could have been walking home after midnight, rather than at ten o'clock.
Up ahead he spotted a vendor that served oden, so he stepped into the stall and made his selections. He was familiar with this vendor, so he traded some small talk with the owner while he ate, about the usual: school, his father, and his family in general. When his hunger was sated, he and the vendor expressed their goodbyes before he returned to the lamp-lit street.
When he reached his house, he entered quietly so he didn't disturb anyone. Once inside, he turned around and sat down just outside of the genkan and began to remove his shoes. However, just as he had begun to undo his shoelaces, he heard something make a clicking sound behind him. There was an ensuing whooshing noise as he lifted his head and twisted his body around to investigate the initial disturbance. What he found was a projectile rocketing right into his face.
The explosion that followed rocked the house. However, rather than being blown to bits, he had only been knocked down. It wasn't long after that he found himself in a cloud of smoke, after regaining enough of his wits. He managed to raise himself into a sitting position, but he couldn't do much more than that since he was still a bit dazed. Besides which, the smoke had inspired a coughing fit that kept him rather occupied.
Once the smoke dissipated, he was able to quell the need to cough and peered into the darkness ahead of him. Down the hallway, in the direction of the staircase, he could hear light footfalls heading toward him. A few seconds later a shadowy figure appeared, which soon resolved itself into Lala, who was wearing her standard Peke outfit. She stopped a few steps away and smiled down at him, but his eyes were drawn instead to the more conspicuous, bazooka-looking weapon that rested on her shoulder.
"Lala!? What's going... on...?"
Upon hearing the sound of his voice, he paused, looked down, and discovered what he had feared: he once again found himself in possession of a girl's body.
"I'm a girl!" He exclaimed.
Confused and upset, he glared up at Lala and demanded, "What reason could you possibly have to change me at a time like this?"
"I'd like to know that, too."
Both Rito and Lala looked toward the staircase, where the source of the drowsy, though still familiar, voice came from. The first to reach the bottom of the steps, and out of the gloom, was Yami, who wore a pair of Mikan's pajamas. Right behind her was Mikan; likewise in pajamas. Both wore the same deadpan expression on their faces (although, for Yami, it was her usual expression).
Mikan crossed her arms, furrowed her brow a bit, and continued, saying, "Couldn't this have been done at a better time?"
Rito wondered why it had to be done at all, but he kept that to himself and allowed Lala a chance to explain herself.
In response to Mikan's question, Lala set her sex-changing weapon aside and apologetically said, "I'm sorry for waking you, but it was an emergency."
"An emergency?" Rito and Mikan inquired together.
"Yes." Lala affirmed. She adopted a serious expression and tone as she went on to say, "I learned that another suitor has arrived, and they'll be looking for Rito."
Rito rubbed the back of his head and said, "But that's to be expected, right?"
"But this one's particularly dangerous!" She warned him, her index finger raised. "To protect you, I thought that hiding you would be for the best. That way we avoid the danger entirely until they give up and leave."
"You plan to hide him in plain sight." Yami stated. She then lowered her eyes to regard Rito and said, "It's fine with me, if it keeps him alive long enough for me to kill him myself."
Rito's only response to that was a small, weary smile.
Lala continued, as if Yami hadn't interposed, and said, "So, until he's gone, we have to treat Rito like Riko. That way he won't suspect anything."
Mikan turned a skeptical eye on Lala and, with a sneaking suspicion, asked, "Just
who is this suitor of yours?"
Lala opened her mouth, in preparation to answer, but nothing came out. Instead she made a quick recovery and, acting embarrassed, said, "Oh, I... I seemed to have forgotten his name."
Mikan's face adopted a dubious expression while she continued to regard Lala, who, in her apparent embarrassment, had placed her hand behind her head and stuck her tongue out. While she couldn't be sure about Lala's intentions, that it was some scheme seemed very likely. But it was a fact that her brother was in danger of being targeted by Lala's other suitors, and thus it could all just be a coincidence, so she couldn't be sure.
"Ah!" Lala exclaimed, as if she had suddenly remembered something. "Well, I don't want to keep you up any longer, so..." She made a quick move over to Rito's side and took his hand. "I'll help Riko clean up."
Lala began to pull Rito along, who, of course, hadn't the strength to escape her grasp.
"Wait! Stop!" Rito tried to protest. "Not again...!"
Mikan and Yami watched as the pair became enveloped in darkness further down the hallway, after they had rounded the staircase that they stood in front of. Neither said a word until Rito's protests died down, no doubt in surrender to the inevitable.
"I'm going back to bed." Came Mikan's tired response. She yawned before adding, "I'll just keep myself awake if I continue to think about this."
Yami began to follow Mikan back up the stairs, but she paused and turned her head toward the direction of the furo when she heard the shenanigans between Lala and Rito begin. She considered it for a second before she returned her gaze to the fore and continued her way back to Mikan's room.
Rito opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, although he had to squint a bit because the morning sun shone into his eyes from his bedroom window. He didn't make any immediate movement to get up because his thoughts had drifted to one of the dreams that he had dreampt last night. In it he had been nursing Celine and, in the dream, he had enjoyed it. It weirded him out, now that he was awake, but it had nonetheless been a curious dream.
It also reminded him that he was once again, for the time being, a girl. Although he was comforted a bit by the fact that Lala had changed him with his benefit in mind, for once. The idea was to hide him from one of her suitors, to avoid a confrontation altogether. They would be looking for Rito, a boy; not Riko, a girl. And it would allow him to move around and live freely, instead of being stowed away somewhere, unable to leave. Or, if he continued to live like he usually did, he'd risk being caught when neither Lala nor Yami were around to save him, as they have in the past. Where that left Lala, in relation to her suitors, well... She had shown, time and again, that she was capable of taking care of herself. Of course, that didn't mean that he was any less concerned about her.
Then, when he remembered that it was a school day, he tried to get up despite being a girl. However, unsurprisingly, he met with some resistance to his movements. And now that his body was tense, instead of enjoying the floating sensation of repose, he could tell that he had someone on each arm. Turning his head to the left, he came face to face with Lala. He hadn't expected to be close enough to her for his nose to almost touch her own, so he froze. Then he carefully, and very slowly, moved his head back.
"Okay! Just relax!" He told himself, as his heart pounded in his ears. "I've got to be careful. If I panic, I'll make it worse. I can do this!"
Once he managed to calm himself down enough, he turned his head to the right and discovered Lala's sister, Momo, snuggling up against his shoulder. He didn't know why, but she had been turning up in his bed lately. At the moment, however, he had more important things to think about; especially since Momo's attachment to his arm would be hard to get away from without waking her up. But he had an even more difficult problem to take care of, first: moving the hand that he felt resting on his chest.
However, when he lifted his head up and looked down at his chest, he didn't find a hand there. Instead, much to his mortified embarrassment, he found Celine there. She rested against his left breast, and had her wide-open mouth closed around the top of it. He could see that his shirt was damp around the outside of her mouth, no doubt due to being drooled on for hours.
"That explains the dream...!" He realized.
At that moment the door to his room began to open. Feeling both hopeful and ashamed, he looked toward it. Standing within his doorway was his sister, Mikan. With his face expressing his distress, he tried to enlist her aid by mouthing the word "please" to her.
Mikan regarded her brother with an unreadable expression. It was moreso due to the fact that he was a girl in his current situation, since said current situation itself wasn't all that unusual to begin with. In the end it was amusement that became the most prevalent expression on her face; at which time she said, "Come down and have some breakfast before it gets cold."
When Mikan closed the door behind her, Rito dropped his head back upon his pillow in despair. Then, whether due to the sound of his door closing or his movement, or both, Lala began to groan and stir. A moment later she sat up and stretched. She was naked, of course, so Rito blushed and quickly turned his eyes away from her.
"Ahhhh~! Good morning, Rito!" Lala greeted him warmly. Then she caught herself and said, "Oh! I mean, Riko."
In response Rito quietly muttered, "Could you please go and put something on?"
"Rito...?"
Momo sat up and looked down at him with a mixture of doubt and curiosity. Her eyes fell upon his breasts, in particular. Rito took the opportunity to sit up, now that both of his arms were free; and he made sure to cradle Celine in his arm, in the process, so she didn't fall. Aside from that he continued to look straight ahead so he didn't see anything indecent. While Momo wasn't naked, wearing nothing but an open shirt and panties, in his mind, wasn't much better.
Being disturbed awake by being shifted around, Celine groggily murmured, "Mau...?"
"For the moment Rito is Riko." Lala happily informed her sister.
"Oh?" Momo wondered aloud.
"So that wasn't another girl, last night?" Said Nana, who sat up from her resting place behind Momo. If Rito had looked, he would have seen an embarrassed yet upset expression on her face. Be that as it may, he got the message with the tone of her voice.
Irked by the fact that they had all decided to invade his privacy, Rito grumpily muttered, "Why so early in the morning...?"
He tried to get out of bed, but Momo playfully grabbed his arm, gave it a yank, and said, "But it's okay since we're all girls, right?"
Being that her strength was stronger than a human's, Momo not only prevented Rito's progress, but it caused him to pivot on his heel and swing around, back in her direction. With a yelp he ended up being flung into Nana, and collapsed on top of her. He couldn't do much else since he had been holding Celine, whom he had instinctively paid more attention to protecting than how and where he landed. Then, in his haste to scramble away, and with Momo still holding onto his free arm, he managed to make things worse by falling face-first between Nana's breasts.
Incensed by the indignity of it all, Nana got Rito into a headlock and angrily yelled, "You're just a perverted
boy!"
"That's not right!" Lala corrected her sister. "Riko's a girl!"
Momo, in an attempt to help Rito, grabbed Nana's tail. But all that did was make her squeal and tighten her arm around his neck. From there it devolved into a scuffle between the twins, who shoved Rito around like a ragdoll until he ended up beneath them. And then Lala got involved and tried to stop them, but, in the process of doing so, she got mixed up with all of the tail-wrestling and ended up sitting on his face.
In the meantime, Celine had managed to get away, thanks in part to Rito's efforts. But she got caught up in the spirit of things and was excitedly yelling, "Mau! Mau! Mau!"
Rito would have cursed his luck if it weren't for the fact that his consciousness had been put out of its misery by Lala.
Once everything settled down, Rito was finally able to make it downstairs for breakfast. It was evident, however, that he was not in a good mood when he joined everyone else at the living room table. But all he did was keep to himself and eat his meal in silence. To his left sat Momo and Nana, and across from them dined Celine. And across from Lala and himself was Yami and his sister, Mikan.
"Really, you two!" Lala chided her sisters. "What were you doing in Riko's bed, in the first place?"
"I could ask you the same thing..." Rito thought to himself.
"I just wanted to sleep with you, onee-sama." Momo replied, with a pout. "You weren't in your room, so I checked to see if you were with Rito again. But I saw a girl, instead of Rito, so I thought it would be okay..."
Nana glared at her sister, since she knew better. However, instead of making the situation any worse than it was, and risk giving Lala and/or Rito enough reason to make them leave, she kept the truth to herself. Besides which, there was no telling how Lala would react if she knew about Momo's feelings for Rito. It was bad enough that she was beginning to have conflicting feelings toward him, herself.
So, instead, she turned her attention to Lala and said, "I was up late last night. I was just getting ready for bed when I heard Momo leave her room." She gave her sister a significant look, since she was going to back up her lie, and continued, saying, "I saw her leave your room and head downstairs. So I decided to follow her, and she went into Rito's room."
What she didn't say was that she had stayed up to keep an eye on her sister, because of her behavior toward Rito as of late. She wanted to stop her from doing such a shameless thing, but, since she had been so tired, and she hadn't seen Rito, she had joined her sister instead of dragging her back to her own bedroom.
"I didn't plan on staying." She went on to explain what remained of the truth. "But I was too tired to make it back to my room, and I didn't see Rito, so..."
"A misunderstanding was bound to happen." Mikan helpfully supplied.
That didn't make Rito feel any better about what had happened a short time ago, of course.
At that moment the doorbell rang.
"I wonder who that could be?" Mikan wondered aloud.
As Mikan left the room to answer the door, Lala turned to Rito and said, "It's early for a visitor, isn't it?"
"Oh; Zastin-san." They hard Mikan say. "Please, come in."
"Thank you." Was Zastin's reply. "I would have been here last night, but... I somehow lost my way. Never mind that: where can I find Lala-sama and Rito-dono?"
"They're right in here." Directed Mikan.
Zastin stepped into the living room a second later, with Mikan behind him, and he was pleased to see both of the people that he had come to speak to. He also noted Yami, but he studiously ignored her for the time being, since there was a much more important matter at hand.
But then, after a second glance, he realized that he had mistaken a girl for Rito, due in part to her close resemblance to him.
"Where's Rito-dono?" He asked.
"Here." Was Rito's half-hearted reply.
In response to Zastin's confused stare, Lala said, "I changed Rito into a girl to hide him from one of my suitors. So pretend he's Riko until he goes away, okay?"
Surprised, Zastin asked, "You already know about prince Durand?"
"Eh?" Was Lala's confused response.
"I came here to pass along a message, according to the Valorian's custom." Zastin decided to explain. "Prince Durand has issued a formal challenge to Rito-dono. I'm surprised that you already know about it, but seeing as you've already disguised him as a girl..."
"Eeeeh...!?" Was Lala's surprised response.
Chapter 1
Lala's reaction to Zastin's news drew everyone's attention to her. Everyone, save for Mikan and Rito, found Lala's reaction to be odd, in light of her claim. They all knew enough about the Valorians to know that Lala shouldn't have reacted as she had, concerning the information that Zastin had given her. And so it was that the answer began to dawn upon them; well, to all but Zastin and Rito.
"Judging by her reaction, this must be a surprising coincidence." Mikan noted to herself. "But now it doesn't matter, since the story has become a reality."
Zastin, who was puzzled by Lala's response, deliberately asked, "So you didn't know...?"
Lala, in an attempt to recover her credibility, smiled and confidently said, "Of course I knew! I just had no idea."
The room went silent in the wake of such a nonsensical and contradictory statement. Rito, with the exception of Yami and Celine, now joined the others in staring at Lala with an incredulous expression.
Noticing the change in the environment, Celine looked up from her meal and voiced an inquisitive, "Mau?"
Zastin raised his clenched hand to his mouth, coughed, then said, "At any rate, I must return and give prince Durand confirmation."
"Confirmation?" Mikan inquired of Zastin.
"It's the Valorian's way to issue a challenge via proxy." Zastin explained. "That way, once the messenger returns to confirm that the individual has been made aware of the challenge, the one being challenged has time to decide on whether to fight or flee. Fleeing, however, isn't considered cowardly or dishonorable to them. Instead they accept the challenge of the hunt, if that is the case. Either way, once being found by the challenger, you can either choose to fight or to concede."
With a sense of hope, Rito asked, "So I just need to make sure that he doesn't realize who I am, right?"
Yami turned her dispassionate gaze upon Rito and solemnly stated, "They have many tales where the hunt lasts a lifetime."
"R-really...?" Was Rito's disconcerted response.
"I'm afraid so." Zastin confirmed. "Valorians are well known for being tenacious."
Disheartened by that bit of information, Rito's shoulders and head dropped, as he considered the possibility of living the rest of his life as a girl. That, and whether it would be worse to be a man on the run for the rest of his life.
Concerned for her brother, Mikan decided to ask, "Do you have to confirm that Rito has received the challenge?"
"If it were under ordinary circumstances, no." Zastin reluctantly replied. "But the Valorians have been our friends for a long time, and they aided Gid-sama in his pursuit to bring order to the galaxy. Add to that, however, the fact that Durand is the Valorian's prince, and he has more of a right than most to be treated fairly as one among many of Lala-sama's fiancé candidates. To not do so would bring unnecessary conflict."
"I see..." Mikan said, in understanding.
"Well, then... If you'll excuse me."
With that said, Zastin turned around and left.
"Don't worry!" Lala told Rito while giving him a reassuring pat on the back. "I'm sure it won't be a lifetime."
"One can only hope..." Rito thought despondently.
Rito leaned back on the couch, spread his arms across the top of it, and tilted his head back. He stared up at the ceiling, and thought about his current situation. His attention, however, turned to Celine from time to time, since she was watching a show for children on his lap.
Beyond that, he was effectively by himself. His sister, Mikan, had gone to school. Being that Mikan was the reason for Yami's presence at the house, she had left at the same time. He had no idea how Momo and Nana usually spent their time while he was at school, but he assumed that they were still in their own living quarters. As for Lala... She had stayed home from school so she could work on something in her lab. What exactly she was working on, he had no idea; but he was afraid that he was going to find out, sooner rather than later.
Then, suddenly, Momo's smiling face appeared above him and asked, "Riko?"
Surprised and flustered, he jerked away and almost knocked Celine onto the floor. By the time he regained his bearings, Momo had gone around the couch and had taken a seat beside him.
"Momo?" He eventually inquired.
"So this is what you look like, as a girl?" She commented while looking him up and down. "You're very pretty. It's difficult to tell whether your current state of dress is unflattering or not."
Unsure of how to feel about the compliment, and of what to say in response to the comment concerning his usual male attire, he looked elsewhere and said, "Ah... Thanks?"
The two sat in silence for a moment. While Rito continued to avoid looking in Momo's direction, he could still feel her eyes on him. It was uncomfortable, but he assumed that it was because his current form was a novelty to her. Which was true, to an extent; but, unbeknownst to him, most of Momo's attention was on another matter.
"I wonder what onee-sama is planning to do with this situation." She thought. "Why would she want Rito-kun to be a girl...?"
"Say, Momo...?"
"Yes?" Momo responded, putting her thoughts aside for the moment.
Rito, with his head bowed, and a pensive look on his face, asked, "Lala assured me that things will be fine like this, but... What can you tell me about the Valorians? Are they dangerous?"
"He must not like the idea of being a girl for too long." Momo surmised. To Rito, she said, "They're not as strong as we Devilukians are, but what they lack in strength they can make up for with their skill with weapons."
"I see..." Rito sighed.
Momo leaned forward, rested her hand on Rito's knee, then gave him a reassuring smile before she softly said, "I'm sure everything will be fine. But, if the need arises, you can confide in me as Riko."
"Momo..." Was Rito's response, who was touched despite the implication that he could only do such a thing because it would be between two girls.
"Momo!" Nana declared as she stormed into the room. "There you are!"
While both Rito and Momo had both been surprised by her entrance, Rito had lost more of his composure because Momo's hand had still been on his knee.
Leaning back into the couch, Momo looked over her shoulder, smiled, and sweetly asked, "What is it, Nana?"
"I'm having trouble with a part of the assignment that ane-ue gave us." Nana lied, her arms akimbo. "Plants are your specialty. Can you help me out?"
"I guess it can't be helped." Momo replied as she got to her feet, deciding to play along.
"Assignment?" Rito queried.
"Onee-sama tests us regularly on what we've learned about Earth in our studies." Momo explained. "I've already finished mine. But since Nana had helped me with the section on animals, it's only fair that I help her in return."
"Ah." Rito voiced his understanding. "Don't worry: I won't mention anything to Lala."
"Thank you." Was Momo's grateful reply.
She chose to walk around the couch by crossing in front of Rito. When she did, she made the end of her tail brush across his cheek. While Rito didn't think much about it, and considered it a bit of an embarrassing accident, Nana was made speechless by the action. She pointed her index finger at the back of Rito's head and worked her mouth, but nothing was coming out. It wasn't until her sister walked past her that she was able to recover from her shock; at which point all that she could do was follow her until they reached a private location.
After they were gone, Rito reached up to touch his cheek and thought, "Those two are so different from each other. Like night and day."
Then he noticed the time and sighed with resignation.
"Well, I can't put it off forever..." He said to no one in particular. "I suppose I should go and get 'Yuusaki Riko' enrolled for school."
Nana and Momo, who were now in the relative safety of their living room, were at odds with each other. While Momo sat down at the table at the center of the room, calm and collected, Nana stood over her, expressing the vehemence of her agitation.
"I can't believe you did that!" Nana shouted. "First you take advantage of whatever ane-ue intends to do with Rito while he's like this, and then you... you...!"
"It's not like he knows." Momo casually interrupted. "A shame, really."
"T-that's not the point!" Nana sputtered.
She slammed her hands down on the table, leaned closer to her sister and, in a more composed and serious tone, asked, "Do you know what you're doing?"
"I do." Was Momo's simple reply. She looked up at her sister, smirked, and countered with, "The real question is: do
you know what you're doing?"
Nana drew her head back a bit, regarded her sister with an incredulous expression, and asked, "What do you mean...?"
"Maybe your concern also lies with Rito, and not just with onee-sama?" Momo suggested.
Nana stepped away from her sister and, despite herself, blushed at the thought.
"No way!" She vehemently denied. "That's crazy! I don't care about him, at all! There's nothing to like about him!"
"But you're denying it so much." Momo slyly noted. "Just who are you trying to convince with that, hm?"
Nana glared at her sister, and appeared ready to explode. However, instead of argue, she turned away and ran into her room without a word.
Momo's face fell. She sighed and, in regard to her sister, she softly murmured, "Idiot..."
"I wonder what that was about." Peke wondered aloud, as he looked toward the doorway of Lala's room. Nana had been loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to make out what she had been yelling.
He returned his attention to Lala, who sat at her computer. Her fingers blurred with a flurry of activity across the control panel, and the large screen before them displayed the rapid progress of her current project. She worked so fast that he wouldn't have known about the program that she was making if she hadn't already told him.
When she finished, she leaned back in her chair and relaxed. At the same time her eyes acquired a far-off look to them.
"Is something the matter, Lala-sama?" Peke inquired.
Lala looked over at her flying companion, smiled, and said, "It's nothing, Peke. I was just remembering the last time I did this."
"The first and, until now, only time." Peke noted.
"It wasn't as easy to do then as it is to do now." Lala commented, who looked over her work fondly. "But it was worth it."
"Lala-sama..." Was Peke's soft-spoken response, who had been touched by her words.
Deciding that her break had gone on long enough, Lala reached out and opened up a port on her control panel. Knowing what was expected of him, Peke reformed one of his fingers so it would fit into the port. After he inserted his finger into the port, the screen became alive with images. One outfit after another appeared, along with all of the relevant information connected with each one.
"Lala-sama?"
"Yes, Peke?" Lala asked, who turned to face him.
"Is this really a good idea?" He asked. "Your father isn't going to wait for too much longer."
Lala turned away and regarded the shuffling images on the screen, but not really seeing them. She thought about what she was planning to do, for a time, before she gave Peke an answer.
"Only time will tell."
Soon after there were no new outfits to upload, so Peke removed his finger from the port and changed it back to normal. Lala input a few commands afterward and, once she was finished, the screen went black. With the software completed, she was now left with the task of making the hardware.
She took out her Almighty Tool and said, "Now for the hard part..."
Rito was subdued in thought while on his way home from his school, Sainan High. As expected from the principal, he had no qualms about him transferring to the school, since "Yuusaki Riko" met his standard of attractiveness. Although it hadn't hurt for the principal to recall his offer when they first met, even though it was an incident that he would love to forget.
"At least he didn't try to molest me, like every other time we met..." He thought. But it gave him little comfort.
With his head bowed, and his mind elsewhere, he didn't see the person standing in his path until it was too late. As if walking into a wall, he was knocked back, onto his posterior, instead of toppling over the other person.
Knowing that he was at fault for the collision, he looked up and apologetically said, "I..." But then he paused, blinked and, instead, asked, "Yami?"
Yami stood over him, who appeared to be looking down upon him in a condescending manner. In one hand she carried a bag of taiyaki, which she held away from her body. There was little doubt that she had anticipated the collision, and had time to protect her favorite snack from being crushed between them.
After drawing her bag of taiyaki close to her body once more, Yami remarked, "With how careless you are, Yuuki Rito, being Riko appears to be a good solution to your problem."
Rito got to his feet and, feeling sheepish, could only say, "Sorry..."
A minute later, after walking together in silence, since they were both heading in the same direction, Rito opted to join Yami when she decided to take a seat on a public bench. Not knowing what else to do while he was there, since he didn't have any school to keep him occupied, Rito explained his reason for being out. Yami ate her taiyaki in the meantime, and didn't appear to mind his attempt at striking up a conversation.
"I see." Was her response, once he had finished.
"I'm not looking forward to wearing a girl's school uniform." Rito muttered with evident displeasure.
Yami continued to eat her taiyaki, and didn't seem to have any intention of making a reply. Rito continued to sit with her, in silence, before his eyes gave his stomach a good idea.
"I guess I'll get myself some lunch, too." He told her.
Just as he was about to stand up, a taiyaki was held out into his field of vision. As he expected, it was Yami that was holding it out to him.
Curious, Rito regarded her with a questioning look and asked, "Yami?"
"I have something to tell you." She stated.
With her intention now clear, Rito accepted the taiyaki and shifted further back on the bench. He leaned back and regarded her, even though her gaze continued to focus in the direction that the bench faced.
"What is it?" He asked.
"If you end up facing Durand, you will lose." She told him.
"Well, yeah..." He admitted, and cast his eyes downward. Seeing the taiyaki that he now held in his hand, he decided to take a bite out of it. He figured that it might take the edge off of his hunger.
"Moreover, you could die." She went on to say, before she turned her head and made eye contact with him. "Either at the hands of Durand, or Lala's father."
Rito sighed, at the thought of how powerless he was, and said, "I know."
"That's why I'm going to help you."
"I guess that's to be expected." He reasoned aloud, and rubbed at the back of his head. He then smiled uneasily and, in good humor, added, "Since you want to save me for yourself and all..."
Yami's expression softened a bit, but not enough for it to be perceived by Rito. She continued to stare at him, lost in thought.
Thinking that she wanted him to treat her intentions more seriously, Rito dropped his smile and said, "Er, well... What I mean to say is that I'd be grateful for your help."
"I was going to help you whether you liked it or not." Yami informed him before she stood up. "I'm going to keep an eye on you and make sure that your guise as Riko is flawless."
"W-what...?" Rito sputtered out in response.
Yami transformed some of her hair into a blade, brought it up to Rito's face before he could blink, and said, "I won't tolerate any behavior that's too suspicious. Is that understood?"
Having no other choice but to agree with her, Rito resignedly, and nervously, said, "U-understood."
Yami retracted her blade, and it returned to being her hair again.
"Good." Yami said. "I had to take care of a few things this morning but, from now on, until it's no longer necessary to be Riko, I won't allow you out of my sight."
Rito, thinking that Yami was taking the situation too seriously, decided to jump to his feet and try to argue with her. However, unlike before, he forgot to consider his over-sized shoes. As a result he managed to lose his balance when his feet shifted within his shoes and, accordingly, he tripped and fell in the direction that his momentum dictated. Unfortunately, that meant collapsing onto Yami.
"Ack! I'm sorry!" Rito quickly apologized as he lifted his body off of Yami's. Then, when he felt something odd beneath one of his hands, he noticed, to his shock and mortification, that his hand had found purchase on Yami's chest, instead of the ground.
He crawled away as fast as he could, backwards, and frantically yelled, "I... I didn't mean it! It was j-just an accident!"
Rather than the reaction that he expected, Yami, despite her flushed cheeks, picked herself up from the ground and said, "Stop overreacting. We're both girls, after all."
Stunned, it took Rito a second to realize that he really wasn't in any danger of being attacked. Once he did, he got to his feet and brushed himself off.
"She's really serious about this." He thought to himself. "To not attack me and call me a pervert..."
Then he remembered the last attempt on his life, at the fireworks festival, and how easily he had been caught unawares by Lacospo's assassin. If Yami hadn't been there to save him, he would have lost his head in the literal sense. That time, too, she had foregone her usual reaction in order to protect him, when they had been stuck together. He figured that he should probably be thankful for her willingness to help him, even though she planned to kill him at some point... Although he couldn't be sure how serious she was about her intention to do so.
In the end he decided to accept her terms, and to apologize, by saying, "Still, I was careless. Are you sure it's okay?"
"Don't worry about it." Yami replied. She regarded Rito with a sidelong glance and, with a glint in her eye, she added, "I'm just going to put it on Rito's tab."
Rito's mouth dropped open in shock and horror, at the thought of how many times he might accidentally offend her by the time he returned to his usual, male self.
"As a start," Yami continued, "you can repay his debt by replacing my lost taiyaki."
Rito recovered upon hearing those words and looked down at the ground, where Yami's spilt bag of taiyaki lay. He sighed with relief, but he knew that he wasn't out of the woods quite yet.
"I have a bad feeling about this whole arrangement..."
After treating both Yami and himself to lunch, Rito returned home. Aside from having nothing better to do, the unwanted attention that he somehow drew to himself while out in public was uncomfortable. Yami, of course, had made good on her conviction by accompanying him. However, it was unclear whether she would be keeping an eye on him while her attention was on the television. But it didn't matter since he wound up joining her on the couch, anyway.
He got to relax for the better part of an hour before he heard Lala call out his female name from upstairs.
With a sigh of resignation, Rito stood up and thought, "I wonder what she has in store for me this time..."
Lala entered the living room a second later with her usual exuberance, but she also appeared to be quite excited about something. Rito walked around the table and met her by the entrance to the hallway, albeit without enthusiasm. Yami remained seated on the couch, and didn't appear to register him passing between her and the television.
Once he stood before Lala, Rito asked, "What is it?"
"This!" Lala exclaimed happily, and held out her open hands. "Look!"
Rito looked down at what she held and found what appeared to be a white, oval-shaped button. In fact, it looked very familiar.
"Peke?" Rito guessed, with a confused look on his face.
"Nope!" Lala chirped, smiling.
"I'm right here, Rito-dono." Peke spoke up from his usual place on Lala's head.
"Huh?" Was Rito's intelligent response, and regarded Peke.
He had assumed that Lala had been wearing regular clothes, since she tended to do that more often than not in the confines of the house, nowadays. Still, now that he knew what that meant, he was able to come up with an obvious answer for what she held out in her hands.
"You made another Peke?" He queried.
"This is Poko!" Lala helpfully supplied. "A multi-purpose costume robot, just like Peke. I made it for you!"
Rito pointed to himself and, with an incredulous expression on his face, asked "For me...?"
"This way you won't have to worry about clothes while you're Riko." Lala explained. She made a gesture, with her hands, for him to accept Poko.
Rito procured the small, button-like form that was Poko from Lala's possession. He looked it over, from one side to the other, but he didn't find any signs of life. Still, if it functioned anything like Peke, he figured that he'd be able to avoid having to buy new clothes while he posed as Riko.
Uncertain about what he was supposed to do next, he held Poko up, toward his hair, and asked, "Do I just... put this in my hair?"
"After you remove your clothes." Lala stated, matter-of-factly.
Since he hadn't expected such a response, Rito belatedly replied with a flat, "What?"
"It's necessary during the activation process." Lala explained. "Poko won't be conscious until all of the processes that customize its systems to you are complete. That includes conforming to the shape of your body. But, without being conscious, Poko can't decide what to do with your clothes... So they'll end up being destroyed."
Rito didn't like the idea of being nude in front of girls; even if he was one himself, at the moment. So, he automatically uttered, "But..."
"Is there a problem with a girl undressing before other girls?"
Rito glanced over at Yami and saw a dangerous glint in her eye. He was quick to remember what she had told him earlier, but only now did he really understand the full extent of what that would mean for him.
"I wonder how long I'll be able to go along with this..." He thought morosely.
Reluctantly, he began to remove his clothes. When he was finished, he stood there and tried to cover himself up as best as he could. Whether a guy or a girl, he couldn't help feeling self-conscious in front of the fairer sex while in the nude. Although he was embarrassed just by holding his hands near the places he was trying to hide.
With a look of expectation on her face, Lala said, "Okay! Now you can put it on."
Rito hesitated a moment before he put it on, even though he didn't want to be naked anymore: because he didn't know what to expect, or whether something would go wrong. However, much to his relief, everything seemed to be fine. He simply went from being nude one second to being covered up the next, after a brief display of the clothing's materialization, which quickly flowed and morphed around his body.
"Good job, Lala-sama." Peke praised her.
Rito looked himself over and, to his embarrassment, he found himself in the same kind of outfit that Lala tended to wear, which mirrored Peke's default costume form. In fact, the only difference was that the color scheme was reversed.
"Up here! Up here!" A cheerful, child-like voice spoke up.
Rito blinked and looked up at his new hat, which was the only part of his outfit that looked exactly like Peke. Without thinking, he took off his hat so he could look directly at Poko. As soon as he did, he found himself naked again.
"Ack!" Was his reponse.
In his hands, however, was no longer a hat, or a button, but a doll-like robot identical to Peke in appearance. Save for the aforementioned color scheme, of course.
"Hi, Riko-sama!" Poko greeted him cheerfully.
Caught in an awkward moment, Rito, in response, could only manage to say, "Er... Hello...?"
But his embarrassment soon got the better of him, so he placed Poko on top of his head instead of continuing with any meaningful dialogue. However, instead of being clothed again, as he had expected, Poko simply sat where he had placed her.
"..."
"Poko's still young, so she will need to learn how to understand what you want." Lala informed him. "Until then, you'll need to direct her with your voice."
"I'm sorry, Riko-sama..." Poko apologized, sounding sad and guilty.
Since Rito couldn't, in good conscience, allow Poko to feel inadequate, he quickly said, "D-don't apologize. It's my fault for assuming you'd turn into an outfit as soon as I..."
"So that's what you wanted, Riko-sama?" Poko interrupted, sounding happy. "I can do that!"
Before Rito could say anything, he once again found himself wearing Poko's standard outfit.
"I was kind of hoping for something else. Something like..."
"No worries!" Poko once again interrupted, who was eager to please. "I have an extensive collection of outfits at my disposal!"
She changed Rito's attire into that of a fireman's and asked, "How about this one?"
Rito, in an act of self-restraint, calmly said, "No, I..."
"No?" Poko answered. "What do you think about this one, then?"
Rito was afraid of what he might see, but he looked down at himself, anyway. He found himself wearing a kimono.
"That's not..."
But Poko didn't allow him to finish, and changed his attire once again. She continued to change his attire each time she caught a hint of disinterest from him, and went from one impractical outfit to the next. It wasn't until Rito lost his patience that she finally stopped.
"Alright, already!" He yelled. "That's enough!"
Coincidentally, the last outfit Poko had changed him into was both practical and casual. It consisted of a skirt and a blouse but, all things considered, a beggar couldn't be a chooser. That, and he didn't want to upset Poko, since she wasn't as experienced as Peke. And the sound of her voice made him wary of being too unreasonable, since she sounded like a child. So he'd have to settle with the skirt... And, undoubtedly, the bra and panties.
He bowed his head, sighed, and softly said, "This will do."
"Okay, Riko-sama!" Was Poko's happy reply.
Yami came up behind Rito and said, "And now your disguise is complete."
Rito answered wearily, saying, "You say that, but..."
"It'll be fine." Lala reassured him, with a smile. "Durand will never know, and he'll give up before too long."
"That's no longer my main concern..." He thought, and stole a glance at Yami.
Then, unexpectedly, the doorbell rang.
"Are you expecting anyone at this time?" Peke asked.
"Not that I know of." Rito answered.
As he made his way to the front door, he wondered, "Would that prince Durand guy bother with the doorbell?"
When he opened the door, a shadow was cast over him. The person on his doorstep was large, perhaps taller than him by two heads, but he couldn't make out much more than that with the sun behind them. However, since he had the impression that the stranger before him was none other than his challenger, he became nervous and made slow work of raising his head to meet the stranger's gaze.
"I'm prince Durand." Said man stated in a loud, confident tone. "I'm here for Yuuki Rito."