(Felt fitting to start this off with a silly lil vague/heavy reference to a beloved TG anime Ranma 1/2)
"Anyone catch that one anime that premiered last night?" Oracle asked to break the silence in the MonaVan. The Phantom Thieves had hit a lull in their Mementos mission. They ahd been driving up and down what seemed like hours trying to track down their next target. "What was it called... uh... Ranko 1/2?"
Panther lit up. "Oh, I loved that manga as a kid! They made a new series?"
Oracle beamed as she leaned over the back of her seat to face Panther in the back row. "Yeah! It's reboot, I think. Violet and I watched it together. It was super hyped up because it was one of those classic anime."
"What's it about?" Noir asked, looking to the two girls to gauge if the show was her interest.
"It's about this super cool girl who's really good at martial arts," Oracle answered, punching her fists as if demonstrating how'd she fight. "And one day, she fell into a cursed spring so now whenever she's splashed with water, she turns into a boy and only hot water can turn her back. All the while she's dealing with an arranged marriage to a boy and suitors for both her boy and girl forms."
Skull scoffed. "Sounds like a show for girls." That earned him a swat on the shoulder from Panther.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Panther shot back. "I think you could learn a thing or two about respecting girls' stuff if you were turned into one."
That earned a round of laughs inside the van as Skull awkwardly shifted in his seat, uncomfortable at the thought. The conversation had lulled from there, as Oracle and Panther decided to talk between themselves about their favorite arcs from said manga.
Then in almost an instant, something jumped onto the tracks and directly onto the van.
"Joker watch out!" Queen cried, lunging from the passenger seat and attempting to grab the steering wheel to avoid the collision.
It was too late, however, as the car hit the shadow. The momentum and the sudden forced caused Morgana to tip over, and he quickly transformed back into his thief-form, the rest of the thieves roughly tumbling out onto the tracks. Oracle was first to summon her Persona, trying to act as best support.
"It's only one shadow," Oracle announced. "But it looks like a strong one, stay on guard!"
Ahead of the disoriented group, the shadow was a pigtailed girl, short in stature and dressed in a sleeveless shirt, baggy pants, and slip-on shoes. Most notably, she carried a large bucket of water with text that read: JUSENKYO.
Oracle's goggles widened. "Guys, whatever you do, don't get hit by that—"
Before Oracle could even finish her sentence, the shadow simply threw the bucket's contents at the thieves, its water hitting a few of them. Joker and Fox were hit first, and Skull quickly pushed Panther out of the water's way, taking the brunt of the splash himself. Even Crow wasn't safe himself as his attempt to strike the martial-arts shadow was easily countered with a kick to the chest and a splash of water himself.
"Water..." Oracle finished lamely, realizing it was too late for the boys. They seemed knocked out from the water from the looks of it. "This is bad, we need to retreat!"
"On it," Queen called, taking command herself now that it seemed that their leader had been incapacitated. She dropped a smoke screen, allowing the rest of the thieves to grab the unconscious teammate closest to them before fleeing from the battle. Once everyone was accounted for, Makoto popped a Goho-M.
----
Skull let out a groan as he began to wake up. He tried to remember just what the hell had knocked him out. He remembered pushing Panther out of the way and then everything going blurry. He could make out that they were still in Mementos, what looked like the top floor. "What the eff happened"
His voice was a lot higher pitched than he remembered.
Skull clocked the girls hovering over him. Panther brought a hand to her mouth, almost hiding an amused smile or laugh. Queen looked rather sheepish, and Noir seemed to be tenting her fingers together, just as amused as Panther. Violet tried to contain her blush as she looked at the spread of slumped thieves against the wall as the rest of the boys began to come to.
Before anyone of them could speak up, Queen squatted down to meet them at eye level. "I don't know how to put this gently... but that shadow attack had a new status effect to worry about."
Oracle couldn't help but just blurt it out and rip off the band-aid. "It turned you all into girls!"
"WHAT THE EFF!?"
Skull had the most animated reaction. He let his hands explore his new body, finding that his thief outfit had changed with him, his chunky cargo pants becoming a tigher shorts. His jacket tighter against his chest, longer hair. Not that long, but certainly the longest he had ever had it.
Joker was more tempered, annoyingly calm and collected. His thief outfit was largely the same, minus a much longer and wilder length of hair, and taller heels for his boots. Crow glowered silently, braided hair flowing from his black helmet. Fox seemed rather unaffected by the change, at least emotionally, indifferent to his new body and outfit.
Violet raised a hand. "Oh! What if we leave the Metaverse? Maybe they'll change back."
As it turned out, leaving the Metaverse didn't change anything, and the group quickly realizes... indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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