"....and a large cup of orange juice," the slim, perky young waitress finished, obviously pleased that she could recite all the contents of the breakfast platter. A voice that one could imagine issuing from the very mouth of Hell answered. "What kind of sausage did you say came with that?" "Italian sausage." "Is it made with real Ital-" The query was cut short as Troi "Hellstorm" Mikagami, bane of heroes and holy warriors, was smacked in the arm by his wife. "We'll have two, please." _________ ---------<_________>--------- Dark Heart High Netherworld Educational Institution for the Universal Propagation of Evil Crafted by Madsman _________ ---------<_________>--------- Chapter Twenty-Five: Transformations! By Jacker Somebody _________ ---------<_________>--------- It had all happened so quickly. Craig had been limping down to the local pharmacy to pick up some unctious balm. The family dignity, he had decided, would not be damaged by the use of modern medicine. He had been doing pretty well, in his opinion, looking as respectable as the situation allowed. His new armour was shiny and black, and the clanking of its many plates covered the small gasps of pain as his broken rib dug into his lung. Considering that he had nearly been killed by a certain unwrapped demon-spawned classmate not long prior, he was downright perky. In fact, he had just begun to whistle a rather pleasant little dirge when Ikimasu Kashin jumped him. Fortunately, the monstrous tower swords rested passively at the end of the wrist-thick chains by which they dragged. Craig found it a bit difficult to focus on this hidden blessing, however, as the upperclassman was beating the living.... well, everything out of his face. "Why," Craig's assailant intoned calmly, punctuating his words with his iron-hard fists, "haven't you *punch* been *punchpunch* showing up *punch* for *punch* fencing practice?" He finished with a sickening blow to the younger boy's mouth. "Show up tomorrow, or you're off the team." He grinned. "And I'll kill you." With that, he stood up, brushed himself off, and walked placidly away. Craig pulled himself to a sitting position to watch him go. Putting his hand to his face, he ascertained that, yes, healing ointments would be a good idea, and that he was going to have one very, very fat lip. Just before the other boy turned the corner, he called back over his shoulder. "And from now on, you're the new equipment manager!" "Aw, dragonturds!" ___ --<___>-- Yasuko knew that she didn't have much time. The plan had just come to her during the last class before lunch, and it was critical that she act with speed. And here, coming down the hall, was just the tool she needed. "Sakazashi, honey, how are you doing?" The Doombringer's face showed a rather confused, though vaguely pleased, expression as the succubus threw her arms around him and slid her hands into his back pockets, pressing her ample chest into his and giving his hindparts a flirty squeeze. Sakazashi the Fifth attempted to gaze stoicly ahead, and failed miserably. Five minutes and many messy smacking sounds later, Sakazashi the Fifth, Doombringer, was walking down the hall one way, with an enormous, dopey grin (and several hickeys) plastered across the front of his head. Yasuko Wareme was strutting along the hall in the opposite direction, the wallet she had just lifted from his pocket held tightly in her left hand. "Sucker." ___ --<___>-- Liza was having a boring day, which annoyed her. Not one customer so far, either, which made her especially annoyed. And, of course, Nurse Sybil seemed to be stuck in chibi form, which, as far as Liza was concerned, was the annoying frosting on a great big cake of annoyance. She thought idly of slipping purity salts into the food trays of underclassmen, but decided that such infantile amusement was worth neither her time nor the price of the salts. Still, it would be something to do.... She happily pictured a cafeteria full of freshmen as their mouths burst into holy flames, which would burn with unquenchable fire until the vigour of the salts was exhausted. Her daydream was interrupted as something, and a very shapely something at that, strode into the medical waiting room. Potential customer! thought Liza, straightening herself and preparing her sales grin. She was not disappointed, for the intruder slinked over and whispered huskily, "I need something." Liza's business sense kicked into high gear. "Don't we all. Do you happen to know which items you'd like to purchase today? We're having a special on undetectable poisons." She flashed the grin she had been prepping. "Do you have a potion that can make me look like someone else?" Liza looked the girl -or rather, she thought, noting the bat wings, the succubus- from toe to top. She was extremely, as they say, well- stacked. Liza theorized that the use of the bat wings might be to prevent the top-heavy torso from pitching her forward to the ground whenever she took a step. She had trouble conceiving a reason as to why such a creature could ever want to have a different form, since the one it already had was ideally suited for its needs in life: seducing men and assorted other masculine entities. It reminded Liza of that greasy incubus from her own grade, the one with the stringy red hair and glasses. Now THERE was an imp who could use some improvement. She'd have to talk to him about buying something later. But all this meant nothing. "I have just the thing! 600,000 yen." She was rather surprised when the succubus -a freshman, Liza now recalled; always good to know your clients- failed to balk, and merely handed her a bank card. She swept the card through the homemade scanner she always had with her, transferring the price from the card's account to her own. "Thank you, Miss...." Liza searched for the name. "Wareme. Just keep a steady picture of what you want to look like in your mind, quaff the contents of this vial, and concentrate on that mental picture for ten minutes." She produced a corked glass container, full of a thick orange liquid with sickly-looking bubbles floating placidly in it, and handed it to the underclassman along with the bank card. "Oh, Miss Wareme?" Liza interrupted the younger girl's determined stride out of the room. The succubus turned. Liza indicated the bank card. "You'll be happy to know we have a no-questions-asked payment policy." The succubus sped out, obviously flustered. Much cheered, Liza began searching through her bag for those purity salts. Maybe she'd have some fun today after all. ___ --<___>-- Repulsive as it had been to think of the vile little hussy for minutes together, Yasuko was satisfied with the results. She posed in front of the mirror in the girl's lavatory on the second floor, revelling in anticipation of the mischief to come. Looking exactly like Yuri, she could get the other girl in endless amounts of trouble, while never letting the miserable creature think that she, Yasuko, would bend to such a level, trying to get back at her. The fact that she had indeed reached such a low level conveniently escaped her notice. She straightened the school uniform fuku that would complete her disguise, and took a step. She promptly fell on her backside. "Cursed plains!" she muttered. "I'll have to get used to walking with no breasts." She stood up and tried to give her best roaring bitch laugh, and fell down again. ___ --<___>-- Craig limped into the gymnasium reserved for the fencing team fifteen minutes before school let out. He sat down on the bleachers. He mused. Too injured to attend school, but here he was, waiting for fencing practice. Better that than risk team captain Kashin's wrath again. He waited. He waited some more. He fell asleep. Someone was shaking him awake. He peered through puffed, sleepy eyelids at the person before him. He was confused. "Yuri? Didn't you quit the team? Or are you jutht here tho your bandaged loverboy can break more of my ribth?" For what may have been only the second or third time in his life, Craig stopped and listened to himself. "Aw, dragonturdth! Blamed fat lip!" "Shut up, twerp." Strange. Craig didn't remember Yuri's voice sounding like that before. "I'm having a party tonight, and I want you to come." For no apparent reason, there was an ominous silence. ___ --<___>-- Yuri sat back, reflecting on her day. It had beeen a quiet day, really. No attacks. No kidnappings. No duels, no run-ins with Amakusa or the upperclassmen. No Bala. It stung, to think that now that he could do whatever he wanted, he was avoiding her. So she didn't think about it. She thought about Yasuko, who had been avoiding her, and Craig, who hadn't even shown up at school today. She thought about Ki, who had been oddly distant ever since Bala had stepped on him, and Amy, who had been uncomfortably close for too long now. She thought about Ryuji, and his friend from the Future Accountants' Club, The Unbidden. She smiled, thinking of her Merkla friend. Despite his constantly degenerating appearance, she was beginning to really enjoy his company. After all, he had saved her life, hadn't he? She slid farther down on the sofa, remembering today's FAC meeting. They hadn't really done anything, despite The Unbidden insisting that they all bring calculators. She hadn't recognised Ryuji at first, but he quickly explained that he had accidentally cut off an arm in shop class and switched corpses over the lunch break. Yuri couldn't help laughing. It took the demon a few minutes to figure out why; after all, to him, he was the same as ever, but to Yuri, he looked like a fifty-year-old woman. Since he had been in a female body, Yuri had decided, quite impulsively, to invite him to the slumber party. And then, just to be polite, she had extended an invitation to the Unbidden as well. Much to Yuri's relief, the interdimensional entity had turned her down, mumbling something about how he ".wouldn't fit iN" Yuri broke her reverie to check the clock. Only half an hour until the slumber party was supposed to start. Mentally, she went over the guest list. <>Leilei, free for a while from tending to Bala <>Amy, who was probably already waiting on the porch <>Yasuko, if she decided to show up at all <>Ryuji, in his newly-inhabited female form <>Mandy, the giant spider from Chemistry class <>Atsuko, who had promised to drag Reika along, and <>Reika, who had said that she 'might not stay the whole time'. Yuri smiled happily and turned off the television. Now, she thought, do I want to wear the fluffy cloud pyjamas or the teddy bear ones with the feet attatched? ___ --<___>-- Author's Notes: Blegh. I'm so disappointed with myself. Here I am, turning in my chapter two days late and containing about half of what I intended to write. Not too bad for my first time, I guess, but not too good either. Of course, I have some very good excuses, but those don't matter to ya'll. In any case, my apologies. I know I didn't really do much but overlap Kenji' segment, but I meant to write teh slumber party, and it's the thought that counts, ja? I guess that's up to the next writer. I hope to do this again, but it may not be for a while, and you can bet that I'll spend more time planning when I do. And now, the important bit where I don't whine. Thanks to all the who offered help, and doubly so to those who actually provided it, specifically: <>HS, who got me hooked on impro in the first place and encouraged me as I wrote <>Sharyna Tran, who proofread carefully for me <>Lawrence Chu, who answered my questions and gave me an extension <>Ann, who dipped into oldr chapters to answer my questions and was the first to tell me just what I was doing wrong. To all my other prereaders, I'm sorry for abusing your kindness by sending you a draft at approximately four in the afternoon. If I could exploit everyone's kindness a little more, I'd really like to see some reviews that told me how I could've done this better. Well, time to run away and hide. -Jacker Somebody ___ --<___>-- It had been a good day. It had been a very good day, in fact. Right up until now, actually. Right now, Sakizashi the Fifth, Doombringer, was having a rather bad time of things. "Foolish mortal," he muttered, glaring menacingly at the bank teller in front of him. "You dare to disobey me?" "I'm sorry, sir," the confused and slightly intimidated woman replied. "It appears that your account is overdrawn." "OVERDRAWN?!" The Doombringer waited for a dramatic lightning strike to accent his outrage. When he realized none was coming, he clapped his hands together instead. As he brushed himself off and climbed out of the new crater, Sakizashi the Fifth, Doombringer, consoled himself with the fact that he'd never really liked this part of town anyway.