The shove didn’t hurt nearly as hard as his words. I stood up and looked him over more closely. The recognition hit me. “Jesus fucking christ... Victor Show from A-701?”
“I figured I’d be less recognisable than you. All you got is tits while losing your dick and some height, you worthless trap. Plus I saw you on the security cameras I run. Rushing between your place and 101. Can’t you be fags behind closed doors at least?” He cackled. Horrible noise. I think his teeth scraping against themselves is what made it worse. Plus two slurs in just as many sentences? I only heard of those in history class! “You think a simple dick removal and a pair of tits make you a girl? You fucking wish, tranny.” He lunged at me. I barely dodged a full hit by moving to the side, but still got hit by his wing in the side.
“Fuck. Ugh. That’s gonna bruise, you asshole.” I groaned and looked at him. Leonard had mentioned my magic is based on feelings, and I’m feeling pretty damn pissed right now. Angry at what Victor keeps saying. His words feel like knives piercing me. No, like his teeth biting into me.
“Oh come on you sissy, take it like a man. Oh wait, you’re too damn used to taking it up the ass, aren’t you? Can’t even moan like a little bitch, more like gravel being mined.” He turned to lunge at me again. At his moan comment, I touched my throat. My voice wasn’t gravely at all. No, it was like the stream grinding down the gravel into smooth, tiny pebbles. As he flew forward, I prepared my fist, and the moment I dodged his lunge, my fist connected with his chest. I just wanted him to shut up. To stop saying hurtful things. It’s not like I wanted to be like that. Wait. Fuck. No no no no, can of worms, don’t open it, you open that up you’ll never get to close it. When he launched up into the air from my hit, I noticed smoke coming from my fist, as if it had been set on fire. Huh. He fell down in front of me, and I saw him patting out a fire on his chest where I had hit him.
“Oh, that gives a new meaning to the phrase Flaming Faggot for sure! Now do us all a fucking favor you tranny slut, and set the rest of yourself on fire!” Victor screamed at me. The anger I felt set my fists on fire. It didn’t hurt. I didn’t feel it, but they were obviously covered in a fire. A blue one that smelled heavily of sulphur.
“Don’t use slurs, Fuckface!” I loudly hissed, jumping at him, kicking him up and slamming my fist right into his stomach. He flew backwards a bit, coughing.
“Oh? Fuckface? That’s the best you got, femoid? Bet your mom fucked ten dudes at once and doesn’t know which one’s your dad. Come on, man up on your insults at least, bitchface!” Something inside me snapped at his comment. Something deep and ancient that I never wanted to address. He broke the seal of bottled up feelings. I ran towards him, pushing him off the rooftop, my legs clenched around his torso as we fell down into the alley below, and I kept punching him, a word for every hit I landed!
“I. DON’T. WANT. TO. BE. A. MAN. LIKE. YOU. DAD!!!!!” We hit the ground on my Freudian Slip. My fist buried in Victor’s face as the air got knocked out of his lungs. His face was covered in singed bruises, while my fists were still on fire. I turned to see Leonard looking at me, a shocked expression on his face. That turned to warmth. Behind him stood the Oni lady he mentioned. 8 feet tall, combination of rippling muscles and a soft tummy, her clothes ripped and barely covering her, Diego standing next to her. Seems like she’s our missing Amy. I seriously hoped nobody heard me...
“Good news; you’ll never be one, f-” Victor didn’t get to finish repeating the slur as I punched him again absentmindedly.
“Uhm, was that your-?” Diego started asking, and I interrupted him before he even finished asking.
“NO. My dad doesn’t live in the same complex as me. He doesn’t live in the same city as me. And I haven’t seen him since starting college.” I stood up, kicking Victor in the face as payback, and concentrated on getting my flames down. The smell of sulfur lingered for a bit after they went out. “Hey, pretty blue Oni lady who I am guessing is Amy and whose boyfriend is right there, hey Diego-” He gave me a quick wave and a hi; they both nodded in confirmation. “-I’m Lily, also a victim of this dumbass.” I pointed to Leonard, who waved awkwardly. “He knows how to fix you. Also, Leo, please take away Victor’s powers or something, I don’t want him creeping outside my windows at night.” I shuddered. I saw Leo sigh as he took out his phone, looking for something on it. While he did so, I stepped towards Amy and sat down next to her.
“Hi…” She sounded so unsure, confused, sad. Even sitting down on upturned milk crates, she was as tall as me standing. Well, as tall as human-me anyway… Diego was currently leaning on her, giving her headpats and saying that everything will be alright. I could see that she had tears running down her face, but had stopped crying a moment before I made my grand entrance. Looking towards Leonard, I saw him chanting something.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Hey Leo, couldn’t you have done the thing you’re doing on Victor to me instead?” My question fell on deaf ears, as Leonard yelled out.
“Fuck! Fuck, no, dammit! I didn’t mean to- shit!” Rushing towards him, I could see Victor reverting back to his old self. His very old self. Aging 70 years in 20 seconds is not a strain your body should go through. As he convulsed on the floor for a few seconds, his breathing stopped. Then, he just stopped. “Shit, shit, shit! He’s dead! I killed a dude!” Leonard jumped to his feet and stumbled against a wall, freaking out, shaking, his head in his hands.
“Hey, Diego, you know CPR?” My eyes shot at the guy consoling his girlfriend.
“Uhm yeah, yeah I do, I’m an EMT after all.” he replied, quickly running over to Victor to check on him, starting compressions. “Right, uh, can you dial up the ambulance for me, Lily? Kinda busy.”
“Oh right, yeah, where’s your phone?” I quickly checked on Leonard, who was still freaking out.
“Chest pocket.” I pulled his phone out and dialed for an ambulance, setting it to speaker and placing it next to him, before walking over to Leonard. I grabbed Leonard’s shoulders in an attempt to calm him down. “Hey, Leo, hey, you haven’t killed him, okay? You haven’t killed him; if anything, I’m the one who killed him for beating him senseless.” I rubbed his shoulders, hoping it would make him focus. “Leo, I need you to focus. Diego, can you please deal with Victor? We need to get Amy home so Leonard can call her ancestor to fix her appearance.” I must have gotten through to him, as he nodded at me and we walked over to Amy. “Hey, Amy, so we need to get back to the apartments to fix this. How did you get over here in the first place?”
She wiped her tears away, sniffling a bit. “I jumped. I can leap over buildings and such.”
“Okay okay, good, excellent, would you be able to carry me and Leo back with you?” Amy looked up and between us, and nodded. “Alright, sweet. Hey, Diego?” I shouted towards the guy now doing mouth to mouth on Victor. Okay, I owe him like 10 rounds for that. He moved to continue compressions, throwing a “Yeah” my way to acknowledge me. “Amy’s gonna take me and Leo to the apartments to sort her out. You gonna be okay with the docs?” I saw him nod while remaining focused. Amy meanwhile stood up and grabbed me and Leonard, leaping up onto the rooftops, running off back home. Glad we could call services directly instead of just 911. And that even if the guard showed up, they’d try to save lives, not shoot an unarmed brown dude over a white guy’s assumed corpse.
You know, no matter how fun it was to sprint across the rooftops myself, having Amy do it was much more exciting. Probably because her leaps were way stronger and higher than mine. And I had in-flight entertainment in the form of Leonard’s yells and screams and facial expressions. “Hey, I’m the one in a skirt, Leo, I should be the one screaming about flashing the whole town!” I laughed, but he probably didn’t hear me over the wind. Amy did, though, as I heard her giggle a bit. Finally some joy on her face, after what seemed like hours of crying. Might have been crying since this started… Can’t say I blame her for the tears, considering how shocking it was to wake up like this for me. With a loud thud we landed on the roof of the complex. Luckily, it didn’t give out from under us. Thank you modern construction focusing on stability, safety, and longevity over a quick buck for landlords... I had a very distinct feeling Victor used to be one. I never met a landlord, but he had the energy of one. As Amy put us down, I could see Leonard shaking like a scared kitten.
“Solid ground. No flying. I’m learning teleportation for the sake of my sanity.” He got up on his feet with some difficulty, as Amy held her shoulder.
“So. Uhm. Turning me back?” She looked at Leonard, who nodded and made his way to the stairs.
“I just need to look up your specific ancestor and summon them.” Walking down, he left me and Amy alone on the roof. I cleared my throat.
“So. Uhm. Not sure how your powers work, but, I can shift back and forth between my changed and original form by thinking about turning into a human.” I rubbed the back of my head and giggled awkwardly.
“Oh. Huh. Why haven’t you done so yet?” Amy raised one of her eyebrows questioningly, and I grabbed my wrist nervously.
“Uhm, well, there is a… sizeable difference between my human form and devil form.” I kept shifting my gaze, trying to avoid her eyes, which I could see narrowing.
“Which apartment are you in again?”
“...201.” I closed my eyes, hoping she had never seen me.
“Oh. OH. OOOOHHHHHHHH!!! The college kid! Kinda lifeless looking but way differently from 101, and… oh. Huh.”
“Yeah I don’t know, but I don’t want to turn back into… him, quite yet. It feels more right like this, even though not completely... Besides, me and Leo can’t contact my ancestor to fix shit, so…” I rubbed my shoulder and opened my eyes, as Amy nodded and finally followed after Leonard.
“I don’t know if the transforming thing will work but I don’t want to end up naked if it does. Let’s go meet my ancestor, I guess.” She shrugged and I followed after her.