The whole next week is more of the same. More school. More snags – little bits of discrimination. Offhand comments and looks, but nothing overt, nothing anyone can get called out on. Except the girls avoiding me like the plague. I try not to let it get to me, but I don't think it's really working.
At least my body is catching up thanks to my brutal after school exercises and no one laughs at me during gymnastics anymore. And my friends spurn the jerks and come to the block of showers we use after gym, so I don't feel quite so alone.
Unfortunately, I can't bring myself to talk to Bolton again. She stays true to her word and leaves me alone too. However, she looks awfully downcast as she does it, which only makes me feel worse after that conversation with the doctor. I'm mad at her and mad at myself for feeling guilty for being mad at her.
I hate it.
It isn't until next Saturday in the morning that something happens to change things up. Leona comes over first thing in the morning, telling me she received a reply from the government compliance division and building inspectors she called up about the trans dorms.
“O-oh?” She actually got the government to do something about it?
“I made sure to tell them the other party is hostile, so they're making it a surprise inspection.” She flashes a feral grin. “They'll be here soon, let's go meet them.”
Even two weeks into everyone knowing, I still feel somewhat nervous when I change into a set of comfortable girl clothes. I eye a skirt in my drawer, but go with some dark jeans instead, though I can't say if that's much better since they're pretty form fitting... Of course, my anxiety only gets worse when we leave my room, and half of the girls stare at me anyway, just like I expected.
It's just like I said, it feels like they don't even see me as human. Like I'm some sort of dangerous animal. It's been weeks and all I've done is normal stuff, not a single thing that should make them worried or scared, but so many of them haven't changed at all. And I don't know if they ever will.
When we get clear of the dorms and the students in it, I relax, and we head to the transport terminal. It's crowded like usual with students flocking in to board shuttles to the mall. The usual buzz of conversation and excitement cuts short when a much smaller and clearly better maintained vehicle pulls up. A personal or business shuttle I guess? I'm not sure if I've ever seen one outside of TV or pictures on the internet.
It stops at the curb a short way from the terminal, leaving plenty of space for the normal shuttles to run through. After four men step out from inside, the door closes, but the shuttle stays parked in place, unmoving. It's a little eerie to see in real life, actually...
The men are all in their thirties and forties, dressed in slick business suits and dark ties, and I'm immediately feeling under-dressed. Even Leona has a pretty nice top on that I feel wouldn't be out of place in a business environment. All I have is my soft t-shirt and a pair of comfy jeans...
With every nearby student watching, the men look around until Leona waves them over. I feel their burning gazes as the men approach, all stopping a couple steps away. Leona extends a hand to no one in particular, and one of the men steps up to take it.
The man that moves is approximately the oldest, with colorful blond hair that is just starting to recede, but he still has an attractive, squarish face with a strong jaw and looks well put together. He's a pretty average height for a man, which puts him level with Leona as they shake hands.
“Martin Prower, Compliance Division,” he introduces himself shortly.
“Leona Vicca,” she answers, “Meridan County High school, class 1-C.” As the man is nodding, she gives a military salute with her other hand and adds, “Also, Psionic Operations, currently operating out of the Meridan Division under Aalin Mejja. Tier seven psion.”
Prower doesn't look surprised at all; I'm sure she already gave all her information when she called them in. When he releases her hand though, he instead extends it to me, and I jolt. Do I have to? He's probably important, so maybe-
“This is Seiko,” Leona suddenly cuts right in. “Seiko is touch averse, right?” she prompts me, and I nod emphatically. Probably a few more times than necessary in my panic.
“I see...” Prower intones, gray eyes still on me with a penetrating look that has me on edge.
“Seiko is...” Leona's gaze shifts to the watching students, then back to the man. “I'll explain things on the way.” Clearly catching her meaning, Prower waves his men forward, and we start walking across campus toward the dorms. As soon as there's some space between us and the ogling students at the transfer terminal, Leona continues.
“Seiko is also a student, class 1-C, with me,” she shortens my introduction somewhat. I'm just glad she's doing it for me, these government men make me incredibly anxious. “Also, Seiko is another member of psi-ops, the details of Seiko's employment are confidential.”
“Hmm,” Prower rubs his fingers over his clean-shaven chin in thought. “Clearance level eight,” he tosses out. Leona nods.
“Alright, clearance check,” she says while holding out her mobile. He pulls his and they tap them together. She goes through the other three men as well. After confirming things, she speaks once more.
“Seiko is employed at psi-ops under Aalin Mejja in order to help further psionic research. Any more information requires higher clearance.”
“So secretive...” the man murmurs, still rubbing his chin as he peers down at me. I shift a little closer to Leona. She didn't even mention my employment at psi-ops to the school administration...
Soon moving on from that, Prower looks back up at Leona. “Alright, I read through your original message about unlivable dorms and incorrect room assignments. Could you explain the situation in detail?”
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“No problem, here's what happened. First, Seiko is transgender.” There isn't much reaction to that. A small amount of confusion maybe. Do they not know the term?
“When Seiko told the school administration and submitted the required documents for changing the necessary enrollment information, Janice Monasta refused to accept it until ordered to do so by her superiors. Even then, instead of transferring Seiko to the female dormitory, she had an entirely new section of dorms created, which I do not believe provide proper living conditions due to lack of access to necessary amenities.”
Leona takes a deep breath. “That is my first complaint, which I would like you to confirm for yourselves when we arrive at the dorms. For the second one, when we confronted Janice Monasta about the living conditions in the transgender dorms, in order to get her to reassign Seiko to the female dorms, I was forced to trade rooms with Seiko. As such, my second complaint is my assignment to dorms that are not only not suitable for living, but also do not match my gender.”
“Alright, let me get this straight,” Prower speaks up uncertainly. “Maka-chan here is... what?”
“Transgender. It means that Seiko's gender does not match what the doctor's thought at birth.”
He tilts his head and looks down at me as we walk, apparent confusion all over his face. “So... she's... uhh?”
“Seiko was believed to be male at birth, but is actually female,” Leona says plainly.
“That's...” he scratches his head. “Honestly, kind of hard to understand.”
“How so? People make mistakes.”
Prower is squinting. “But how do you mix up a-”
“My point is,” Leona talks over him before he can say it, “the school administration has obstructed Seiko every step of the way. Janice Monasta-san has caused undue suffering through Seiko's assignment to a dorm which is unfit for human habitation, and in order to be allowed into the proper dorm, she instead assigned me to the wrong dorm out of spite.”
Even Prower seems to get how bad that is, though he doesn't comment on it outright. But I can see it in his face. “She has repeatedly harmed us, members of psi-ops,” she adds with extra emphasis to point out that we have some standing above civilians.
“I see. These are some serious allegations,” Prower finally speaks on it.
“Yes, but that is not all,” Leona goes on, and he raises a brow. “The worst thing Janice Monasta-san did. She has repeatedly facilitated the sexual abuse of Seiko.”
“Huh?” his mouth drops open, and I wince. I look down at the ground so I don't have to see any more.
“First was when Lacey Monasta-san, her daughter and a previous student in class 1-C, led a group of students in the attempted sexual assault of Seiko. Including one who already sexually assaulted Seiko as a minor – though that incident went unreported. Janice Monasta-san covered for them, arguing that it could not be legally deemed sexual assault because I managed to stop them before they finished removing Seiko's clothing.” There's a pause. Prower doesn't even say anything.
“As such, she shielded the perpetrators by accusing Seiko and myself of assault instead, leading to no administrative or legal punishment for their actions, so the attack went unreported again.” Prower doesn't say anything, but I can hear him heave a big breath from the side, similar sounds coming from the three men behind us. I'm just trying not to cry.
It's not really working.
“Next, was the fight over the dorms. In order to transfer dorms, besides taking my room, she appealed to a higher authority, a man named Roland Barrett-san from the Bightock County Finance Division. Barrett...” she cuts short, and I can hear her exhale, fuming through her teeth. “In order for Barrett-san to give the go-ahead, he demanded Seiko allow him to visually inspect Seiko's genitals.”
“Th-that's...” one of the men behind mutters darkly, but never finishes.
“I know Barrett-san had level six clearance and a high enough position to demand just about anything, but-” Leona cuts off, before growling, “But I still want it on the record that Janice Monasta put a sixteen year old girl into a position where she was forced to expose herself to an old man.”
“Holy...” Prower doesn't have much more to say for a while, before, “Vicca-san, do you have proof of any of this? Anything substantive? So it isn't just your word against hers?”
“That's... harder. For the assault incident, the school doctor should have records of treating the students involved, but there isn't much to prove what they did. Also their hospitalization records, but those aren't much help either.”
“Wait, you hospitalized them?” Prower exclaims.
“Yes. I received direct orders from my direct superior at psi-ops to 'beat the assailants within an inch of their life.'”
The man pauses, but doesn't say anything else on that for a few long moments, so Leona goes right on. “For the second, it was a video call with Barrett-san, so there should be video evidence of the entire thing. Everything else... Well, we're about to see the dorms, and the records changes for Seiko's enrollment and our dorm room assignments should fill in the rest.”
“Alright. If that's everything, let's get to it,” Prower responds. Something about his tone, the edge of indignation, has me glance up at him again. He catches it and offers me a small, pitying smile. I don't want others to pity me, but at the same time, it feels kind of nice, someone recognizing that what she's done is wrong.
The conversation was long enough that we're almost back to the dorms, and everyone picks up their pace. We soon arrive, every student in sight in the girls' first floor dorm stopping to stare at the men in suits.
We arrive at the front desk, the female building monitor eyeing us all suspiciously. “We're here from Compliance,” is all Prower says, and her eyes pop wide open. After checking their credentials with shaking hands and numerous apologies, she registers them for free access to the entire building, and Leona leads us into the trans dorms.
It goes pretty much exactly as we expected. They're thorough, checking each room on all five floors, confirming that they lack all of the basic necessities from toilets to showers to food. They even take pictures and make notes on a couple tablets they have with them. Leona makes sure to mention that the dorms originally included those 'tranny' signs too since language like that isn't allowed in government buildings, which they make note of as well.
And that her doing so essentially taught the entire student body an offensive slur that they've been using to refer to me ever since.That's when she disappears briefly, before reappearing with the actual sign so they can take a picture of it for evidence.
Apparently, she teleported it up onto the roof of the building to hide it until today.
Once the men are finished, we stop briefly outside the front of the dorm, even though everyone is still staring at us. “We have what we need here, we'll be heading off to the administrator's office to deal with the rest,” Prower tells us. “There will be some follow-up pretty soon. Have a nice day, ladies.”
After all of that, my nerves are pretty much shot for the rest of the day. I end up alternating between playing some computer games and napping in my room. I don't have anything else left in me for more than that.