A Supporter Wears a Skirt

"Mmnyaaam..."

Her body felt light.

The blanket brushed softly against her fingertips. The air tickled the tip of her nose at a pleasantly warm temperature.

She didn't want to get up.

She was deep in the extreme stage of just five more minutes.

But what finally roused Ji Yu from her sleep was a single scene flashing through her mind — the memory of a man walking into an S-Rank gate and, as if losing his manhood weren't enough, having it broadcast live to the entire world.

"Wha—?!"

She bolted upright like a bolt of lightning.

"Wait, what is wrong with my voice?"

It was a clear, elegant voice — the kind that called to mind a crystal lake beneath snowy mountains if you closed your eyes and listened. The problem was that this beautiful voice was coming out of her own throat. Disorientation was the only reasonable response.

She was confused. She had absolutely no idea what was what.

And yet, the memories of last night flickered past before her eyes, one after another.

"Is this a dream?"

Like the rock-solid compressed muscle of a man with ten years of manual labor under his belt, the day had been packed tight, end to end, with absurd events. Accepting that none of it was a dream was proving very difficult.

What kind of hunter falls apart like that? You can't be stumbling around in a daze. Your situational awareness is pathetic.

An imaginary Baek Seon-woo piped up unbidden inside her head.

"Ugh!"

Ji Yu accepted reality very quickly.

There was, after all, irrefutable evidence. The only problem was that the evidence happened to be Ji Yu herself.

"Where am I, anyway...?"

Her surroundings finally began to register. She had woken up lying on an enormous bed.

A built-in wardrobe with a full-length mirror, and along the wall leading to the en-suite bathroom, an oversized vanity had been set out as well. Compared to her cramped studio apartment, the room felt positively vast. Even at a glance, the apartment looked terribly expensive. The place where Ji Yu lay appeared ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be the master bedroom.

"Anybody home? Wah—?!"

The moment she swung her legs off the bed, her feet betrayed her.

The length of her legs was no longer what it used to be, and that was what caused the disaster.

Thud-thud-thud!

"Hngh!"

Like a true hunter, she didn't fall — she caught her balance.

"Ahem..."

And where did Ji Yu happen to come to a stop? Right in front of the full-length mirror. To anyone watching, it would have looked exactly as if she'd sprinted over just to see her reflection.

"This is... me?"

Like a person seeing a mirror for the very first time in her life, she blinked slowly. Her gaze drifted toward the glass entirely of its own accord. She hadn't intended it in the slightest.

In the world beyond the mirror stood a woman she had never seen before.

A cool-beauty of a girl with bluish-black hair and crimson eyes. She matched the description from the bait post Ji Yu had uploaded to the gallery just last night, down to the letter.

"So I really had lost my mind back then,"

No — her appearance hadn't actually changed the way the post described. It was Ji Yu, the broke, downtrodden Damage Dealer, who had taken her own face and written a gender-swapped version of herself into that bait post.

Examined feature by feature, traces of the old Ji Yu's look remained. But rearranged to fit a woman's face, those same features somehow produced the beauty of a well-bred young lady.

"Heheh. What even is this...?"

A hollow laugh escaped her on its own.

Composure might be the lifeblood of any hunter, but Ji Yu was no superhuman capable of staying serene through a situation like this.

"Seriously, what the hell... is going on?!"

The Ji Yu in the mirror looked terrified.

What had become of her? No — what was she going to become? Sleep fled entirely as anxiety crept up her spine.

"How am I supposed to live no—huh?"

Even in the middle of her spiral, something caught her eye.

"C-can I touch this?"

Her chest monopolized the morning sunlight and cast a long shadow down over her lower abdomen. Even the white oversized T-shirt someone had dressed her in couldn't erase its sheer presence. The fabric draped over those soft, flowing curves like a curtain, and if anything, that only added a more innocent charm to the whole picture.

Gulp.

Ji Yu swallowed dryly.

I was so sad that I touched my chest!

It was logical. It was airtight.

Sadness, and the desire to touch a chest.

For Ji Yu, who had been a man mere hours ago, the gaping hole in that causality was impossible to spot.

"Uh... might as well just go for it?"

Boing.

"This is really... my chest?"

Her trembling fingertips registered a sensation of almost unbelievable softness. It was a perfect texture no human body part should have been capable of producing. But even more overwhelming than the feel of it was the frankly violent angle the mirror offered.

Her own chest, laid bare in the reflection. Ji Yu couldn't tear her eyes away.

"What are you doing?"

She would have stayed like that for quite a while longer, if the scandalized face of Baek Seon-woo hadn't appeared in the mirror behind her.

"Gwak! You scared me!"

Baek Seon-woo, materializing out of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nowhere without so much as a footstep. Thorough stealth, it turned out, was basic equipment for an A-Rank ranged dealer.

"I dodged."

Ji Yu had thrown a punch at his face on pure reflex. He slipped it easily. If you wanted to survive in the Damage Dealer position without a single utility skill to your name, you could not afford to eat hits like that.

"Starting with that little 'Mmnyaaam~' of yours this morning, what the hell even—"

"H-how long have you been listening, you... pervert..."

"You're really one to talk."

"Ugh..."

Ji Yu's cheeks burned red. Even she had to admit the whole thing was ridiculous.

"It's just... my head's all scrambled, and I'm scared too, and—"

"Oh, is that so? Hm. It's... semi-convincing, I'll give you that."

"Look, you clearly came here to comfort me and explain what happened, so can we please just get to the point?"

Cornered, Ji Yu decided to simply brazen it out.

"Fine. That comes first anyway. You holding up?"

"You're asking that awfully early in the conversation."

"Honestly? I don't think I'm okay. I'm only asking to be polite."

"Hey, so—"

Conversations with Baek Seon-woo were always like this. Whether the matter was trivial or enormous. Even those brutal late nights, hard enough to soak her pillow in tears when she was alone, were no exception.

That was probably his own particular brand of comfort.

"First, watch this."

Seon-woo held out a video on his smartphone.

So even in yesterday's chaos, he'd thought to keep a record.

"And I'm supposed to believe this isn't AI?"

"I'd like to ask you the same thing."

Eyes closed, Ji Yu floated serenely in midair. The video was already extraordinary from its opening seconds.

The bystanders dismantled the tent that served as the hunters' staging area and used it to ring off Ji Yu and the gate. The video continued from there, but—

"This went out live?"

"Yep. Right after the World Announcement, at that. That probably woke up everyone who was still asleep."

Ji Yu stopped watching. She couldn't muster the courage to keep going.

"Stay off the internet for the next year or so."

Baek Seon-woo's expression was dead serious. In a manhwa, his line would have been lettered in that heavy brush-script font.

It was sound, wise advice.

Unfortunately, Ji Yu was not capable of such wise behavior. That was what being human meant, after all.

As if bewitched, she picked up her phone. She opened a web browser, and there, riding the AI-driven trending recommendations, was Ji Yu's very own Tree Wiki article. Until yesterday, of course, no such article had existed.

"?"

The article was filled with some deeply questionable claims. But the attached footnote — [1] Ruler of Korea, holy crap — said everything anyone needed to know about how Ji Yu had been treated on the internet overnight.

"Haah..."

"That's why I told you not to look."

"No, you should have told me never to look. Then I wouldn't have."

"..."

She didn't even dare check the DPS Gallery. She had a feeling she'd end up going in eventually anyway, but for now, the fear was still the stronger of the two.

"So why am I here?"

"Explaining would take a while..."

Baek Seon-woo straightened up in his seat. There was, indeed, a lot to tell.

"You know how some items are soulbound and some aren't?"

"Sure."

Soulbound items. Items bound completely to their user — exactly what the name implied. When the user died, the item either vanished with them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or lost its power entirely. Non-bound items were the opposite: even if the user died, someone else could pick them up and keep using them. They popped right out of the inventory too — the same principle as monsters dropping items.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

What could that possibly have to do with why she was here?

"Our guild had an emergency meeting in the middle of the night yesterday."

"Sorry about that, I guess."

"There were a lot of high-ranked hunters there, too."

Seon-woo frowned. Fair enough — for a hunter fresh through the door, that must have been a nerve-racking experience.

"Anyway, they concluded your item has to be non-bound."

"Ah. I see."

So if someone kills me, that damned staff drops.

Come to think of it, the item's description had been along those lines. It made the wielder qualified — nowhere did it say the item was bound to them. And apparently, "qualified" meant turned into a woman. Even on reflection, it was absurd.

"Long story short, that's why you're being protected at our place."

Baek Seon-woo said it matter-of-factly. Judging by the rest of his explanation, things weren't as dire as Ji Yu had feared.

Mirae Guild executives and senior hunters, yanked out of bed for an emergency summons in the dead of night — naturally, their expressions would not have been pleasant. But this was Mirae Guild, the number one guild in South Korea, the kind of outfit that caught stray blame whenever anything went wrong anywhere. And the matter at hand was the very first Supporter position in history. They would have sat through the meeting without a word of complaint at the crack of dawn.

Viewed without factoring in their hefty salaries, it was a gathering of pitiable office workers in the purest sense. And then, right in the middle of it all, their savior appeared — in the form of the realization that one of Mirae Guild's own Damage Dealers happened to be an old acquaintance of the Supporter in question, and a college classmate besides, and happened to be out on site that day.

"You got lucky. And not just any luck — you got lucky with me."

The higher-ups, delighted to end the meeting early, had trundled off to enjoy some blissful sleep, leaving Baek Seon-woo with no choice but to bring Ji Yu home. What else was he going to do?

"And what's with these clothes?"

A loose, baggy oversized T-shirt dress. One look told you it was a woman's garment.

"My mom's old clothes."

"Oh."

Seon-woo and Ji Yu had grown up squabbling constantly, sharing countless things since they were kids. The biggest thing they had in common, of course, was that neither of them had parents.

"So I guess I can't get into the Tower for a while? The first thing I want to know is what's happened to my abilities."

Ji Yu poked at a sore spot, then tried to quietly steer past it. It was a move only someone nursing that same wound could pull.

"You sure? If you're up for it. Honestly, in situations like this, getting back to your routine fast is the better call."

Baek Seon-woo, for his part, seemed content to let it slide too.

"Feels like my position's changed. You noticing anything different?"

"Can't say I am."

"We'll find out today. You should be able to get in this afternoon. The guild's arranging it for you."

Normally, getting into the Tower meant grinding through a long waiting list. If someone was inside, no one else could enter at the same time. For the pitiable Damage Dealers of the world, even setting foot in the Tower was not a daily opportunity.

"Yeah, Mirae Guild really is something else. Handing out Tower passes to someone who isn't even on their roster."

"How are you this excited in your situation?"

"A-Ranks wouldn't get it."

She could enter the Tower. With a brand-new set of abilities, no less.

"Hey... could you lend me something to wear?"

For now, she decided to focus on that and that alone. Thinking any harder about anything else would only drag her down into gloom.

"They're in the small room over there. It was a real ordeal, hunting down women's clothes in the dead of night."

"Busy night for you, huh. Thanks."

Tap-tap.

Walking was still unfamiliar, and it took real effort, yet her footsteps barely made a sound.

"There's a lot in here?"

The room Seon-woo had mentioned was neatly stocked with clothes that would fit a woman's frame. Even after laying Ji Yu down in the master bedroom, he must have gone off to find something for her to change into.

"Y-you're not coming in, right?"

Ji Yu poked her head coyly around the door ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠frame.

"I know. Absolutely not coming in."

"Tch. No fun."

Click.

When the door shut, Seon-woo was left alone in the hallway. Soon the rustle of changing clothes drifted through it. Standing there, he had no idea what he was supposed to do with himself.

What the hell is even happening?

Even with the transformed sight of his friend burned into both his eyes, Seon-woo couldn't quite believe it. That familiar feeling radiating from a woman he'd never met before. Piece by piece, the features were undeniably the ones he knew — and yet somehow they'd assembled themselves into an absurd, impossible beauty.

"Haah. Poor bastard."

Anyone else would have envied that face. Seon-woo's thoughts ran the other way. He probably understood Ji Yu better than anyone. The kind of guy who deliberately never let on, the harder things got.

"So what am I supposed to do for her?"

He didn't even know how he was supposed to treat Ji Yu now.

"Hey! What is this outfit? You're telling me to wear this?"

"It's... it couldn't be helped..."

There was one more reason Seon-woo was at such a loss, though.

The clothes he'd given Ji Yu to wear. That was the problem.

Scrounging up normal women's clothing in the middle of the night had simply been too tall an order.