Getting Ready Is a Hassle
Getting ready was a hassle.
I tossed the hideous things Mom had prepared for me roughly among the laundry pile and forced myself into the clothes Jihoo had thrown my way.
"I did give them to you, but... are you really going out looking like that?"
"What choice do I have? I don't have anything else to wear."
The ordinary long-sleeved tee hung on me like a dress, reaching all the way to my thighs, and I had to roll the sleeves up several times before my hands even poked out.
The pants I used to wear in summer—ones that used to hit mid-shin—now dragged on the floor, and because of the tail, the waistband barely clung to my hips; I had to keep a hand clamped on it just to keep them up.
My own padded jacket was completely unwearable, so I had no choice but to borrow one of Mom's. Even that was so oversized it looked like a long coat. As for shoes, nothing fit my newly shrunken feet no matter what I tried, so I settled on dragging a pair of slippers along.
"You're seriously walking all the way to the Association looking like that?"
"Of course not! I'm only going as far as a nearby clothing store to grab something wearable."
Honestly, clothes or no clothes, all I really wanted was to get the examination over with as fast as possible and come straight home. But with the tail making taxis impossible, there was no way I could walk the full twenty minutes to the Association and back looking like this.
It was Christmas, after all—plenty of couples would be out strolling the streets after their holy night, and I refused to parade through the busy districts looking like a walking disaster.
"Why don't convenience stores sell clothes?"
Or maybe I should just be grateful they at least sold underwear.
Dragging the slippers that kept trying to slip off my feet, I left the house with Jihoo.
We decided to head first to the underground shopping arcade connected to the subway station near our place and grab something—anything—that would actually fit this body.
Before long we found a large direct-sales store of a well-known budget brand tucked in a corner of the arcade and hurried inside.
"Welcome. Looking for anything in particular?"
Maybe it was because this was a company store. Even faced with my catastrophic appearance, the female staff member didn't so much as blink as she smiled and greeted us.
"No, just... something I can change into in a hurry."
"Then how about these? They're popular right now for layering in this weather."
"Ah, okay..."
At her suggestion I simply nodded and grabbed whatever sweatshirt was sitting on the rack she pointed to.
"Going with that one?"
"How should I know? I've always just bought the same kinds of clothes."
I used to pick similar-looking sweatshirts or hoodies every time, and pants were always either slacks or jeans. Even now I had only grabbed something at random from the display she indicated; color and design barely registered.
"Not the gray. Grab the cream one over there."
"...Does the color even matter right now? Just buy this and some shoes and we're done."
I just wanted to finish this annoying shopping trip and get to the exam. Did we really need to stand here debating sweatshirt colors? They all looked basically the same to me.
But Jihoo ignored my complaint, took the knit from my hand, and personally selected a cream-colored one instead.
"That one's way too big for you even at a glance."
"If it was that obvious, you could've said so from the start."
The sweatshirt Jihoo had chosen did look far smaller than the one I'd been holding. So small, in fact, that I started worrying whether my body would even fit into something that tiny.
"Let's get these pants."
"Do we really need new pants too? The ones I'm wearing are good enough for now."
I still had to hold them up by hand, but Jihoo casually dismissed my opinion and dumped the pair he'd picked into my arms.
"Those are made for beastmen with tails. No zipper in front—they fasten with a hook-and-cord at the back."
"...You know a surprising amount of detail about this."
"You're the one who knows too little. Hurry up and change. Shoes you have to try on yourself."
Without waiting for an answer, Jihoo shoved me straight into a fitting room.
I was about to protest, but the door had already shut firmly behind me.
Resigned, I set the clothes he'd chosen on the shelf and peeled off the oversized things I'd been forced into, one by one.
"Haa... this mirror is huge."
As expected of a fitting room, one entire wall was covered in mirror. And of course, the girl in the glass was looking back at me, pitifully covering her chest with both arms.
Meeting her eyes made my mood sink by the second, so I turned my back to the mirror and roughly shoved myself into the new clothes. Since it was just a sweatshirt and pants, putting them on wasn't hard, and they didn't feel particularly "girly," so the rejection was milder than expected.
Once I was dressed, I scooped up the discarded clothes from the floor and stepped out of the fitting room.
"Looks like they fit well enough."
"Yeah? Great. Now just the shoes—hey!"
"Ah, what now!"
Jihoo, waiting right outside the fitting room, suddenly shouted. I had put on the clothes he'd picked just fine—what could possibly be wrong? One hand jabbed an accusing finger at me while the other covered his face as he let out a long sigh.
"Haa... I told you there's a hook at the back of the pants. Why did you come out without fastening it?"
"Oh. Right."
I belatedly groped awkwardly behind me. Sure enough, the cord with the unhooked fastener was dangling free. Holding the clothes up with one hand, I tried to fasten the cord with the other, but the half-crouched posture kept the hook from catching properly on the loop.
"Hey. The cord has to go over the top of the tail."
I was already irritated that the hook wouldn't catch, and Jihoo's constant side-line coaching made my head start to throb. It wasn't like I was doing this on purpose because I didn't want to fasten it. After one comment too many, I finally snapped.
"Then you do it! I'm already short a hand and struggling here—stop yapping from the sidelines!"
I yelled and turned so he could see the hook side.
"Uh...?"
"What are you waiting for? Just hurry up and fasten it."
It was basically just a pants button. The same Jihoo who'd been full of opinions a second ago was now making empty, dazed sounds.
"We still have to buy shoes. Faster."
"Y-yeah..."
At my prodding he stood there blankly for a moment, then hurriedly moved his hands. I felt the hooked cord carefully lift over the top of my tail; his trembling fingers slipped the hook off the loop a few times before—
Click. At last it settled into place.
"There. Now let's go buy shoes."
"...Yeah."
What was that guy's problem now? I'd only asked him to fasten a pants cord—had that somehow put him in a bad mood? The unplanned shopping trip was just as annoying for me. Still... he'd been stuck dealing with me since yesterday, so I did feel a little bad. I decided I'd buy him a coffee after the exam.
According to the sizes I tried on at the shoe store, my foot was a mere 210. I'd been an adult man heading into my late twenties—hearing that if nothing fit I might have to look at junior sizes made my pride flare and my chest tighten. Thankfully something did fit, so I was spared the junior section, but still.
We finished shopping earlier than expected and arrived at the Awakened Association, where the simple examinations began.
"Height comes out to 149.1."
"...Are you sure that measured correctly?"
The staff member's indifferent answer made my mind go blank. No wonder my neck hurt every time I had to look up at Jihoo. Nearly a whole head of height—just gone.
"Ah. Excluding the horns, it's 145.9."
"..."
Even smaller.
"Weight is 55 kg, but that's with the tail included... without it you'd probably be in the low 40s."
So my body weighed about as much as one of those rice sacks I used to casually haul around while helping at Mom's shop. Had I really awakened? Was I actually an Awakened who could enter Gates now? I felt even more fragile than before the awakening.
The only small comfort was that my grip strength still measured around 40 kg.
"And there don't appear to be any particular abnormalities. As for the blood test results..."
Right... the blood test results. Exactly what kind of beastman had I awakened as to end up this weak? Horns and a tail suggested reptile at the very least, but I was too frail for a wyvern. There was no way I was a dragon, so maybe a lizard? I'd always compared Jihoo to a lizard whenever I cursed him out—and now I was the lizard.
"It came back as Dragon Beastman."
Of course it was a dragon. Sigh...?
"What?"
"More precisely, a hybrid of a Dragon Beastman and a human. This particular value is the reaction we see in beastman hybrids."
The news that I was half dragon emptied my head; I couldn't form a single word. Dragon Beastmen were so rare that you could count them on one hand even on a global scale.
"Min-ah. I'm gonna step out for a call. Listen carefully to the rest of the results."
"Y-yeah... go ahead."
Even I—who'd started out fully human—was this shocked at being told I was a Half-Dragon. Yet Jihoo, an actual pure-blooded dragon, acted completely unfazed. He casually picked up his smartphone and left the room.
"The examination itself is finished. Given that this is a special case involving not only a change in appearance but also gender, you'll likely receive separate contact."
"Y-yes. Okay."
"And you'll need to renew your identity through the follow-up management agency, so please discuss it thoroughly with your guardian before deciding."
After that, at the hospital attached to the Association, a nurse gave me a brief sex-education session. She covered types of sanitary pads and how to use them, a simple way to calculate menstrual cycles, and how to deal with other physical changes that came with a female body.
She especially stressed multiple times that I must wear underwear, but none of it really sank in. I still hadn't fully registered that I was a girl now.
She also added that, as a half Dragon Beastman, I might have physical traits different from ordinary human women, so I should be careful. Normally the Association would arrange meetings with corresponding beastmen, but she apologized that arranging that would be difficult.
I already had personal connections with Dragon Beastmen anyway, so the apology wasn't really necessary.
"Min-ah. You about done?"
At the familiar voice I turned and saw Jihoo sitting in the hospital lobby.
"Yeah. They said I can go. You finished your call?"
"Well... yeah, it's done."
"Then let's go. You've helped me since yesterday, so I'll buy you coffee at least."
It had taken longer than I'd expected, but contrary to Jihoo's earlier claim that he'd be busy today, all the tests were already finished. I planned to buy him a cup of coffee and stock up on bath towels on the way home.
"Min-ah. My mom wants to see you."
"Oh, sure. When?"
It wasn't like I was a complete stranger to Jihoo's mother; she'd even dropped by our house a few times. Meeting her wasn't difficult, so there was no reason to refuse. I was ready to agree cheerfully once we set a date.
"Today."
"...What?"
First came the shock of an absurd same-day appointment.
"We've come to escort you."
Then I was shocked all over again by the black-suited people who appeared the moment the words left his mouth.
...Am I getting arrested?