The Girl Who Was the Mad Demon - (1)
When Dokgo Jin lowered his gaze, a pair of modest breasts sat where his eyes fell.
Not the bursting, swollen pectorals of a man that he had still possessed only yesterday — but a chest shaped with the graceful curves unique to a woman.
"Why the hell… do I have these?"
With trembling hands, Dokgo Jin began to knead at his own chest.
"No… fuck…"
Having confirmed the soft give of breast flesh, Dokgo Jin still refused reality. He ducked his head further and checked between his legs.
And then he simply collapsed where he stood.
What lay between his thighs was not the manhood he had carried for decades, but a tightly closed woman's sex, tinged pink.
"…I became a woman? Me…?"
In the downward cast of his eyes, a spill of red hair swam into view.
…Did Bone and Body Reconstitution change even the color of my hair?
Dokgo Jin ran his fingers through the strands.
It was not a man's hair — coarse, stubborn, and untamed. It was soft. Fine. A woman's hair.
"…"
He pushed himself up and went looking for a bronze mirror.
Only when he stood before the one tucked in the corner of the guest room could Dokgo Jin take in his full reflection at last.
"This… this is supposed to be me…?"
Dokgo Jin dragged a hand down his face in disbelief.
A frail body a full two heads shorter than his original height. Not a scrap of muscle to be found — soft, yielding flesh that looked as if it would give at a touch. Hair the deep red of autumn maple leaves, cascading all the way to his waist.
"…"
The strength went out of his legs, and Dokgo Jin crumpled to the floor.
Then a thought cut through his mind like a blade.
My inner energy?! If my inner energy is still intact…!
He scrambled into a lotus seat and turned his awareness inward to his dantian — and nearly plunged into qi deviation from the shock.
Th-this much inner energy?!
The vast reservoir of Yin energy seated in his dantian was purer and more powerful by far than anything he had accumulated in a man's body.
With this much power… would being a woman even be that bad…?
He was about to circulate a full cycle of energy and reassess this new body when a second shock hit him hard enough to threaten qi deviation all over again.
…Every one of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians is sealed?
It was, quite literally, a situation that left him speechless.
To wield inner energy, a martial artist needed the Lesser Heavenly Circuit — stimulating the meridians with energy while excluding the Conception and Governing vessels — and the Greater Heavenly Circuit, which included those two vessels as well. Both were essential. But if the meridians themselves were blocked from the start, circulating energy was simply impossible.
"…"
When Dokgo Jin opened his eyes, a deep and bottomless despair sat in them.
"Heh… heheh…. Heheheh…."
A hollow, broken laugh spilled out of him, the laugh of a man coming unmoored.
"Fuck… heheh…. I go through Bone and Body Reconstitution and… every meridian is sealed, so… I can't use martial arts…?"
Dokgo Jin's hands clenched into fists and began to shake.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!"
He had sunk into shock and despair for a moment — but Dokgo Jin was on his feet again soon enough.
First… think. I am Dokgo Jin. I don't go down over shit like this.
The very first thing he did was take stock of just how thoroughly garbage his body had become.
"Son of a… bitch!!"
His beloved weapon. The massive greatsword originally forged to shear through a horse's neck — the Demon-Cleaving Blade — was, of course, beyond him now.
At seventy geun — a full forty-two kilograms — he had already guessed his frail new frame couldn't lift it. A scrap of attachment remained all the same, and he tried again and again.
"Nnngh…!!!"
The Demon-Cleaving Blade did not so much as twitch.
"Hah… hah…. What a piece-of-shit body this is…."
Sweat poured off him like rain, and still the blade refused to move. In the end Dokgo Jin dropped hard onto the floor.
"Damn it…."
Weapon or no weapon, he was still the Mad Demon. He was still Dokgo Jin. But leaving a blade he had carried for ten years behind in some nameless inn kept needling at him.
…Sorry.
He stroked the well-worn grip one last time in regret, then drew a deep breath and bellowed.
"…Boy! Boy!!"
"Yes! Coming!!"
The door slid open — and the moment the servant boy stepped inside, he yelped and clapped both hands over his eyes.
A naked woman was sitting on the floor with her legs spread. There was hardly anything else he could have done.
"Ah… uh…. Young lady. If you're undressed, you might have mentioned you were undr—"
"Shut it. Bring me some cold water."
"…Yes."
"And. Hey. Hey, you little shit! Open your eyes, you little shit! How are you supposed to see anything with them closed?!"
"Yes! …Then, if you'll excuse me."
The boy lowered both hands respectfully to the space between his thighs and snuck glances at Dokgo Jin.
Dokgo Jin himself could not have cared less about the boy's stare. He lifted a hand and pointed at the floor.
Scattered there were the impurities his body had purged during Bone and Body Reconstitution.
"See this? All this black gunk."
"…Yes."
The boy kept flushing, eyes flicking back and forth between the foul residue on the floor and Dokgo Jin. Irritation climbed fast.
"Clean all of it up. And you."
"Y-yes!"
"If those peepers of yours keep bouncing around like that, I'll tear them out. You're not some Beggars' Guild mutt."
"…Yes."
"Ah, and I'm sticky from sweating, so get a bath ready too."
"Understood."
The boy ducked his head low, then stole a careful look at her face.
"…But about the money…"
"Money my ass. You trying to die? I settled the bill yesterday."
"Ah… so you're a companion of his?"
"Companion my ass, you little shit. I am—!"
"…"
He had roared it out loud enough — and only then did Dokgo Jin grasp his own situation.
…What the hell do I even say?
"I am…"
"The young lady is…?"
The boy tilted his head.
"Haa…. I'm his daughter. Fath…er stepped out for a morning walk, so hurry up and get the bathwater ready."
"…Yes."
The door slid shut. The boy went down the stairs with his mouth hanging open in a daze.
At the bottom, the innkeeper eyed him with open worry.
"…That was yesterday's guest's room, wasn't it?"
"…Yes. But something strange…"
"You little brat! What did you mess up this time?!"
"Th-that's not it."
"Then what, you brat?!"
"Uh… you know that terrifying guest from yesterday."
"Did he say something? Or did he start another rampage?"
The boy shook his head.
"…He's got an incredibly beautiful daughter."
"With a face like his?"
"Yes."
"…Was she pretty?"
"Incredibly. I thought a fairy had descended. And her hair's bright red, too… you don't think she might be a monster? Her way of talking was like some old man…."
The innkeeper smacked him upside the head.
"Nonsense, you brat. Monster, my foot."
"…But it's true…."
"So… what did the young lady want?"
"Looked like she'd fallen into a latrine or something. She told me to clean up the foul-smelling stuff all over the floor. Where she even got that from…"
"I don't know what that guest got up to, but then she'll be wanting a bath as well."
"Yes. She ordered bathwater and women's clothes prepared."
"Fine. I'll heat the water. You go wake Sua."
"…Yes."
As the innkeeper turned toward the bathhouse, the boy called after him.
"Uh… do I have to clean the room too?"
"What, you brat, you want me to do it?"
"No, sir. Hehe."
At the thought of seeing that beautiful young lady again, the boy's mouth stretched into a foolish grin.
"That pretty, was she? Your mouth's about to split clean open."
"Hehe. Just a little something for the eyes, that's all."
"Oh, for heaven's sake. Go wake Sua already, you brat. With that foul-tempered guest's personality, one wrong move and you'll be singing a funeral dirge."
"Yes."
Once the boy had gone, the innkeeper glanced back up toward the room where Dokgo Jin was staying.
"…When did another guest even come in? He said he had no companions…."
Figuring they must have arrived while he was dozing, the innkeeper headed for the bathhouse.
As the boy kept sneaking sidelong looks while scrubbing the filthy impurities off the floor, Dokgo Jin growled.
"Oi. Boy."
"…Yes, young lady."
"Do you remember what I said I'd do to those peepers of yours?"
"That you'd tear them out…"
"Damn right. You stare at a person like that, you think it doesn't piss me the fuck off?"
"…I'm sorry."
The boy jammed his face toward the floor again and went back to cleaning up the scattered residue — and then the guest-room door opened.
In came a girl of about the boy's age, eyes still heavy with sleep.
"Hello. The bathwater you asked for is ready."
"Good. Let's go."
"Oh my…!"
The girl servant — Sua — took one look at Dokgo Jin and clapped both hands over her mouth in horror.
The sleep vanished from her drowsy eyes. Her pupils started to shake.
"Ah… young lady! A g-grown maiden can't just show her bare skin to an outside man like that!"
"Hah? Grown maiden, what kind of horsesh—"
"Put some clothes on this instant! Jang-il, you perverted little shit!"
"Hey, I— the young lady just told me to clean it up fast, so—"
"Get out!"
Sua's shrill scolding sent the boy Jang-il fleeing the room as if his life depended on it.
The door slammed hard behind him.
"…Could've taken it a little slower…."
Staring at the roughly shut door, Jang-il smacked his lips in regret.
"Haa…. Such a beautiful young lady, and that mouth of hers is a damn rag. A rag…."
He trudged down the stairs with leaden steps and let out a long sigh.
Only after Sua had watched through the crack and confirmed Jang-il was fully downstairs did she turn back.
"Young lady! Who knows what kind of trouble you could run into, sitting around dressed like that. And you know what kind of creature Jang-il is!"
"…What are you even going on about?"
"What do you mean, what?! Honestly…. Just put some clothes on first."
"…I'm about to wash. You want me to put clothes on just to take them off again?"
"So you're going downstairs naked?!"
"What's the problem that you're raising your voice over it? Quit that screeching. My ears hurt."
"Young lady!! You can't do that! At least put this on."
"…"
As Sua kept hounding him and irritation crawled up his spine, Dokgo Jin suddenly noticed something strange.
…Huh?
He was this irritated — and yet the madness had not come for him even once.
"Oi, girl."
"Yes, young lady."
"Look at my eyes. How are they?"
Dokgo Jin leaned in and presented his eyes for inspection.
"…They're beautiful. Like jewels."
"Not that. Are they red?"
"…No. They're a blue that shines like gemstones."
"Hmm…."
"Could you turn around for me? And lift your arms a little."
"Fine, fine."
Dokgo Jin's mood lifted.
Did Bone and Body Reconstitution wipe out the madness too?
Dokgo Jin had been born with a surfeit of violent temper. After mastering the Nine Yang Divine Art to the tenth star — an art of extreme Yang energy — that temper had sometimes boiled over into full-blown madness.
In the grip of that madness, Dokgo Jin lost all capacity for rational judgment and surrendered to pure instinct, committing only the most primal acts of destruction. Of all the reasons his title had become "Mad Demon," that madness was the greatest.
The thought that it might be gone now dragged a short, incredulous laugh out of him.
"Ha… haha."
"What is it, young lady?"
"No one will know who I am anymore."
"…Pardon?"
"Nothing. I'm dressed. Shall we go wash?"
"Yes. I've laid out a change of clothes in the bathhouse."
"Good. Let's go."
"Ah… young lady! If you take strides that long, everything underneath shows!"
"And a proper man can't mince around like some timid little shrimp, can he?"
"A-ah, honestly…!"
Sua hurried forward and caught Dokgo Jin by the arm as he headed out.
"I'll support you. Let's go down together."
"Haa…. Fine."
"Heehee. Even your hands are pretty, young lady."
"Disgusting thing to say."
Dokgo Jin set his first foot on the stairs — and stopped. Sua tilted her head.
"What is it, young lady?"
"…Nothing."
On impulse, Dokgo Jin looked up at the ceiling.
With his body remade by Bone and Body Reconstitution, every way he saw the world had shifted. Even walking felt alien. His brow furrowed.
…Back to the beginning, then.
The martial arts he had spent a lifetime building had all been arts of extreme Yang. What filled his dantian now was nothing but extreme Yin.
Either I reclaim extreme Yang energy and restore the Nine Yang Divine Art — or I obtain a martial art of extreme Yin.
The problem was that his body was nowhere near as formidable as it had been in his days as the Mad Demon. If someone attacked him in this feeble state right now? Even those pathetic Ice Palace soldiers — if they came bursting in, he would be seized without being able to lift a finger.
He was sunk in that worry when a stench cut through his thoughts.
"…Is that smell me?"
"…Yes, young lady."
"Ugh, fuck. Let's go wash already."
"Yes, yes. Right this way. And young lady, if you could just speak a little more gent—"
"Hey! Who do you think you're—"
"…"
Dokgo Jin bristled; Sua flinched and shrank back.
…I'll wash first and think it through calmly.
The moment Dokgo Jin set his foot on the stair again—
"Urgh!"
"Ah— young lady!"
The world flipped over.
Thud! Clatter! Crash!
Only after tumbling several times over did Dokgo Jin finally come to a stop.
"…My legs got shorter."
For now, even walking was still too much for the Mad Demon.