[FFML] [DHY][Virus]A Rejoining of Branches

"What happened Yohko?" the doctor asked in
something like shock after she finished her
examination. The devil hunter nodded resignedly.
"You know about the devil hunter posters my friend
Chigako has been putting up, right?" Yohko asked.
"Yes, a rather silly thing to consider," the doctor
said. "Really, demons in this day and age."
Yohko smiled briefly and then conjured a small
globe of spiritual energy which she quickly allowed to
dissipate. The doctor stared palely at the place
where Yohko had just demonstrated her power.
"Demons exist, Dr. Tomoe," Yohko said. "A few
weeks ago I let myself get careless, and one of them
speared me with a claw through here." She circled the
gap just under her ribs. "I was healed by my
ancestors' magic, but...I guess it didn't take all the
way."
"I'm sorry, Yohko," the doctor said after a long
moment considering the impossibility. Yohko nodded
soberly.
"Don't tell my mother or grandmother about this,
okay?" Yohko asked. The doctor looked doubtful.
"Please, I'll find my own way to tell them later."
"As you wish," Dr. Tomoe conceeded after a moment.
"One hundred and eight generations of Mano devil
hunters," Yohko sighed, shaking her head. "Tokima
made sure of that."

*****

"Is something the matter, Yohko?" Chigako asked.
The concern was obvious in her voice. Yohko looked up
at Chi and smiled with quizzical expression on her
face.
"No, of course not," Yohko said. "Why do ask?"
"You just seem kind of out of it these days," Chi
said. "You haven't had a crush in the last week or
so."
"I've just been thinking rather hard, Chi," Yohko
said. "That last fight was the worst yet, though I
did get to meet my ancestors."
"Well, snap out of it," Chi said. "You worrying
me."
"Don't worry at all," Yohko said. "I plan to be
back to eating, drinking and making merry in a little
bit."
"You...drink?" Chigako said, confused and,
interestingly enough, a little hopeful.
"It's an European saying I found translated, Chi,"
Yohko explained. "Eat, drink and be merry." She
didn't finish it, after all, that would just worry her
friend more.

*****

"What do you mean there's another branch of the
Manos?!" Yohko demanded.
"It is the only possible explanation for this twin
you saw of yourself," Madoka said, she went on to
explain the old schism between herself and her sister.
~The Mano line won't necessarily die with me then,~
Yohko thought with immense relief.

*****

Yohko watched her cousin and her own Azusa walk off
into the distance with her grandmother angrily
berating her. The old woman was probably angry with
Ayako for speaking to her cousin with civility.
Yohko didn't think Ayako was going to let her
grandmother get to her any longer, the other girl had
actually left with a smile on her face. A genuine
smile rather than the wicked, vicious smiles she had
displayed until then.
~Stay safe, Ayako,~ Yohko thought. ~The hope of
our line's future lies with you.~

*****

"I bear no ill towards those coerced into evil,"
Yohko declared. "But against those that beings that
fool the innocent along a path of pain and
darkness...there can be NO FORGIVENESS!!! The 108th
generation of Devil Hunters is here! Mano Yohko!!"
Madoka watched as her granddaughter launched into
her spiel and transformed into the magical garments of
the devil hunter. Since her encounter with Ayako,
Yohko had been taking her training much more
seriously, and it was showing in her power. She was
still a ditz sometimes off the field of battle though.
The demon was an ugly crocodilian thing that seemed
to be more than part bear. It cackled hideously with
it's long snout and lashed about at her nimble
granddaughter while boasting on how it would feast on
her soul. The demon proved to be little to no match
for Yohko, however, and it was quickly destroyed.
"Why are we over here in Nerima anyway?" Yohko
asked as they headed home later. "They've got their
own defenses."
"Yes," Madoka agreed. "But the majority of them
are terribly ill today and Tendo-san asked me if we
could cover for her sister's iinazuke while he watches
over his family."
"Oh yeah," Yohko said. "Heard about that, that
must be some flu to put people like us out of action."
Madoka nodded in response.

*****

"This just in," the news caster was saying. "The
Neriman flu epidemic has been identified as some
entirely new strain of virus."
"And gah it's strong," a very miserable Yohko said
from her bundle of blankets. Across from her, her
grandmother was wrapped up as tight as Yohko and
nodded irritably. "Grandmother, I thought the
newscaster was a man..."
"Perhaps there is a substitution today," Madoka
groaned. Azusa came in with steaming bowls of chicken
noodle soup.
"Here you go," Azusa said brightly. She was really
worried about Auntie Madoka, after all, Yohko's
grandmother was old. "Eat up!"
"Thanks, Azusa," Yohko said. "But you should watch
out around us you know...don't want you getting sick
too."
"Oh, I'm fine," Azusa assured her.
"It seems that the last stage of the disease," the
newscaster spoke as Madoka and Yohko started to sip
their soup. "Inacts a major physical change on the
victim. Men become women and women become men." The
soup went flying out of the Mano's mouths.
"Oh dear," Azusa said, equally shocked. And then
she sneezed.

*****

"Well," Madoka said. "Apparently a male can
trigger the demon-hunter ring, unless it recognizes
that you were born a woman."
"That's certainly a relief," Yohko agreed. "I
don't care why it works, just that it works."
The ring had even adapted the outfit to the male
body. Yohko's tall, slender and rather well-defined
male body was dressed in a red jumpsuit with black
highlights. The characteristic yin-yang of her line
was still in the center of her front.
All in all she looked like something out of an
American comic book.
She was going to have to fix the hair though, some
sort of pony tail to use both magical hair ornaments,
but that would look good as male and female. Her hair
was mostly darker, black almost, but it had a touch of
red to it in places. It sort of looked like a blood
pool lying in the dark actually, she thought with a
shiver.
"If we had to go searching for another devil hunter
in all this mess..." Yohko indicated the television
where someone was interviewing another victim.
"Actually," Madoka said. "Have you noticed? There
haven't been many new invasions from the demon worlds
recently."
"I had noticed," Yohko said.
"And you're still worried," Madoka smiled. "I
might finally be rubbing off on you."
"Anyway, I've gotta go," Yohko said. "The movie's
starting in a bit."

*****

It was only a week later when Yohko was able to
return to his natural form. She stretched out and
smiled as she considered the feminine body she hadn't
been certain that she'd ever have again. She heard an
overjoyed cry and giggle that told her that Azusa was
unlocked as well.
The term "lock" was something that had drifted in
from Nerima and those people had to deal with
shapechanging before this. Yohko smiled as she stood
up and walked to congratulate Azusa on her return.
"I've got to go visit, Chi," Yohko waved to her
family. "She'll be getting unlocked sometime
tonight."

*****

"YOHKO!!" Chigako gasped. "You're...you!!"
"Yep!" Yohko cheered. "Great isn't it!" Chigako
walked over and looked Yohko over very carefully. She
looked somewhat wistful for a moment.
"I was thinking I'd never see you like this again,"
Chi said.
"Well, you know what the news said," Yohko
responded.
"Yeah, but you're the first I've seen recover," Chi
said. "Kind of sad really."
"Huh?" Yohko said, confused. "Why?"
"Well," he blushed brightly and then leaned in.
"Remember back when I was possessed?"
"Of course," Yohko said. "You tried to kill me! I
always wondered how they got you actually. The other
guy (AN: I forget the guy's name) was seduced by the
principal but he didn't have time to get to you before
coming to see me I thought."
"No he didn't," Chi said. "I sorta...fell for the
same routine he did." Yohko blinked a moment in
confusion and then turned bright red, taking a step
back as she figured it out.
"You mean that..." Yohko trailed off a little.
"Yeah," Chi said. "I always sort of hoped that
you'd give up on the guys and...you know. So that's
why it's kind of sad. I only have a few hours left as
a guy to spend with you."
"Uhhh," Yohko said. "Chi, you know that the change
is still triggered by hot and cold water right?" Chi
duplicated Yohko's earlier perplexed expression before
looking really nervous.
"Sorry about that," Chi said nervously. "Let's
just forget it okay?"
"Why should we?" Yohko asked.
"Huh?" Chigako said.
"I doesn't really matter anymore what we were born
as, does it?" Yohko asked. "There aren't many other
people out there that could handle my life, and you've
made yourself part of it."
"Hmm, and how better to manage the talent than from
an inside perspective," Chigako considered. She
sidled experimentally up to Yohko. "Are you sure
about this, Yohko?"
"Eat, drink and be merry," Yohko said, shrugging
and smiling before letting Chigako kiss her.

*****

The first few months of dating Chigako were pure
heaven. Yohko had never actually had a boyfriend that
wasn't possessed, unwanted, or else died within a few
days of meeting him. And here was a boyfriend,
sometime girlfriend, that understood her, and had
known her since they were little kids. Somebody that
now knew how to avoid the collateral damage that went
with Yohko's life.
It didn't last, unfortunately.
It first started when their dates began to have
tendency to be at places that were haunted or
otherwise needed the help of a devil hunter. Yohko
had thought it was her bad luck at first, but it began
to grow.
As time went on Chigako's acting got to be weaker
in regards to these "unexpected" interruptions. Not
to mention that Chi seemed to have no end of money of
late, admittedly, some of that was showered on her,
but still. Among other things there was the fact that
she was putting herself through college and providing
herself housing, a small apartment near their college.
Still if it was just the way that Chigako seemed to
be using her for monetary gain of late, then she might
have found a way to resolve the issue and worked
through it. There were other situations, however.
Chigako did not like Yohko to be male at any time.
She, or he, could get quite insistent about the
matter. Yohko was starting to get annoyed with the
lectures that came from accidental splashes.
Then there was the sex issue. They had been
intimate a few times, unbeknownst to Madoka. Yohko
had always been female at these times, though Chigako
had experimented, a fact that grated on Yohko's
nerves. If Chigako wanted to experiment she shouldn't
get up in arms when Yohko wanted to. And Chigako
always seemed to push the idea of sex forward, and get
unreasonably upset if Yohko said no.
It had been getting worse for a while, when Chigako
seemed to suddenly grow up. She still refused to do
anything, socially or privately, with a male Yohko,
but at least she didn't insist on bedroom activities
for every date now. It was the fact that Yohko
responded to this with distrust rather than relief
that clued her in to the fact that relationship was
dead.
Yesterday, Azusa had told Yohko that Chi had hit on
her. Yohko didn't want to believe it, but after so
long, she could no longer outright deny it. In fact,
she had been thinking such thoughts herself for nearly
a month.
Which was why she was paying a surprise visit to
her boy/girlfriend. She leaped up to the balcony of
Chi's apartment and crouched near the window.
"Did you hear that?" a girl's voice said nervously.
It wasn't Chi. Actually Yohko recognized the voice.
It was that Cold Water Goth Girl from Nerima,
Gosunkugi or something. The person had some potential
as a witch.
"Oh don't worry," Chigako-kun's voice said. "I
have it on very good authority that this is one of the
safest places in town."
"I don't know, Chi," a second girl said. "That
certainly sounded like something was out there."
Yohko's eye was twitching angrily. To have been
told and guessed was one thing, to hear it was
something else entirely. She glared at the window and
waited for Chi to make his appearance.
"Oh look, I'll show you," he opened the door,
looking back at his two girlfriends, they were getting
dressed. "See nothing the...uhh...Yohko..." He had
turned around to see the blazingly angry face of his
official girlfriend.
"Ummm, Mano-san," Gosunkugi said nervously. Yohko
glanced at her for only a moment before glancing to
the other girl. A wererat with purple fur and a very
generous chest. Two girls, at least one born as a
guy, with supernatural potential or powers. "I'll be
going now."
"Don't bother," Yohko said coldly. "Chigako is now
officially single and no longer my 'manager.' By the
way, girls, did Chi tell you she hit on my apprentice.
Eat, drink, and be merry....for tomorrow you die."
With that, Yohko glared at the speechless Chi and
leaped down to the ground, five stories below.
"Oh, damn," Chi muttered. "I hope she wasn't
serious."
"Wait a minute," the wererat said. "He's got both
of us and he isn't, like, satisfied? Romeo was right,
you are just a jerk."
"Where'd I put my mallet," Gosunkugi asked, a
voodoo doll in one hand. Chi shuddered as he turned
to face the consequences for cheating on people with
magical powers that he lacked.

*****

Next week found Yohko standing on a hill and
looking out over a valley filled with the green of
trees and other plants. He was currently a male for
no better reason than that it would have driven
Chigako insane. There was a relationship she wished
had never happened. Yohko wondered if there was
anything of the old friendship to salvage.
"Your grandmother is going insane," a voice behind
her said. "She actually called me to accuse me of
trying something."
"Oh?" Yohko responded, shrugging. "I just needed
some time to think."
"Any more time thinking," Ayako said. "And I might
just feel obligated to take the office of devil hunter
as my grandmother wants."
"I'd rather you didn't Ayako," Yohko said suddenly.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the hill and
looked down to a couple that was casually working
their way up the cliff to this same look out spot,
pushing a baby carriage along the way. He sighed
wistfully and shook his head.
Ayako walked up to him and looked down to see what
had affected him. She snorted and looked up to her
identical rival.
"I don't understand you," Ayako said. "You
probably understand more about living as a devil
hunter than my grandmother does." Granted that wasn't
difficult since Ayako's grandmother was more focused
on revenge than devil hunting. "And yet off the
battlefield you're probably the most irresponsible
idiot I've ever seen. And what's more, you obviously
don't want to live this life forever, and yet you
cling to it like driftwood in a storm."
"It's my duty, Ayako," Yohko said. "You should
know that."
"I can fulfill the duty and without a fight if you
want to go on to what you call a normal life," Ayako
said, irritably waving at the couple heading their
way.
"That's just it," Yohko said sadly. "I can't.
Chigako was the closest I had gotten to it, and that's
over now."
"Feh, what's that little moneycounter done now?"
Ayako asked.
"Apparently, as long as they're currently a good
looking female," Yohko said. "Chigako doesn't care
who she's with. Azusa told me she hit on her."
"Azusa could be mistaken," Ayako said, though there
was a suspicious time in the past when Chigako had
"mistaken" her for Yohko.
"And then I found her in bed with two girls," Yohko
said bitterly.
"There are other people out there," Ayako said
after a moment. A part of her was selfishly trying to
get Yohko to drop the office so she could take it.
"It doesn't matter," Yohko said. He indicated the
couple heading up to them. "I'll never have that.
Anyway, Ayako, much as I'd rather you kept yourself
safe, what makes you think there isn't room for all of
us as devil hunters in this world?"
"What do you mean you'd rather I kept myself safe,"
Ayako asked suspiciously. Yohko frowned and walked
away from the look out point as the couple began to
get close.
"There's a good ice cream shop this way," Yohko
said, pointing. "There's going to be a bad fight
coming, I can feel it. I'll explain along the way."
"And you'd prepare with ice cream?" Ayako asked,
surprised as Yohko grabbed her hand and started
walking down the hill.
"Ayako, I'd rather you didn't take an active role,"
Yohko said. "Because you're the last hope for the
continuance of the Mano line."
"What?" Ayako snapped, stopping for a moment in
straight shock before moving forward to catch up to
Yohko. "What do you mean by that?"
"The last major battle before I met you," Yohko
said. "I was stabbed through here." He circled his
abdomen just below the ribs. "I was healed magically,
but...I'm barren."
"And your advice to me is stay home and make
babies," Ayako growled irritably. "I can't do that
Yohko, this is my duty as well as yours."
"I know," Yohko said. She shrugged again.
"Anyway, on to the ice cream, I need a lot of it."
"This is a serious matter, Yohko," Ayako snapped
angrily. "When are you going to take things seriously
outside of a fight?"
"Ayako," Yohko said, his normal cheerful expression
appearing on his face. "Eat, drink, and be merry.
For tomorrow we die."
"I'd rather prepare to avoid the death," Ayako said
solemnly.
"Still, it could be the last day we stand on
Earth," Yohko said. "Tomorrow some demon is going to
come into our world, and we'll have to stop it, or
else."
"And what will you do on the last day of your
life?" Ayako asked.
She was worried at the pseudo-cheer the young man
before her was producing. Apparently Yohko's
diztiness and eternal cheer was more like a type of
depression than true joy. Ayako had thought she'd
known him much better than that.
"I just have to see what comes around," Yohko said,
she turned to Ayako with a smile and quickly kissed
the unprepared devil-hunter. Ayako's eyes widened in
confusion as the kiss began, then Yohko pulled away.
"Come on, the ice cream isn't going to wait forever."
Ayako followed in something of a daze, wondering
just what had possessed Yohko to kiss her like that.

*****

"Oh damn," Yohko muttered as he woke up in his
motel room. "This was stupid." The woman next to him
stirred at the sound and sat up, crossing her arms
irritably.
"That is not what I usually hear after a night like
that," Ayako muttered.
She grumbled inwardly for being soft and feeling
sorry for Yohko. Picking people up off the rebound
was not her usual practice, she certainly didn't like
being picked up by someone on the rebound. Much less
someone that she had trained her entire life to defeat
in combat.
The cousin part didn't particularly bother her.
After all, it was more like Yohko was the daughter of
her mother's cousin. Americans might call it fourth
or fifth cousin or something like that.
"Did I get drunk or something?" Yohko asked.
"My ego suffers yet another blow," Ayako said
bitterly.
"This isn't about you, Ayako," Yohko said. "Once
you got over that whole revenge kick you turned into
someone anybody would be lucky to have. A little
vicious and harsh, but basically a nice person. I
just don't know what I was thinking to do this."
"Thank you again," Ayako said tapping her fingers.
"Look, sorry about this," Yohko said standing up
quickly and gathering her clothes. "But we should get
going, monster coming tonight. Just forget this ever
happened." Then Yohko was gone through the door to
the bathroom.
Ayako grumbled irritably, trying to work through
the what Yohko's problem with last night was. It
certainly hadn't been her ability, it better had not
be. Then she remembered and rolled her eyes.
"She doesn't want anything to do with me because
she's barren," Ayako reasoned. "She probably thinks I
took this as more than a one night stand."
Ayako shook her head irritably and glared in the
direction of the shower and waited as she collected
her clothes. She tried to ignore the empty part of
her that hid the hurt she felt. She still believed
that Yohko was the best devil hunter of them, and she
tended to look up to her in that regard
Ayako walked into the bathroom and glanced at Yohko
taking her shower. The hot water had returned her to
her birth form, and Ayako found herself admiring the
woman's curves. Curves she knew very well as they
were as much her's as Yohko's.
"Uh, hi," Yohko said nervously, avoiding looking at
Ayako. "What are you doing?"
"Oh please," Ayako said. "I felt sorry for you,
that's all. As if anything come of a one-night stand
off of a rebound."
Ayako shook her head and picked up a bucket to wash
herself off. As the cold water washed over her back
she noticed that she hadn't changed. Yohko also
noticed and blinked nervously. Both had heard enough
about the change to know what could lock it.
"Tell me," Ayako said cooly, not yet looking up.
There was a tiny smirk on her face that Yohko could
not see, and Ayako didn't quite understand. "When you
acquired the virus, did you bother to see if your male
form was sterile as well?"
"Well...." Yohko said. Ayako took a deep breath to
steady herself.
"After this demon you're sure is coming tonight,"
Ayako said. "I'm going to kill you." Yohko swallowed
nervously. Still, Ayako couldn't help but feel as if
she'd won somehow.

*****

"Yohko!!" the demon-hunter turned to face her
grandmoth...err father with an annoyed glare. "How
can you date that...PERSON!?!"
"Hey, she's cool once you get to know him," Yohko
shrugged. "Besides, she's trustworthy unlike certain
people."
"That's not the point," Madoka shouted.
"Oh give it up, Grandma," Yohko snorted. "I'm not
dumping Ayako, and that's that. In fact she's moving
in."
"What?" Madoka said in disbelief.
"Well her grandmother disowned her," Yohko said.
"And the other Azusa for sticking up with her, so
they're coming here to live with us."
"What did she do to get disowned by that morally
decrepit hag?" Madoka asked.
"She got pregnant," Yohka said, a little
embarrassed.
"I'd think my sister would count that as a
victory," her grandmother said.
"Well...it's my baby," Yohko said. Mano Madoka
almost thought she was having a heartattack.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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