Allison spent most of the car ride on the phone “making arrangements.” Agent Harrison wasn’t helpful either. He sat silently gazing out the window, as he had during Kei and Allison’s lovemaking. Although Kei was grateful he hadn’t seemed present earlier, it was frustrating now that he wanted information. The only thing he knew was they were on the way to campus.
An unknown college campus, where he would be expected to pretend to be some girl named Soo-Yun An. His community didn’t share the mutual animosity between Koreans and Japanese established in the wake of their home nations’ respective interactions. But if the Fifthson College was mostly white, it wouldn’t be an issue. The real trick was how they expected him to pretend to be a girl. Sure, he was short, but-
“Stop here!” Allison called, pulling the phone momementarily from her ear and banging on the shaded divider. She took out a notebook and scribbled down a quick, bulleted list before ripping off the page and handing it to Agent Harrison. “Pick this stuff up, quick.”
Without a word, the towering agent hopped outside the car which had only just rolled to a stop outside a CVS. Allison resumed her call before Kei could get her attention.
He huffed in frustration and resumed listening to half a conversation in an attempt to gain some measure of clarity. A few minutes later, Harrison reappeared with a plastic bag.
“Did you get everything we needed?”
Agent Harrison handed over the bag. “They didn’t have a black wig, so I had to improvise.”
Allison scanned the contents and nodded, pulling out a disposable razor, a bottle of water, a travel can of shaving cream, a collegiate sweatshirt, lipstick, a compact, and finally a wig with long, garish blue hair.
“No way,” Kei muttered, shaking his head. “This is a joke.”
Pulling the phone from her ear and covering the mouthpiece, Allison whispered harshly. “You do it or I make Agent Harrison do it for you.”
The air of threat was unmistakable, even if Allsion was no longer looking at him, resuming her call and banging on the divider, signaling the driver to resume their travel.
“Fuck,” Kei sighed, slipping the sweatshirt over his head.
Kei had never put makeup on before. Moreover, without a mirror, he couldn’t be sure how to start. It wasn’t even until he opened the compact did he realize there was a mirror readily available. After clumsily shaving, fumbling with eye shadow, and sloppy smearing of lipstick he finally slipped on the wig.
Allison was no longer talking on the phone, instead she was studying him while clearly holding back a cackle of mirth.
“Look, I’ve never done this before.”
“I know,” she said, with consolation in her tone. “And if we had time I’d love to teach you. Unfortunately, we’re here and you look… feminine enough… in a lazy college way.”
Kei looked outside and found they had parked outside a large dorm-looking building. “How on Earth am I supposed to blend in like this?”
“You only need to make it to your room. Under your bed you’ll find a much more convincing disguise. You’ll need to get it on quickly, your roommate will be here soon.”
“I have a roommate?” Kei exclaimed. “This is impossible.”
“Very probably,” Allison sighed and admitted. Then, bringing up a photo on her phone, she handed it to Kei. It was a photo of a grim looking young man with dark hair and hazel eyes. “After today we can’t risk any contact, this is Mac Davidson. He’s a college senior, our liaison. He’ll function as a go-between for us and will be posing as your physics tutor. We’ve arranged a meeting at the library tomorrow. He’s aware of your… situation and will fill you in on the case.”
“You’re just letting me go?”
“We have an arrangement. If you don’t report in with Mac tomorrow, or if you fail to report in regularly, he’ll let us know. Afterwards, I’ll make it my personal mission to ensure you not only end up in a federal prison, but I’ll make sure to send your family the remains.” She was still smiling, but it now carried a deadly edge. It was hard to imagine they’d made love mere minutes ago, even if she was still in only her underwear.
Kei held out the phone, but Allison waved him off.
“It’s yours,” she explained. “If something goes catastrophically wrong, or if you need to reach us, dial 9-1-1. It will reroute to us.”
“And if I’m found out?”
Allison reached out and adjusted Kei’s wig. “If your true identity is revealed, then Billco spreads throughout the western seaboard. The truth of Soo-Yun’s fate will never be known and your family-”
“Ok, I get it,” Kei insisted, while he slipped the phone in the sweatshirt’s front pocket with a grimace.
“Just so we’re clear, Harrison and I are rooting for you. You aren’t a cop, but we don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I know more about what you’re about to go through than you can imagine, just… be safe.”
“Clear,” Harrison announced loudly and unexpectedly. Kei had forgotten the mountainous agent was present.
“Time to go,” Allison announced. She also handed over a key and added “Room 519, try to avoid talking to anyone until you’re properly dressed. Remember-”
Opening the door, Kei interrupted as he stepped out. “The real disguise is under the bed, whatever that means.”
“Good luck Keisuke,” he heard a moment before the door closed.
Pulling a hood over his head and sweeping strands of faux hair out of his mouth he moved towards the dorm’s entrance. Clutching keys and keeping his head down, Kei shuffled quickly towards the enterance and nearly collided with a tall, dark, blur.
“Excuse me,” it said with a good natured chuckle. “Oh, I don’t believe we’ve met. Are you a freshman?”
“Mhmm!” Kei squeaked in affirmation, afraid to speak. He glanced up to see dark brown eyes and a warm smile before turning away. It was a bad idea letting the stranger get too good a look at him, if it wasn’t already too late.
“My name is Leshaun and I’m an RA for the 5th floor. You wouldn’t be Soo-Yun, would you?”
Kei nodded and cursed inwardly.
“Oh fantastic!” the residential assistant exclaimed. “Let me show you to your room. Is it alright if I call you Soo?”
Kei nodded again as he followed Leshaun into the elevator. He carefully positioned himself to let the hood mask his face and hoped he just came off as shy. RAs were supposed to be extra friendly and helpful to new students, but if he could just make it to his room…
“I like your blue hair,” Leshaun said as the door closed, “It’s really cute.”
“Did he just call me cute?” Kei wondered, but before he could even wrap his brain around the idea, Leshaun added, “If you want to grab a bite to eat sometime, it’s my treat. I know all the best places so you can stop by my room anytime.”
As Leshaun finished explaining the best place to get Thai food they arrived at Kei’s, no, Soo-Yun’s, room.
“Your roommate Samantha is supposed to get here in the next hour or two, but if you need me, I’m just down the hall.”
“Thanks,” Kei squeaked, slipping inside the door and all-but closing the door in Leshaun’s face. And, for the first time in several endless minutes, he took a breath. His heart was pounding, certain he’d be found out any moment. Yet Leshaun obviously expected to see a quiet, young asian girl, and he was able to present that facade realistically enough. Moreover, did he get invited on a date?
No, Kei decided, the residential assistant was just being friendly. The real issue was a roommate who might arrive any moment, so his thoughts turned to the “real disguise” beneath the bed and he set to examining the room. Fortunately it was small, two beds, two desks, two dressers, and two wardrobes. Half the room was appointed with stereotypically feminine styled decoration, posters and a computer. Was it his or his roommate’s? A quick check beneath the unadorned bed revealed nothing. Under the bed with the silky, purple-flower festooned bedspread there was a squat storage container.
“Well, now I know which side of the room is mine,” Kei confirmed to himself as he heaved the chest atop the comforter. “Now let’s see this miraculous disguise which is supposed to fool my roommate who sleeps two feet away. Youch!”
As he moved to unlatch the top he pulled his hand away to see a trickle of blood. A small needle sank back into the container and Kei muttered, wondering if he’d been poisoned. Opening the cover revealed a printout containing a brief letter:
“Contained within, find one (1) premium B-Tek Model-C, full-body conversion sleeve. This skin has been designed to fully resemble one Soo-Yun An (deceased). Body to achieve 100% conversion rate and maintain indefinite body-mesh disambiguation utilizing seminal ejection based stimulant (keep refrigerated), dosage not to exceed 1 dose every 2 day(s).”
-Doc
Beneath the letter was a soft pink… something. Stray strands of dark hair swirled about the bottom of the container, a dark, shimmering pool consuming it’s contents. As he watched the pink-something appeared to inflate, yellowing slightly to a shade of flesh Kei recognized as Soo’s. He swallowed back surging vomit.
If there wasn’t enough in the box to be grossed out by, there was the trouble reference to “seminal ejections” in a refrigerator. But there was no way they expected him to drink cum, right?
Sure enough, Kei turned to find a minifridge beside the door. Swallowing hard, he opened it to find a dozen smoothie-looking drinks neatly lining the interior.
This was wild, too wild. Every instinct he had screamed to run for the door and never look back. Wearable skin, cum-filled smoothies, murder, drugs, undercover police work… What was he doing involved in any of this?
As much as he wanted to blame his penis for agreeing to this madness, Kei would have said yes anyway. It was true that prison time was tantamount to suicide. It wouldn’t take long for the mob or yakuza to find out where he was. And the Feds promised to look after his family. If he was dead, there wouldn’t be anyone left to care for his sister.
Sighing, he returned to the box. But he vowed to avoid the smoothies at all cost. Drinking jizz was NOT going to happen.
He lifted the flesh out of the box carefully. It weighed almost nothing and yet was warm to the touch. Unusually soft, the spongy, flesh-colored material unrolled into a human-shaped silhouette, long dark hair swaying from a head-shaped protrusion.
It stretched as he applied gentle pressure prompting a shiver of disgust. Kei could identify all four limbs and an opening in the back from which a small sticky note fluttered down. The note was a bulleted list which included 3 items.
- Strip down completely
- Enter the suit one limb at a time while seated
- Once limbs adjust, stand and zip the back AFTER applying the facemask.
Notes for how to put the suit on. Terrific. Kei tossed the wig and sticky note on the bed beside the storage container. Then he stripped before taking a deep breath while desperately avoiding overthinking what he was about to do.
Limb by limb, Kei watched the sagging body sleeve plump as his body filled it. However, instead of stretching to fit his legs and arms, he could feel muscles and bones shifting to resemble a more slender caste. It was deeply uncomfortable the way his body rearranged itself after a sensation of intense compression. Gradually, normal sensation returned, first to his fingers and toes, then to his limbs.
But they weren’t HIS limbs. Slender, graceful, slightly paler than his own skin tone, they were a girl’s limbs. Soo’s limbs.
Nevertheless, he continued complying with the instructions. Pulling the mask over his head with eyes shut tight, he winced as the mask subsumed his skull, squeezing it until he was sure it would pop. When he opened his eyes, it was through Soo’s almond ones.
Peering down, he could see the wrinkled folds of breast and torso sagging through about mid-thigh. Then, sucking in a deep breath he reached behind for the point just below his ass where the back-split began. After fumbling blindly for a moment he found a small nub and began to pull upward. Miraculously his hand fell away and the “zipper” proceeded up his back sending a tingling sensation along his spine all the way to the base of his skull.
Kei watched as the skin around his torso and hips tightened. His chest was already tight but it squeezed the breath from his lungs and he could feel ribs jostled beneath the suit’s rictus grasp. A crawling tickle traveled up from his belly and he watched in dumbstruck amazement as his chest swelled into a pair of small, but shapely, breasts with adorable, perky nipples.
As a body-wide twinge subsided he was left looking at the body of a slender, supple, gorgeous young woman. There wasn’t even a sign of his manhood, just a hairless mound where it should have been, a slender waist and feminine hips. He hadn’t seen a picture of Soo Yun naked, but he did not doubt he resembled her to every last detail.
“Now I just have to mask my-” Kei began, expecting to still sound like himself, but he didn’t. Much to his surprise, the suit had even changed his voice! Instead of his nasal tenor, the voice was a sweet soprano, perfectly matching the nubile body.
Any sense of discomfort had faded and more than any other emotion, Kei was overwhelmed with curiosity. This level of technology was incredible! Of course, it belonged exclusively to law enforcement. Still, regardless of how it’d happened, he found himself in the presence of a hot, young woman, and that woman was him! Her? It was strange how difficult it was to think of himself (herself) as a man (woman) when his (her) body looked like this.
At the cusp of an existential, and self-referential crisis, naked and confused, Kei struggled to comprehend the avalanche of stimuli. Just as he (she) was about to search for some measure of sanity, the worst thing in the entire history of the world happened… Someone was knocking at the door!
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Emily Cummings' TG Fiction 